Windsurfer said:

I just received this last evening. My first listen left me very happy! The sound is clean, clear, and has considerable impact. Perhaps as a result of judicious balancing on the part of Kreizburg, many passages come through clearly in a way I never heard before.

I remember an old mono Angel recording where the stylus would skip every time it came across the big crescendo in the first movement. Subsequent recordings didn't skip, but none, not even Ivan Fischer's have revealed the sound of the individual instruments as clearly as this! The brass are very very good without being outstanding and given that we have been treated to some truly outstanding brass playing in the last movement of this symphony, I suspect some may feel let down on that account. Further the third movement does not have that lilt we have come to expect, accustomed as we are to Bruno Walter or George Szell ... or even Ivan Fischer.

I am not put off by that.

This is no routine run through and it is no imitation of something from 50 or so years ago. Yes there are certain passages perhaps, that having to compete with the memory of Walter or Szell, will come off as mildly disappointing to some, but that certainly does not "ruin" the performance for me, because there is so MUCH here that no one else has ever equaled let alone exceeded. The clarification of textures is amazing. The sounds from the string sections, as in Kreizburg's New World recording are to revel in! If Kreizburg lets the music speak for itself, I find that he does so in a manner that is very eloquent and ultimately exciting.

I didn't intend this as a "review" but as a "heads up - here is something special"

Castor said:

Hi Bruce,
Have just posted my review!

Arthur said:

Greetings Castor!

I got my copy today and was concerned when I read the liner notes before listening and they talked about how Dvorak was embracing his folk culture and stepping away from symphonic tradition in this work. This is exactly why it has always been my least favorite of the Dvorak Symphonies. But then I put the disc on, and as you point out, Kreizberg has a darker more symphonic approach than we're used to. I was blown away! And you're right about all the rarely noticed details being audible. But they never drag down the momentum. I passed on Kreizberg's 9th and only bought this for the two poems (wonderful by the way), but now I'm thinking I might have to break down and get it too!

Bret