[richidoo]

I missed the chance to see Julia Fischer play the Khachaturian Violin Concerto with National Orchestra two years ago, which concert included Dvorak 9th. I also missed the local Durham orchestra playing it last year, although I wasn't so sad about that one. I have seen the 1st movement played in open air concert over terrible sound reinforcement, but that was highly forgettable. But next month NC Symphony is opening the season with it, Grant Llewellyn is a fine conductor, so I'm really looking forward to this. I have always enjoyed his interpretation and incredible leadership. So to get ready for the performance I want to study a few versions.

I love Bernstein / NYP best. I love it so much I decided a couple years ago to get full range hifi speakers and a tube amp to do it justice, but that's another story best told over a stiff drink.  Once I had the gear, I was dissappointed that the recording quality was not up to my fantasy standards. But then neither was my new stereo system...

To me the Bernstein is a particularly bad Columbia recording, even some overmodulation. I don't really like Carnegie Hall acoustic, I know it's heresy, but it sounds to hollow or cold woody. There's some technical mistakes and timing problems, but there's no denying the interpretation and emotive quality of the work from the players as well as the conductor. The musical soul overrides all the flaws and moves the heart to joy. It is honest, brave, sensitive, inspired, it sounds real, like everyone really meant it. I enjoy Bernstein when he is really on like this one, Tchaikovsky 4th, etc.

I have Marin Alsop with Baltimore, what a DRAG! She must have read the long version of Reader's Digest how to conduct Dvorak. Lifeless. She obviously never heard, or was terribly frightened of Bernstein's natural ease with turning up the gas. Some moments sound as contrived as a Strauss waltz. But the sound is fine...  Of course it is well reviewed by the soulless snobs at Gramophone.

Then I got Ivan Fischer / Budapest Festival Orchestra. That one is much better. Some opportunities to really express the American feeling that Dvorak captured so well are missed. Tempo is strict when it should be more expressive and ritardandos are sometimes a little exagerated, but there is life in it, and it definitely entertains. No tears though. I still prefer Bernstein. The recording on this one is incredible. In time I could learn to love this CD. "Gramophone Choice"... whatever...

I have Yakov Kreizberg / Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra  on Pentatone (my favorite label) coming by free shipping so I am counting the days. I shoulda paid the $4 to get it sooner. I love his work with Julia Fischer, and I love Pentatone recordings. So here's hoping... but I think I read a short blurb review that it wasn't so hot. But of course that's what any modern reviewer would say about Bernstein (too brash, typical uncooth American conductor) so maybe contrarian thinking will do me good this time. I like most Russian uncooth brash composers, maybe this young Russian conductor is from the old school.    Anyone hear this one?

So which "New Worlds" do you guys love? I'm especially interested in ballsy emotive powerful interpretations like Bernstein, rather than academic high brow types aimed at impressing their stuffy music professor mentors.  Maybe there is a Munch, Karajan, or Mazel that's worth digging up, or something more modern like Rattle? It doesn't have to be great recording, I'd love to find another great playing no matter the sound. Get a feel for what this piece can do in the hands of a master.
Thanks!!!
Rich

[Tyson]

Oh man I have so many copies of this incredibly good music, several are first rate.  But my absolute first choice is this:








Oh, and my 2nd choice ain't too shabby either:

[Randy]

My favorite Dvorak symphony is the 7th. Then the 8th. When I was a kid, the 9th was known as the 5th and so on down the line, because the earlier symphonies were unknown. I got tired of hearing the New World about forty years ago, it is such a tired old warhorse, and I still can't bear to listen to it, but surely, the outstanding interpretation of the 8th and 9th are the Szell recordings. I had them on Lp, possibly originally on Epic, I believe, and was lucky enough to get the Sony SACD-only versions when they were briefly available (you may still be able to find them used) a few years back. I also have Szell conducting the 8th on EMI along with some Brahms, This is actually considered to be a better performance than the older Columbia edition. Szell is almost forgotten now, but he was one of the greatest 20th century conductors. You can just hear the iron grip he had on his orchestras. Sometimes it's a bit too much of an iron grip, but the precision he got out of his players was incredible. There's nobody around like him these days. Much the same  can be said for another Hungarian, Fritz Reiner. I had the 7th conducted by Kubelik, also on Lp, with his Bavarian Radio Orchestra. Very good.

[Randy]

I also have the highly regarded set of Dvorak symphonies on Decca conducted by Istvan Kertesz. Recordings from the 60s, but still probably the best complete set. Kertesz is always ranked as one of the best Dvorak interpreters of all time, but the sonics aren't the greatest.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_gw?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=Dvorak+symphonies%2C+Kertesz&x=17&y=21

[ltr317]

Of the more than a dozen recordings that I own or have heard of Dvorak's masterpiece, my absolute favorite is the 1966 recording of Istvan Kertesz conducting the London Symphony Orchestra on the London label.  I think Kertesz gets the essence just right of Dvorak's melding of his Czech musical background and the american influences he heard while teaching and touring in the U.S.  Kertesz did an earlier recording in 1960 of the same symphony, but that is harder to find.
 This photo is of a reissue of the original London recording.  

My second favorite is Jascha Horenstein conducting the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.  You can still get the Chesky records remastered version.  

[rpf]

My current favorites are the Jarvi/Cincinnati on a Telarc hybrid SACD and the Masur/NPO on Teldec (Masur also does a great Brahmsian Dvorak 8th on a different disc). Both have great sound and are powerful performances.

I also like the Fischer/Budapest (Philips hybrid) and the Neumann/CPO (Praga). The former is a bit restrained while the latter is ideally idiomatic, in decent sound, with beautiful versions of In Nature's Realm and Silent Woods as couplings.

I find the Szell too tight and hard, and I agree the Bernstein has horrible sound. The Kubelik/BPO sound is also poor - very harsh - but it is a great interpretation. Walter has sound that is fair and the Largo is extraordinary: very slow and incredibly beautiful. But it is so slow it doesn't mesh with the other movements leaving the performance as a whole unsatisfying.

[goldlizsts]

....................... So which "New Worlds" do you guys love? I'm especially interested in ballsy emotive powerful interpretations like Bernstein, rather than academic high brow types aimed at impressing their stuffy music professor mentors.  Maybe there is a Munch, Karajan, or Mazel that's worth digging up, or something more modern like Rattle? It doesn't have to be great recording, I'd love to find another great playing no matter the sound. Get a feel for what this piece can do in the hands of a master.
Thanks!!!
Rich

I still like my Krajan on DGG, with the BPO.  Think it's recorded in the early 60's.  I like it sonically (tho it's considered an old digital recording, unlike the SACD kind) as well as pace-wise.

[richidoo]

Thanks guys!  Now I have lots to check out.

I actually think I have the Szell 7,8,9 set, that cover looks familiar, I just forgot that I had it. Now if I can only find it!??!!??
Thanks
Rich

[kyyuan]

second the 1966 Kertesz version...

[Atlplasma]

I'm hoping to revive this thread. HDtracks recently posted a Belin Philharmonic (EMI) recording of the 9th in 96/24 format (FLAC). Any opinions on this recording, which was originally released in 1977?