Customer Reviews

Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 / Othello, Carnaval Overtures ~ Kertsz

5 star:		(9)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

In an early review, Songs of the Auvergne, I commented that there were some pieces of music like Dvorak's 9th that I loved but I couldn't find the right performance. Recently I heard samples of this recording on Amazon. Based on those samples I got it. It is a marvel. Though it is a 1966 recording the sound is superb and it feels virtually live. The conducting of Istvan Kertesz is more tender than sentimental, more clean than lush, more brilliant than loud, and the pacing is more like advancing rapids than like a driven war-horse. The strings are right on, the brass are virtuosic, and the drama resplendent. A tour de force. I prefer this CD well above the Karajan, Masur, and Solti versions.

The Othello and Carnival overtures are also well played.

The jacket cover has an irrelevant and insipid essay by a writer; I guess Penguin is using the space to promote its library of literature.

This is the second rendering of Dvorak's Ninth by Kertesz. The first was recorded close to 1960 on the same London/Decca label with the Vienna Philharmonic. I wish I could feel as exuberant about recommending this more recent London Symphony version; however, while the playing is competent, the interpretation is missing those attributes that made the earlier Vienna version so non-pareil. For starters, one reviewer hits it right on the nose---this London Symphony account "seems flat", that is, in comparison to the Vienna, which serves up in spades an aura of poetic nostalgia, panoramic vistas and sweeping dynamics. And the recorded sound is absolutely wonderful. I've heard a lot of "New Worlds", but the Kertesz/Vienna Philharmonic matches, for me, the ideal of what this work should sound like. Why Decca has not reissued it in its Legendary Performances series, I don't know. If and when they do, get it immediately, and you will see/hear what I mean. However, in the absence of the Kertesz/Vienna version, I would go with either the sensitive Walter/Columbia Symphony, solid Horenstein/Royal Philharmonic or exhilarating Leopold Ludwig/London Symphony presentations.

As a kid, I enjoyed "programatic" classical music -- ballets, tone poems -- and shorter pieces like marches and waltzes. The "New World" Symphony was the first extended piece of "pure" music that I ever loved: vigorous, tender, exciting, heartbreaking. Not only is it full of memorable themes, but it's a fine way to learn about some of the structures that composers of program-less music used to express their ideas. The first movement is a textbook specimen of the sonata-allegro form, and the symphony overall is a great example of the cyclic form used so often in late 19th-century symphonies. In short, I recommend this work to anyone who's ready to go beyond the Suites and the Highlights collections. I have treasured this particular recording for 20 years as an LP, and it's great to have it on CD. To top it off, the "Carnival" Overture is simply thrilling, and Othello is dark and dramatic, and the disk is mid-priced. You can't go wrong!

Despite Kertesz's short life, his recoded legacy was of a uniformly high quality throughout. This Decca recording of the New World Symphony is no exception, with clean-cut London Symphony Orchestra playing and superb Decca engineering. Kertesz elicits peerless playing from his London forces, and perhaps the commitment to making the recording shows by the fact that they were still recording a Dvorak cycle at that time. To top it all off, the Kingsway Hall acoustics suit the orchestral sound admirably well, and the recording giving the rochestra a lifelike presence.
Kertesz's disc (directly reissued from an earlier Decca Classic Sound release) still has the two overture fill-ups that came with the original release, and they enhance the economic value of this lower mid-priced disc while rounding off a more than satisfying musical experience. Even despite my view that putting these overtures at the beginning would have been a better idea to prepare the listener for the symphony to give a sense of what Dvorak was to compose at the time of the other works included here, they are played with polish, gusto and a sense of idiomatic flair. The symphony, at the same time, is given polish, tautness and a sense of drama that only benefits the work more than anything else. After a slow introduction that conveys a deep sense of foreboding, the first movement lurches into action with power, adreanaline and energy that can easily give way to lyricism in the gentler secondary episodes. The Largo in itself is given a ravishing performance, with a clear-toned oboe soloist in the main theme, and the muted strings sounding peerless and beautiful. In time, the performance lurches into action, with a fierce, dynamic and pulsating Scherzo (complete with a light-footed Trio section) and a forward-moving Finale, maintaing electricity up to the closing bars. The energy and excitement of these two last movements in the symphony is enough to crown this kudo-winning performance and in itself Kertesz's entire Dvorak symphony cycle.
To sum everything up, this is one of the finest Dvorak New World performances I have heard in a long time on record. Though I have some slight reservations about the minor lack of warmth in the playing, the slightly poor judgement of tempo in the first movement, and the slightly dryish recording with a boomy timpani, I still find this an enjoyable listen. I'm sure that for many a listener, buying one version of this symphony only means that you may not be able to get enough of this work, and I also recommend the DG recordings of Kubelik, Levine and Abbado to complement the Kertesz recording here. But, I would like to say that this perfect recording is one of the essential recordings with which to start when looking for a Dvorak New World, and its price makes this a more tempting jump-off point for recordings of this much loved work.

