W.A.Mozart, in his own thematic inventory, listed the Serenade “Eine kleine Nachtmusik” as comprising five movements: Allegro;Minuet and Trio I; Romance;Minuet and Trio II; and Finale. Indeed, the autograph manuscript was rediscovered in 1955, bearing unmistakable evidence of the first minuet (with trio) having been torn out. As it stands now, “A Little Night Music” is less of a serenade – ordinarily a lighthearted ramble with an extra minuet or even a whole concerto thrown into the mix of movements – than a small-scale classic string quartet.

While it is perfectly true that the works of the young Beethoven are exhilarating, most of all for their quotient of prophesy, the extraordinary vitality that suffuses the best of them is satistfying in itself. The unjustly neglected Quintet in C certainly merits that description.

During the time Dvorák was at work on the E-flat Quintet in Spillville, Iowa, in the summer of 1893, a small group of Iroquois Indians paid a visit to the town and performed each evening for the assembled Czech citizenry. The composer never missed these get-togethers and was much taken by the Iroquois art. Years later, Dvorák’s assistant Josef Kovarík maintained that the first movement of the Quintet owes its pervasive skipping rhythm to the Iroquois drums and dances.

-- Exceprts from album liner notes