Best recording of dvorak new world symphony
Symphony guide: Dvořák's 9th 'From the New World'
Dvorak’s New World Symphony: as legend has it, the sound of a music that heralded a new dawn for American music, the product of the then-New-York-based composer’s own expression “in the Negro melodies of America I discover all that is needed for a superb and noble school of music”.
This E Minor Symphony was the first that Dvořák completed in his two-and-a-half year stay in the US. He was brought over by a wealthy patron of the arts to arrange up a music conservatory, the forerunner of today’s Juilliard Institution. And the fact that Dvořák was influenced by the spirituals and songs that he heard from one of his most important pupils, Harry T. Burleigh, is not in doubt. But apart from a strong allusion to Swing Low, Sweet Chariot in the second main melody of the first movement (compare them yourself!), it’s astonishing that Dvořák’s own clear statement to the New York Herald at the time of the symphony’s premiere – at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic on 16 December 1893 – was not properly attended to. “It is merely the energy of Negro and Indian melodies which I have tried to reproduce in my new symphony. I have
Dvořák's Symphony No 9, 'From the New World': A immediate guide to the best recordings
Symphonies Nos 8 & 9
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra / Rafael Kubelík
DG
These accounts are quite magnificent, and their claims on the allegiance of collectors remain strong. Their freshness and vigour remind one of what it was favor to hear these symphonies for the first time. The atmosphere is authentic in feeling and the sense of nature seems uncommonly acute. Kubelík has captured the enthusiasm of his players and generates a sense of excitement and poetry. The playing of the Berlin Philharmonic is marvellously eloquent and, as is often the case, a happiness in itself. The woodwinds term with great poetic feeling and imagination, and all the departments of this great orchestra respond with sensitivity and virtuosity.
The recording has great dynamic range and encompasses the most featherweight string pianissimos to the fullest orchestral tutti without discomfort. The listener is placed well advocate in the hall so that the woodwind, though they fuse beautifully, may seem a petite too recessed for some tastes, though it should be said that there’s no lack of vividnes
Dvorak: New World, etc./Abbado
Releases like this make you wonder if write down companies aren’t run by Hollywood moguls. Imagine that a motion picture studio head decides his corporation needs a new Gone with the Wind in its catalog, and promptly goes about assembling a cast. He signs Bruce Willis and Madonna as the leads, convincing them that “Wind” will be a perfect “star vehicle”. Sounds absurd? Well, apparently somebody at Deustsche Grammophon thinks Dvorak’s Ninth is a superb “star vehicle” for Claudio Abbado, and he conducts it as if he learned his lines just for this recording. His bland and faceless leadership inspires the Berlin Philharmonic to provide little more than a perfunctory performance. No, of course the playing isn’t bad; these are world class musicians. But it is totally devoid of any character, excitement, or emotional involvement. From the first movement to the last, there is not one gesture, one phrase, or one solo that lingers in the mind. In fact, it’s pointless to single out specific moments in this deadly-dull run-through: the problem is global.
One could argue that the New Planet Symphony is such an overplayed
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A survey of some recent releases of Dvořák’s New World Symphony
by Brian ReinhartDvořák’s New World Symphony is a repertory staple (see Masterwork Index). But the flood of new recordings of it, in the past year, is still a surprise. Seemingly every rising young conductor and orchestra has released an album featuring the piece. Here, I’ll review new releases of the Dvořák Ninth by Andris Nelsons, Robin Ticciati, Jaap van Zweden, and Ludovic Morlot, plus a brand-new release of an older recording by Karel Ančerl. When I start talking about a new album, I’ll put the conductor’s name in bold, in case you want to skip ahe
Postby Lance »
Well, FIRST Grab for me would be
Biddulph 048 - Vaclav Talich, Czech Philharmonic, the first 1941 recording remastered magnificently by Ward Marston. Also Tahra 403-404, and EMI 75483 (from EMI's "Great Conductors of the 20th Century Series," this recorded in Prague in 1954. The sheer colours proffered by this conductor and orchestra in any of his three (maybe four) recordings of this work—even in dated sound—come to life in such a way that one walks away knowing we've heard something very nearby to the conductor's heart. On a more current basis, I would go with George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra on Sony 63151. Szell is another who could squeeze every ounce of Moravian juice from this music, and with forces such as the Cleveland Orchestra at that time, it could hardly be more convincing. Szell truly brought something special to Dvorak's music in just about anything he recorded.
But I have the Kertesz (London), which is also outstanding, Dorati (British Decca), who does wonders, Giulini (EMI), Rowicki (Philips), and of course, another favourite, Reiner (RCA), the latter of which my rank in my top three performances on records. It's a very