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Review by DSD October 6, 2005 (16 of 24 found this review helpful)
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This is my favorite performance of the Dvorak's Ninth so far, it beats the Ivan Fischer Philips DSD SACD, the George Szell SACD, the Kertesz London Reel to Reel and the Slatkin Telarc LP.
This is the most exciting performance of the New World I have ever heard. Paavo Jarvi's sense of timing and rhythm is perfect. To borrow a Jazz term it is "in the groove", every instrumental line is perfectly clear and the sense of ensemble amazing. An extremely beautiful and exciting New World.
I have not heard a Paavo Jarvi performance that was not fun and exciting and full of the rhythm. I can not stress rhythm enough no conductors I know of since Fritz Reiner have had a better sense of rhythm. I love this New World!
The Martinu: Symphony No. 2 is new to me and very enjoyable and of course the sound is superb as well. I cannot comment on the performance except to say after hearing this I have ordered the Capriccio Martinu SACD. Martinu is a wonderful discovery for me.
Overall this wonderful SACD is warm, ambient and extremely realistic. I extremely highly recommend it. WOW!
I listened in 2-channel stereo, my choice.
Happy listening,
Teresa
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Review by Oakland November 27, 2005 (12 of 14 found this review helpful)
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When I first sat down to take in the new Telarc Dvorak 9th it was not with heightened anticipation. After all, while I am not a student of the composition I have an over abundance of 9ths just like the next guy or girl. And for the most part, except for those conducted by the fabled conductors of 30-50 years ago most performances, while they may certainly be different, tend (with some exceptions) not to stand out from on another (for me) and are, at least, credible performances. But hey, this new Telarc is only the second 9th that I have in multi-channel (the other being the Ivan Fisher) and the sound and performance from Telarc/Jarvi was almost certainly to be good-to-excellent. So, what the heck?
And after listening several times (at that point I was doing comparative listening with the Ivan Fischer) I said to myself I think I *really* like this Dvorak 9th. Is this one with which I can have a meaningful and long-term relationship? I think so for a combination of reasons.
I enjoy Jarvi’s interpretation as much if not more than in any other modern recording (last 25 years). I can’t explicitly explain why but I do enjoy it more than the Fischer. But this may have more to do with the sound than with the actual ”interpretation”, because while the most learned among us (and I mean that with all sincerity) may (will) find vast differences in the interpretations (and with probably good reason) I don’t find noteworthy differences that separate them. And this surprised even me because the timings between the two performances are very different. And generally I am sensitive to timings that are significantly different from what I consider to be the “norm”. The Jarvi 9th is close to 5 minutes longer than the Fischer. Every movement is longer; the Largo is almost 2 full minutes longer. So one performance should feel significantly faster or slower than the other. But that is not the case at all. The Jarvi comes across as “just right”, but so does the Fischer.
Since I purchased the Fischer a couple of years ago I've regarded the Fischer as being a very good recording. But after listening to the complete symphony twice and parts of the finale, making direct comparisons between the Fischer and the Jarvi, I like the Jarvi much better. I only compared the 4th movements (for sound) and after listening to the complete movements on both discs a couple of times I listened only to the first two minutes of the movement four or five times each.
The Philips/Fischer recording places an emphasis on the whole orchestra and a less on the detail of the musicians and instruments. There is *absolutely* nothing wrong with this and, in fact, may be the preference of many listeners. I'm not at all saying that the Fischer lacked detail; it has plenty of detail. But overall the leaning is toward lush (in a soft and pleasant sort of way) than the Telarc/Jarvi which, while also capturing the entire orchestra in an exemplary way, also captures *far* more detail among the musicians/instruments.
In this way, the Telarc/Jarvi is sheer or transparent when compared to the Philips/Fischer. All parts of the orchestra are more vividly heard, all the while being in accurate balance and in complete concert with the music. The transparency of the recording allows you to better “feel” the orchestra as well as hear it and this in turn allows the Jarvi interpretation to shine through. So, overall I found the balance between the interpretation and the sonics to clearly favor Telarc/Jarvi.
So, what is the more correct or realistic presentation? In addition to microphone placement it probably depends on the hall and where one is seated in the hall. The Philips/Fischer presentation is further back in the hall; the Telarc/Jarvi is closer (in a more expensive seat kind of way, but not too close). The sheer quality or clarity of the of the Telarc/Jarvi makes it more like watching a high-resolution video recording of the performance as well as listening to it.
I listened to only the multi-channel layers of both recordings and here it was largely an even match with the slightest advantage going to the Telarc/Jarvi, because the L/R surrounds were completely invisible sonically. But the Philips/Fischer had only a smidgen of audible presence that disappeared once the music got going.
While the Philips/Fischer has a wonderful coupling of the Dvorak 8th Symphony, the Telarc/Jarvi has really a special coupling with the Martinu Symphony No. 2. Believe me this composition is no slouch; it’s more than just a “nice” find. It is a very inventive and lyrical work that keeps one’s attention through out. How it will wear I don’t know. Interestingly, I do have to disagree with the composer’s own words about this symphony. Martinu wrote “My Second Symphony is calm and lyric…..” Lyrical it certainly is but to describe it as calm is a stretch unless Jarvi is completely disconnected from the score. Yes, there is some “calm” intermittently throughout the composition, but there are also explosive crescendos that are masterfully integrated throughout. I will be exploring more Martinu. (Actually, I have some of his works among my collection but have never given them close attention).
Robert C. Lang
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Review by Oliver_twist September 27, 2012 (2 of 6 found this review helpful)
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Reference recording for me is Christoph von Dohnanyi / Cleveland Orchestra on RBCD, I also own Szell / Cleveland and Ozawa / San Francisco on SACD. I was looking for a more recent multichannel recording and chose Jarvi after hearing his excellent Beethoven symphonies cycle, with the Kammerphilarmonie Bremen.
Sadly I find this performance pretty disappointing. It lacks enthusiasm, grandeur. Tempo is sometimes too slow, and one feels that the hole thing is held back, shy. I disagree totally with other commentators, the result is sometimes even boring, to the point that I even hesitated to continue listening to it past the first 20'. Sound is goos but not impressive (how could it).
As for Martinu, I couldn't really comment on it as It is new to me. It is clearly not at the same level as Dvorak but it is still refreshing and the performance is a lot more unthusiastic!
All in all, I wouldn't recommend this except for the martinu piece. I you are looking for a New World, better consider Ozawa's with pentatone. My next attempt to find a recent and convincing new world will probably be mariss janson / rco.
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Sonics: 
