''Value for money... but at a price!'', to quote a phrase coined by RC a few months back. As an introduction to some wonderful repertoire, this new Naxos release will doubtless reach a wide audience. Such a pity, then, that the actual performances rarely rise much above the serviceable. As in his Dvorak symphony cycle (also for Naxos), Gunzenhauser seems largely unable to galvanize his players to any great heights of artistic merit. So it follows that The Noon Witch has little of the physical excitement and dramatic flair one encounters under Kubelik or Jarvi. Similarly, for all the agreeable neatness of the orchestral playing in Katowice, The Golden Spinning-Wheel remains just a touch earthbound and uninvolving (the wind-playing in particular is disappointingly wanting in poetry).
Happily, The Wild Dove is rather more memorable—indeed, Gunzenhauser's felicitous shaping of the wedding music's glorious A flat major subsidiary theme (beginning at 9'35'') provides easily the highpoint of the entire collection; however, even in this piece, memories of, say, Chalabal and the Czech PO (Supraphon, 12/64—nla) are by no means erased. The recording is a touch cavernous and prone to shrillness, with none-too-clear detail and some odd balancing. Yes, I know the price is tempting, but, unless you really are on a tight budget, I'd strongly urge you go the whole hog and treat yourself to Kubelik's two-CD mid-price DG Galleria set—a wonderful compendium from a master Dvorakian.'