Dvorák Symphony No 1; The Hero's Song
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Antonín Dvořák
Label: Chandos
Magazine Review Date: 4/1989
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 74
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: CHAN8597
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 1, 'The Bells of Zlonice' |
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
Magazine Review Date: 4/1989
Media Format: Vinyl
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ABRD1291
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 1, 'The Bells of Zlonice' |
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
Magazine Review Date: 4/1989
Media Format: Cassette
Media Runtime: 0
Mastering:
DDD
Catalogue Number: ABTD1291
Tracks:
Composition | Artist Credit |
---|---|
Symphony No. 1, 'The Bells of Zlonice' |
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 |
Author: Edward Greenfield
If at over 21 minutes the symphonic poem is on the long-winded side, so is the symphony. I am sure that Dvorak, had he been able to, would have revised it and trimmed it, but he never had the chance. After he sent the score as an entry in a German competition, he never had it returned. It reappeared only many years after his death. Whatever its structural weaknesses, the piece is full of colourful and memorable ideas, often characteristic of the mature composer. Jarvi directs a warm, sometimes impetuous performance, with rhythms invigoratingly sprung in the fast movements, and with the slow movement more persuasive than in either of the two versions I have used for comparison, not just the Kubelik—where it is taken markedly faster—but the Kertesz/Decca version, which could well reappear on CD as have others in his cycle. Jarvi, like Kubelik, does not follow one distinctive point of the Kertesz, and has the full viola section playing, not just a viola solo, in the reprise of the first movement's second subject. My one notable criticism of Jarvi's performance is that, though the last two movements remain just as tense and energetic as the first, the ensemble is at times not quite so crisp.
The recording, warmly atmospheric in typical Chandos style, is among the best in this series, not always clean on detail but firmly focused. I have never heard the Brucknerian fanfares in the slow movement more persuasively done.'
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