The great 19th-century violinist Joseph Joachim provides a connection between Dvořák’s Violin Concerto and that by his friend Brahms, having given invaluable advice to both composers regarding the works. Dvořák’s Czech spirit is given extra weight through Brahms’ influence, with Classical stature meeting eloquent Slavonic vitality to create a splendid masterpiece, performed here by Ruggiero Ricci in this acclaimed recording. The Piano Concerto is characteristic of the younger Dvořák. It was long championed by soloist Rudolf Firkušný, whose reputation for placing cultured musicianship before extrovert virtuosity suited the work perfectly. This classic VOX recording remains one of the finest versions of the Piano Concerto available, played by the work’s greatest advocate. The Elite Recordings for VOX by legendary producers Marc Aubort and Joanna Nickrenz are considered by audiophiles to be amongst the finest sounding examples of orchestral recordings.

This wonderful disc is another souvenir of the great Czech pianist Rudolf Firkusny's return to his homeland after the triumph of democracy in the early 1990s. We are very lucky that he lived to make this recording. Firkusny was a personal friend of the composer, and he gave the premieres of all three of these concertos. He plays them with a sovereign mastery that brooks no competition, and the music itself is marvelous. The Fourth Concerto, subtitled Incantations, is one of the century's most exciting and unusual scores for piano and orchestra, while the other two explore both the classical and Romantic heritage of the form. This is a recording that has "greatness" stamped all over it.

Dvorak was only 30 when writing his first A major Piano Quintet, given its premiere in Prague in 1872. Dissatisfied, even with his attempted revision some 15 years later, he chose not to publish it but to take up the challenge anew in the now universally loved A major Quintet (Op. 81), completed in the early autumn of 1887. How good, all the same, that the earlier work eventually (in 1922) found rescuers, and that both quintets can now be compared and enjoyed on CD. The latest version comes from Rudolf Firkusny (long recognized as ''the world's foremost exponent of Czech music'') and America's youthful Ridge Quartet, and what warm and characterful playing it is too.