Dvorák Symphonic Poems

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Antonín Dvořák

Label: Chandos

Media Format: Cassette

Media Runtime: 0

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: DBTD2019

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
My Home Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
(The) Water Goblin Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
(The) Golden Spinning-Wheel Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
(The) Noon Witch Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
(The) Wild Dove Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Heroic Song Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Composer or Director: Antonín Dvořák

Label: Chandos

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 111

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: CHAN8798/9

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
My Home Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
(The) Water Goblin Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
(The) Golden Spinning-Wheel Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
(The) Noon Witch Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
(The) Wild Dove Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Heroic Song Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Antonín Dvořák, Composer
Neeme Järvi, Conductor
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Originally issued as 'fillers' (what a demeaning expression that is!) to Jarvi's symphony cycle, the four tone-poems that Dvorak wrote after his return from America, based on Karl Jaromir Erben's collection of gruesome folk ballads, are here framed by the much earlier My home Overture and his last orchestral work, The Hero's Song.
Received wisdom has taught us to be patronizing about these late works—ignore it! Janacek was fascinated enough by the four Erben poems to publish a detailed analysis of them. Indeed, in the central section of The golden spinning-wheel, where the wheel and assorted paraphernalia are offered to the false queen in return for the various dismembered portions of our heroine's body, the ostinatos on muted strings sound like pure Janacek.
The descriptive range and imagination of Dvorak's orchestration are a consistent joy throughout this set, even if his fiends seem imagined from the warm interior of a Victorian nursery—one shudders to think what Janacek himself might have made of them. The orchestral colourings are firmly rooted in the late romantic tradition—the 'forest murmurs' of the water goblin's domain, for example. And yet, there are prophetic moments too: the exquisite closing pages of The wild dove could be the best thing Martinu ever wrote.
Jarvi's performances need no further recommendation from me, but there are moments where I prefer Kertesz's sharper pointing of rhythms with the LSO in indomitable form, particularly in the My home Overture and The noon witch, and Decca's engineering, though lacking the Chandos bloom, still thrills 20 years on. Alas, Kertesz never recorded The wild dove, and his Noon witch, Water goblin and My home are currently unavailable.
Chandos's wide-screen, superbly balanced sound adds greatly to the atmospheric strains of these works, and Gerald Larner's notes enable you to pinpoint every incidental delight. A musical feast!'

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