Search - Antonin Dvorak, Antoni Wit, Stephen Gunzenhauser :: Dvorák: The Complete Published Orchestral Works [Box Set]

20 Hours of Dvorak at a Bargain Price

J Scott Morrison | Middlebury VT, USA | 08/02/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This 17-CD set collects together in one box all the published orchestral works of Antonin Dvorak. It's neatly done: each CD is in a paper envelope and there is a 51-page booklet (with knowledgable and helpful notes for each disc) all fitted into a cardboard box no thicker than that ordinarily used for a two-CD opera recording. All this music has been issued previously on separate discs or sets by Naxos and most of it is, if I'm not mistaken, still available that way. But this collection is one easy way to scoop up all of Dvorak's orchestral music at once. There is much music here that is almost never heard, certainly not in the concert hall and even on CD. For instance, I cannot recall ever seeing a recording (and I know I've never heard in performance) Dvorak's 'Intermezzi.' And the rarely-heard 'Legends' are nicely done here by Stephen Gunzenhauser and the Czecho-Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. Of course, the name of the orchestra tells you something: some of these performances were recorded before the breakup of Czechoslovakia into Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Yes, some of the recordings go back to the late 1980s. No matter - the sound is quite acceptable throughout.



There are numerous participants in these recordings, many of them orchestras in the Czecho-Slovak area, as well as the Polish National Radio Orchestra, the Russian Philharmonic and even London's Royal Philharmonic (in a smashing performance, with Maria Kliegel, sure one of our best current cellists, in the Cello Concerto). Conductors include Gunzenhauser, Antoni Wit, Camilla Kolchinsky, Dmitry Yablonsky, Michael Halasz, Zdenek Kosler, Libor Pesek, and Robert Stankovksy.



Obviously one wouldn't buy this set for the most familiar Dvorak pieces - the 'New World' Symphony, the Cello Concerto, the Slavonic Dances - if that was all one was interested in. There are too many fine performances of those already on the market. But how many of you have recordings of poorly known but top-drawer works like the 'Czech Suite,' the 'American Suite,' (it is fashionable to dismiss this suite, but it's actually one of Dvorak's best), or some of the orchestral music from his many operas--overtures to 'King and Charcoal Burner,' 'The Jacobin,' 'Kate and the Devil,' 'Rusalka'? All of these, and more, are here. I recently returned from a trip and the only music I took along was this box of Dvorak. I never got sated, or bored, by it.



I was also quite taken by the performance of one of my favorite pieces by Dvorak, his 'Wind Serenade,' here played by the Oslo Philharmonic Wind Soloists. And there are marvelous performances by Gunzenhauser and the Polish NRSO of 'The Noon Witch,' 'The Golden Spinning Wheel,' and (a particular favorite of mine) 'The Wild Dove.'



And then there's the super-bargain Naxos price. This is an easy recommendation for the music lover in the market for this specific collection of music.



Scott Morrison"