Dvorak's quasi portamento in his B minor Concerto

I found a fascinating question about Dvorak’s B minor Concerto on Steven Isserlis’s facebook (13/01/2017)¹ which gave me food for thought. His questions were: What did Dvorak mean when he wrote ‘quasi portamento’ as a marking at bar 166 of the 1st movement of his B minor concerto? Why does he write ‘quasi’ and should we read it as portamento literally or as something more akin to 'portato'?

My response was as follows:

I think if Dvorak meant ‘portato’ he would have written it in as such, besides, the markings would be different ie there would be dots under slurs and Dvorak didn’t put these into his score. So, my view is that Dvorak meant ‘portamento’ (sliding between notes, literally in Italian it means carrying so you get the idea of carrying one note into the other). If we take the word ‘quasi’ to mean ‘like, as though’ then he may have written this in to avoid players taking the sliding/gliding aspect of ‘portamento’ literally and playing it too glissando-like! In my score (Simrock, Elite edition 594) the word ‘cantabile’ appears before the words ‘quasi portamento’. This gives us a feel as to how Dvorak would like us to play this bar. So, this bar should be played as though it is being sung due to the ‘cantabile’ and, more specifically given the addition of ‘quasi portamento’, smoothly, effortlessly gliding between the notes much as I would when I sing it but without exaggerating it. Perhaps Dvorak wants to avoid the tendency some instrumentalists have of having an audible bow change or catch in their sound between notes which interrupts the flow of the phrases and reduces the expressive, singing quality of the cello.  It’s ‘mf’ so it’s neither quiet nor loud but wants to be heard especially since the notes coming up decrescendo to a ‘pp’ without fading into being inaudible. The ‘pp’ is played ‘dolce’ so the ‘quasi portamento’ will need to be played in a way that will naturally lead the ear and mood into the sweetness/tenderness of the dolce and so not shock the listener into a sudden quietness and sensitivity. This is also why Dvorak could not have meant ‘portato’, it wouldn’t work in my opinion, because it will cause too sudden a change from the stronger, more accentuated mood of a ‘portato’ which won’t lead smoothly into a ‘pp dolce’.  Also, there are two triplets in this bar which inform us of the time and rhythm of bar 166, perhaps indicating a lightness of touch to the notes.

¹available at: https://www.facebook.com/Steven-Isserlis-191956057519364/