Are You A 'New World' Symphony Snob?

[visualnickmos]

The 'New World' symphony is one of my favourite works and I've been lucky enough to hear it many times in performance, not least on February 28th this year in the Alice Tully Hall in NY, NY played by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightment under Adam Fischer. It was a fantastic performance with the orchestra firing on all cylinders.

There are so many wonderful moments in this work that I can't even begin to describe how much I look forward to hearing it either live or on cd. There is a reason why certain works are war horses and, if played well, never fail to hit the spot. In fact, certain works are simply bomb proof! I remember hearing a competent youth orchestra play Beethoven's Fifth at the, now sadly defunct, Edinburgh Festival of British Youth Orchestras. No, they were not the Berlin Phil. but their dedication carried the day!

Oh, and it's a great piece to play!!

Hello pg
What a really pleasant and joyous posting! Exactly what music should be.....

There is actually a very nice recording on Arte Nova by the Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria conducted by Adrian Leaper.... (rec 1995) which I think I will give a spin now... glass of wine to hand - aahhhhh Bonne soirée fellow posters!

[Bryn]

Now playing back here, the Anima Eterna Brugge/Jos van Immerseel recording. Their Janacek Sinfonetta and Smetana Vltava on the same CD ain't bad either, though I think the LCP/Norrington recording of the latter just has the edge, though that might just be because I have known and loved it for so long.

[HighlandDougie]

I've been had! Vltava doesn't feature on my copy of the (excellent) Anima Eterna CD which Bryn is currently enjoying. It does feature on the (equally excellent) BPO/Fricsay CD so maybe some confusion? Or have I missed something?

[pastoralguy]

Hello pg
What a really pleasant and joyous posting! Exactly what music should be.....

There is actually a very nice recording on Arte Nova by the Orquesta Filarmonica de Gran Canaria conducted by Adrian Leaper.... (rec 1995) which I think I will give a spin now... glass of wine to hand - aahhhhh Bonne soirée fellow posters!

Thank you.

[Bryn]

I've been had! Vltava doesn't feature on my copy of the (excellent) Anima Eterna CD which Bryn is currently enjoying.

Strange. Actually, mine was downloaded from QOBUZ, and now I check, Vltava is shown as a "Bonus". I had assumed it would also be on the CD:



To make matters worse, it is not available as a single track, only along with the other 9. I note, also, that at just over 15 minutes it would not have fitted on the CD.

[Alison]

Surely this is Dvorak's finest work

[ahinton]

Surely this is Dvorak's finest work

Oh, surely not!...

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Oh, surely not!...

No, I don't think so, either - I greatly enjoy it when performed as well as Macal does it, but it's way behind the 'cello Concerto, the 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th Symphonies, the "American" S4tet and S5tet, the "Dumky" Trio, the Violin Concerto, the op100 Violin Sonatina, the Serenade for Strings ... for example ... in my affections.

[ahinton]

but it's way behind the 'cello Concerto

Admire but don't much care for that either; sorry!

the 5th, 6th, 7th & 8th Symphonies

Well, the seventh, certainly; his finest symphony, IMHO...

S5tet

Well, someone had already to have written one with double bass, did they not?!...

the "Dumky" Trio, the Violin Concerto, the op100 Violin Sonatina, the Serenade for Strings ... for example ... in my affections.

Yes - with you there - and what about those symphonic poems? The Violin Sonatina has terrifying memories for me, have once been press-ganged into playing its piano part for someone when I was at school; I wouldn't have minded so much if I could have played the piano...

[Alison]

Forget the populist dimension, the TV commercials, drop the New World bit, chuck in a decent performance and you have a symphony to comfortably outshine the Seventh imho.

[Alison]

a superbly crafted beginning to the work, don't you think, an object lesson in accumulative musical tension really

[EdgeleyRob]

a superbly crafted beginning to the work, don't you think, an object lesson in accumulative musical tension really

It's certainly that,although I do prefer no 8.
IMVHO the best of Dvorak is to be found in his chamber music.

String Quartets Op 105 & 106.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Forget the populist dimension, the TV commercials, drop the New World bit, chuck in a decent performance and you have a symphony to comfortably outshine the Seventh imho.

Not imo (which ain't h).

a superbly crafted beginning to the work, don't you think, an object lesson in accumulative musical tension really

'salright, s'ppose ... but so many others I prefer.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Well, someone had already to have written one with double bass, did they not?!...

Old Tony missed a trick there, though, didn't he?

The Violin Sonatina has terrifying memories for me, have once been press-ganged into playing its piano part for someone when I was at school; I wouldn't have minded so much if I could have played the piano...

Two things in particular cement my affection for this work - first, I can actually play the violin part; but even more so, memories of Becky Butterswick in the lower sixth playing it in a school concert when I was in the Fourth Year, and page turning for the pianist. Lovely brown hair she had ... and really kind eyes ... heigh-ho ...

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I suppose if I had to state an order of preference for the Dvorak symphonies, it would be:

8, 9, 6, 3, 7, 5, 1, 4, 2.

The lowly position of number 7 is the result of studying it at university in 1971 with a lecturer who couldn't make the Science Museum interesting.