Who knew that Penguin, powerhouse publisher of classic literary works, produced CDs? I didn't until this particular recording of the Symphony from the New World was recommended to me. So far I have only managed to listen to it on my computer and even the sub-par speakers can not mask the richness of this recording. I look forward to many listening sessions on a real audio system. And you can't beat the price.

I enjoyed the loopy Amazon review, but to my ears this is a fairly conventional Dvorak Sym. #9, done in Kertesz's characteristic style, with plenty of excitement, freshness, and robust attack. But if you listen to the Carnival Over. first, you hear that extra dash of spontaneity and inspiration lacking in the symphony. (Ditto the excellent Othello Over.) Kertesz does best with the Scherzo, taken hell-for-leather at the outset, and the first movement, which feels genuinely committed. I got very little from the thrice-familiar Largo, however, and the finale, while energetic, never quite builds to the exuberant climax it deamnds. I am eager to hear Kertesz's earlier version with the Vienna Phil. recommended so highly in a review below.

At most three stars. Can't go with the other reviewers. I'm all for a rousing, full volume New World Symphony, and no doubt this rendition has its virtues, but seems that these chaps actually pound it flat. Emotional effect lost somewhere. Still clearly tops by me and something beyond is Fritz Reiner and The Chicago Symphony (RCA).... Also those essays Penquin includes with its liner material are pretty much a waste.

This compilation of Dvorak's masterpieces is really good and all of them worth listening. Istvan Kertesz, who recorded all orchestral works of Dvorak for Decca Classics, is one of the most perfect performers of music of the composer. The recording, sound quality is very good.

But, I think the another star of this CD -with the "New World"- is Othello Overture. OK, Carnival Overture is brilliant, colourful, but Othello is my favourite. It has typic Dvorakian rhtymic combinations, dark colours. This overture describes very succesful of Othello's hesitations, suspicions and jealous, loathing about his wife, Desdemona because of (as you know), Othello thinks that she to cheats him. And later Othello nodes Desdemona at her bed, but then Othello learns that, she was innocent because all of this affair is the plan of Iago, who the assistant of Othello. And so, Othello pays with kill himself... And this overture is very dramatic, romantic and a masterwork. London Symphony under the baton of Kertesz played very sensitive, emotional, impressive.

This is an essential recording. Highly recommended for any Dvorakians and music lovers.

I've listened to a lot of classical music over time, and I find this symphony to be the best overall in existence. Once I collected the bulk of the works from my favorite composers, I started to randomly buy CDs of different composers. I picked this one up along the way, and the first track (Allegro) got me hooked. I listen to it several times daily, and I don't get sick of it. This is simply my favorite piece of classical music.

This first US composed symphony by Dvorak pulses and pours forth with American spritiual and native tones and rythyms, but still the Czech influences are here.

This is truly enjoyable recording, played with vigor and structure by the London Symphony Orchestra energetically paced by the renowed Dvorak conductor Kertesz.

The Largo is truly magnificent and with volume swells to fill one's space with its ravishing vigor.

Truly a gem to be treasured and played in one's collection.