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In Reply to: A Survey of the "New World" on SACD posted by madisonears on April 23, 2007 at 23:30:45:
For an authentically Czech performance on SACD there is the Vaclav Neumann Czech Philharmonic Orchestra recording on Exton available from Japan. The disc also includes the Symphonic Variations. The performance is outstanding with idiomatic Czech woodwind sound, superb string playing, tempi that always seem right, and rhythms correctly articulated in the Scherzo. The recording dates from 1995 and was done by Japanese engineers. The sound is not state-of-the-art, but allows the beauty and precision of the playing to come through. And the Czechs are not outplayed by the Chicagoans.I have the old Bruno Walter recording on a 2-track tape. The sound is remarkably good. The players were a pickup orchestra (Columbia Symphony Orchestra) in Los Angeles, I believe. The performance is too laid-back for me, with transitions between the disparate sections of movements not handled as naturally as by Newmann, and the rhythms come off awkwardly in the scherzo. The conducting has the warmth that Walter was famous for.
I don't have the Fischer, but have been tempted to buy it. The Hungarians seem to know how to conduct Czech music, with Reiner and Szell being examples.
Follow Ups:
I've been curious to hear feedback on those Neumann/CzPO SACDs from Exton which abound over there, so thanks for this bit of info. Haven't been able to find any comments on any of them, anywhere (the newer proprietary Japanese recordings, not their reissues of the Supraphon 4-channel tapes from the mid-'70s). For whatever reason they really loved recording them A LOT in Japan, and much of the repertory is potentially interesting from this combo. I have a test sample on the way and what you hear is what I expect to get.
Exton also has an SACD of Neumann conducting Dvorak Symphony No. 7 and No. 8. The performances were recorded in Japan with the Czech Philharmonic on tour in 1991, each symphony in a different hall. I prefer the sound here to the 9th Symphony, which was recorded in Prague and suffers a bit from the excess reverberation in the Rudolfinum venue. I bought this SACD first to test the waters. I liked it so much I ordered the 9th and the SACD of the Slavonic Dances.The Slavonic Dances were recorded in Prague in 1993 with sound similar to the 9th. Listen to the last two dances. No. 15 is very fast. The orchestra races through it, and Neumann even makes a slight accelerando in the finale bars when this seems impossible. No. 16 is played slowly with all the warmth and flexibility I always hope for. The strings are wonderful, especially the cellos and basses. I think it was Mozart who said that the Czechs are the fiddlers of Europe. They prove it in these recordings.
Encouraged to hear that, since what I have coming in is exactly the Dvorak 7/8. I don't know Neumann's recordings too well, really, but traditionally the orchestra is one of the great ones in Europe, and they have that very intriguing sound of their own that I feel semi-instantly charmed by in some funny way but don't really know what to think of (kind of just like with Dvorak himself). Good fiddlin' for sure!Thanks.
You are right about the intriguing sound and the CPO being one of the great orchestras of Europe. But orchestras and conductors have their ups and downs. I have some of the Supraphon LPs of Neumann's 1970s recordings of the Dvorak symphonies. I found them disappointing and never bought more. But these 1990s recordings seem to have caught the conductor and orchestra at their best.I relistened to the 7th and 8th last night after posting. You made a good choice. The sound of the orchestra is special. The woodwinds often sound like bird calls, and the whooping horns like hunting calls. I think this is what Dvorak intended. He was, after all, a Bohemian peasant. His music is redolent of the Czech village and countryside.
But perhaps I am biased. My grandfather came to the US from Bohemia and brought his violin. My nephew is now playing the same violin. As you say, good fiddlin'! I hope you enjoy the performances as much as I do.
(Apparently) he did indeed have those ups and downs, unlike some of his fellow countrymen who became even more famed with the same orchestra (like Talich and of course Ancerl), and that's partly why I hesitated a bit with these JPN issues. But, gratefully enough, some do indeed find glory in their later days (think only of people like Klemperer or Walter), and maybe Neumann was one of them.So while I don't have your enviable pedigree (it's not biasing you, just making you have it in your blood), I'm very much looking forward to finally being able to hear this performance, much intrigued by what you are saying. At this point in life I really want to focus on what's worthwhile only.
Of all the others in this repertoire, I've enjoyed Abbado, whom everyone else hates (very different approach to Dvorak), and Dorati - one of those great Hungarians (for me maybe the greatest one among them, at least the most clear-headed and sensitive) referred to below.
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