Like Father-in-Law, Like Son-in-Law: Antonin Dvořák and Josef Suk

Nationalist composer Dvořák rose to fame in Prague, paving the way for his favorite student and later son-in-law Josef Suk. There was great closeness and spiritual kinship between them, and both were championed by Brahms (who confessed to envying Dvořák his melodic gifts!) Dvořák’s Rondo and Suk’s “Balada” and “Pisen Lasky” love song are rarely performed gems, and the more familiar Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major by Dvořák is acknowledged as one of the masterpieces in the form, along with those of Schumann and Brahms. Soyeon Kate Lee, piano; Irina Muresanu and Peter Zazofsky, violin; Michael Strauss, viola