Search - Antonin Dvorak, Herbert von Karajan, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra :: Dvorák: Symphonies Nos. 8 & 9 "New World"

Look elsewhere for Karajan's best Dvorak

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/16/2008

(3 out of 5 stars)

"For a long time I had no idea how genial, powerful, and convincing Karajan could be with Dvorak, because I started out with this pairing of the 8th and 9th on EMI. Karajan left DG in the Seventies over contract disputes. EMI had been his original home from 1947, when he was discovered surviving without an orchestra in the rubble of postwar Vienna, until he drifted away from the Philharmonia Orch. in the early Sixties. His return to the label brought some great things, particularly in opera, but also some perfunctory, at times coarse orchestral accounts.



This Dvorak 8th is without affection, and the Berlin brass cuts with too much of a serrrated edge. Karajan's lack of feeling shows thoughout, and although the execution is world-class (what else could we expect?), there's something nerve-wracking in the conductor's push to get things over with. You'd never anticipate his loving autumnal reading with the Vienna Phil. that was to come in 1985 (available from DG in their Karajan Forever series). The newly remastered sound has worked out well, but the whole enterprise feels overblown and indifferent at the same time.



The "New World" doesn't miss the spirit of the work by quite so much, and in fact it resembles both of Karajan's other versions, one dating from 1964 in Berlin, the other from 1985 in Vienna (both DG). His interpretation really didn't alter over the years except by half a minute here or there. I wouldn't downgrade the EMI account if the other two weren't better recorded and played with more real personality. This one is machine made, a straight-ahead performance on a big scale and little more.



I'm glad that I eventually got around to Karajan's other Dvorak. If I had had only this pairing to go on, I would never have known how good he can actually be.



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