Are You A 'New World' Symphony Snob?

[visualnickmos]

... can I recommend this one : listened to it yesterday, and I think you might like it -

http://amzn.eu/d/0PiwmGR

.

Is this the EMI recording in a different guise, or a different recording, with same forces?

[Nick Armstrong]

I don't know how many people know that the lad pushing his bike up Gold Hill was the 3rd choice - the 1st boy refused to have his hair cut in the required style and it transpired that the 2nd couldn't ride a bike.

I still love Dvorak 4 (the Rowicki/LSO performance)

Added to which, Dvorak 3 has become a favourite in the revelatory Vienna Phil/Myung-Whun Chung recording. Regularly have the first movement on repeat play!

But the New World remains one of those rare welcome old warhorses that always give pleasure (in a decent performance).

[Bryn]

Is this the EMI recording in a different guise, or a different recording, with same forces?

I wondered about this, too, but as both are shown as remastered by Mike Dutton, I guessed it to be the same recording and, indeed, transfer.

[pastoralguy]

The 'New World' is one of my all time favourite symphonies which I never tire of listening to. There's usually a pretty good reason why 'warhorses' are trotted out again and again. Schumann piano concerto, Tchaikovsky piano concerto and symphonies 4, 5 & 6, Beethoven 5 etc, etc. Love them all!

[visualnickmos]

The 'New World' is one of my all time favourite symphonies which I never tire of listening to. There's usually a pretty good reason why 'warhorses' are trotted out again and again. Schumann piano concerto, Tchaikovsky piano concerto and symphonies 4, 5 & 6, Beethoven 5 etc, etc. Love them all!

Couldn't agree more!

[Bryn]

Oh, and to me, the only New World snobs are those who insist upon "From the New World", but since I am a stickler for "Pictures from an Exhibition" . . .

[vinteuil]

Is this the EMI recording in a different guise, or a different recording, with same forces?

.

... the limited info on the box -

symphony 7 . P 1959
symphony 9 . P 1969
symphony 8 . P 1958

Precision Records and Tapes ltd
digitally remastered by Michael J Dutton at PRT Studios London

.

[vinteuil]

Oh, and to me, the only New World snobs are those who insist upon "From the New World", but since I am a stickler for "Pictures from an Exhibition" . . .

... o come now, surely you mean Картинки с выставки – Воспоминание о Викторе Гартмане...


.

[visualnickmos]

I still love Dvorak 4 (the Rowicki/LSO performance)

Added to which, Dvorak 3 has become a favourite in the revelatory Vienna Phil/Myung-Whun Chung recording. Regularly have the first movement on repeat play!

But the New World remains one of those rare welcome old warhorses that always give pleasure (in a decent performance).

That is a fabulous set from Rowicki and the ever-superb LSO.....

.....and the third - surely one of the most "draw-you-in" openings of any symphony... and Chung and the Wiener Philharmoniker even hold open the door for you!

[Nick Armstrong]

That is a fabulous set from Rowicki and the ever-superb LSO.....

.....and the third - surely one of the most "draw-you-in" openings of any symphony... and Chung and the Wiener Philharmoniker even hold open the door for you!

Exactly - but quite an elusive opening: I did a little private BAL on the first movement, and even Rowicki seems a little lumpy in comparison (which explains why it had never struck me in listening to his set). Something about the tempo and lilt that Chung generates which is utterly addictive....

[Bryn]

... o come now, surely you mean Картинки с выставки – Воспоминание о Викторе Гартмане...


.

Which raises the vexed question of the appropriate article to apply in English translation, definite or otherwise.

[visualnickmos]

.

... the limited info on the box -

symphony 7 . P 1959
symphony 9 . P 1969
symphony 8 . P 1958

Precision Records and Tapes ltd
digitally remastered by Michael J Dutton at PRT Studios London

.

This is interesting; I have a 'Royal Classics' Disky incarnation of the 7, 8, 9 plus Brahms double, Scherzo Capticcioso, Legends, Serenade Op44 in 3-CD set.

7 rec. 7 Aug 1957
8 rec. 28/29 Oct 1957
9 rec. 3 Sep 1958

Have to say, they are excellent recordings - crystal clear definition, and a nice fullness sonically. And of course, wonderful performances.

[Bryn]

This is interesting; I have a 'Royal Classics' Disky incarnation of the 7, 8, 9 plus Brahms double, Scherzo Capticcioso, Legends, Serenade Op44 in 3-CD set.

7 rec. 7 Aug 1957
8 rec. 28/29 Oct 1957
9 rec. 3 Sep 1958

Have to say, they are excellent recordings - crystal clear definition, and a nice fullness sonically. And of course, wonderful performances.

I think the difference relates to recording dates versus publication dates.

[visualnickmos]

I think the difference relates to recording dates versus publication dates.

Yes - I'm absolutely sure that you're right, but an awfully long gap between recording and publication of the 9th.

Very often, confusion can easily arise when recordings are getting on a bit, and many incarnations and compilations of works appear under a host of different labels...

[Dave2002]

I love the New World Symphony - though I don't really know what makes it so different. Somehow Dvorak manages to get ideas floating out from nowhere - something which not so many other composers do. It sounds really spontaneous, not really in a rigid formal pattern, yet perhaps it is a formally "well structured" as most other symphonies.

There's an interesting article here - http://www.antonin-dvorak.cz/en/symphony9

I noticed quotations from the 2nd movement in the final movement recently, but there's this observation about the final example in the article cited above - "In one passage, for example, he interweaves the main themes from the second, third and fourth movements:" Clever and intricate stuff, yet sounds simple.