Following a very successful concert at the Music Room of Champs Hill, the renowned Škampa Quartet returned to Champs Hill to record this disc featuring Antonín Dvořák’s American String Quartet and Quintet, opp.96-97, joined by violist Krzysztof Chorzelski for the latter.

The quartet talk about their choice of repertoire: “We were seduced by the charming coincidence of both opus numbers having been destined for string quartet, while the preceding work, Op.95, happens to be nothing smaller than the monumental Symphony No.9, the ‘New World’ Symphony.”

The Škampa Quartet is among the very finest of an outstanding group of current Czech string quartets that has represented their country in major concert halls around the world for twenty-five years.

The quartet have established a close relationship with BBC Radio 3 resulting in regular broadcasts from Wigmore Hall, St John’s Smith Square, LSO St Luke’s and the Chamber Music Proms. They have been an award-winning recording artist for Supraphon for most of the Quartet’s career. They are now also among the elite artists whose performances have been selected for release on the Wigmore Hall Live label.

“As I hear again in my mind the sublime, incredibly warm sounds issuing from the Škampa String Quartet I realise that only on rare occasions are we privileged to have such exquisite musical experiences. These days we take superb technical expertise for granted. The Škampa possesses that in abundance, and so much more.” - Brian Paynes, Westmorland Gazette, on their Kendal Midday Concert Club performance in 2010