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Whistle Stopper - Dvorak: Symphony No. 9; "From The New World"
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List Price: $9.98
Our Price: $4.80
Your Save: $ 5.18 ( 52% )
Availability: Usually ships in 24 hours
Manufacturer: Naxos
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Average Customer Rating:   
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Binding: Audio CD
EAN: 0747313071470
Label: Naxos
Manufacturer: Naxos
Number Of Discs: 1
Publisher: Naxos
Release Date: 2008-05-27
Studio: Naxos
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: A fizzy reading with real personality -- Alsop's best foray into the 19th-century classics
Comment: Marin Alsop is far from my favorite conductor, but her new CD of the Dvorak 'New World' doesn't deserve the lamebrained reviews it's gotten here so far. The program begins with a cheerful reading of the less-than-inspired Symphonic Variations. Ms. Alsop shows a deft touch throughout, but I have never been able to sustain enough interest in this work to get to the end, and I didn't this time.
Her 'New World' is appealing for one great virtue: it is unfussy and unpretentious. The mood is considerably lighter than in any other version I've ever heard. Instead of making the Scherzo sound rustically Czech, for example, Alsop takes it like a tarantella, whirling and light on its feet. The reviewer who implies that this is a studied account has rocks in his ears. It's practically effervescent -- clearly the conductor wants to pull us away from the kind of inflated interpretations one hears from big-name conductors in Vienna and Berlin.
The Baltimore Sym. backs her up with comitted playing, more lightweight at times than I'm used to hearing but skillful throughout. (I don't hear really talented woodwind or brass soloists, however.) After a truncated period under the great Yuri Temirakanov, ensemble sounds crisp, and one must say that Naxos has come a long way form its early use of third-rate Eastern Euroepan orchestras. As for shortcomings, Alsop can't maintain dramatic tension when the music gets soft, and her transitions tend to be mechanical rather than expressive. Still, this reading has a real personality and strikes me as one of her best.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Alsop and Baltimore make "New World" live
Comment: Having just heard this recording on the classical station on July 4th, I have to say that it is an inspired reading. Clean, with tempi that are appropriate. I have never heard the Baltimore Symphony sound better. The one star fan? from Maryland is very probably one of those people who disagreed with the hiring of Marin Alsop to lead the Baltimore Symphony.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A decent price for a good ninth
Comment: I just downloaded this and wanted to see what others were saying about this recording and discovered a single star. Sorry but this is a very decent recording of an old chestnut. It is worth more than a single star. I can't count how many time I have heard this piece played on recordings over 40 years. Alsop's interpretation is a good one and the recording is decently priced. I really do not think that anybody can claim to the greatest recording of this piece since most of the recordings of this are older. I also find that there is a good controlled emotional aspect to this recording. I realy do believe that this recording deserves a listen and the Naxos price is always good.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Uh, well ...
Comment: Having completed her microscopic-focused interpretation of the four Brahms symphonies, Marin Alsop is now training her eye on the Dvorak symphony cycle -- this time with the Baltimore Symphony. Maestra Alsop reportedly spent hours and hours studying the Brahms scores, looking for those precious interpretive nuggets somehow lost on the countless other conductors of this music. (Not that we could hear anything particularly profound as a result.)
Dvorak is now getting the same laser-like treatment from Alsop. The result is a "New World" performance that's fussy and mannered, while at the same time oddly disengaged ... and musically unrewarding as a result. With the competition so fierce in this repertoire, you can pick any number of other contenders and do much better. Several of my favorites include Paray/DSO (on Mercury) for a lean/taut reading, and Kondrashin/VPO (on Philips) for a more broadly expansive one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Move over, Brahms -- now it's Dvorak's turn for the Alsop treatment
Comment: Having completed her microscopic-focused interpretation of the four Brahms symphonies, evidently Marin Alsop is now training her eye on the Dvorak symphony cycle -- this time with the Baltimore Symphony. Maestra Alsop supposedly spent countless hours studying the Brahms scores, looking for those precious interpretive nuggets somehow lost on the countless other conductors of this music. (Not that we could hear anything particularly profound as a result.)
Dvorak is now getting the same laser-like treatment from Alsop. The result is a "New World" performance that's fussy and mannered, while at the same time oddly disengaged ... and musically unrewarding as a result. With the competition so fierce in the "New World's Derby," you can pick any number of other contenders and do much better. Several of my favorites include Paray/DSO (on Mercury) for a lean/taut reading, and Kondrashin/VPO (on Philips) for a more broadly expansive one.
The "Symphonic Variations" receives the same kind of treatment as the symphony. Go instead with the classic Beecham/RPO performance from the mid-1950s, or even the other budget-priced Naxos release with conductor Stephen Gunzenhauser. They are better choices than this one.
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Editorial Reviews:
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This recording by the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Music Director Marin Alsop is the first of three discs of Dvořák symphonies taken from live performances at Joseph Meyerhoff Symphony Hall. The most popular of all Dvořák's works, Symphony No. 9 `From the New World' makes an immediate appeal by virtue of a seemingly inexhaustible flow of melody and sparkling orchestration. Based on a melody he had composed earlier for men's chorus, I am a fiddler, the Symphonic Variations are one of the composer's most beautifully crafted and beguiling works.
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