Search - Antonin Dvorak, Otmar Suitner, Berliner Staatskapelle :: Dvorak: Complete Symphonies

Sublime Dvorak Performances

T. Beers | Arlington, Virginia United States | 09/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Yes, I know: the conventional wisdom still annoints Istvan Kertesz's late '60s Dvorak cycle on Decca as definitive. Yes, the Kertesz set still sounds wonderful forty years on, but here's a handsome alternative that costs just a fraction of the Decca. In fact, this set would be a steal at twice the price Edel is asking. Austrian-born Otmar Suitner was a pupil of the great Clemens Krauss, and a lot of that esteemed maestro's genius for idiomatically inflected, songful performance is present here. These are not hard-core, high-drama performances where every climax is rushed and dynamic contrasts are pushed out to Wagnerian extremes. Instead, Suitner reveals Dvorak's linkages to Schubert: the gorgeous melodies positively dance out of your speakers! Not that Suitner doesn't understand the drama of Dvorak's darker moments: the performance of the Seventh Symphony reminds anyone with ears to hear that Dvorak was a structurally disciplined Great Composer of tremendous range and depth, not just a charming peddler of folk tunes haphazardly thrown together. Perhaps my favorite performance is that of the still-neglected Sixth Symphony. Erich Leinsdorf -- another Austrian! -- virtually "owned" this symphony, producing magnificent recordings with the Cleveland Orchestra (1940s) and later with the Boston Symphony (1960s). Neither Leinsdorf recording is available today and I seriously regretted their absence until I heard Suitner. Like Leinsdorf, Suitner strikes the perfect balance between the requirements of song and structure in the first and last movements, unerringly shaping their stunningly dramatic climaxes. But Suitner never leaves you in doubt that the spiritual core of this symphony is its magnificent slow movement which he and the orchestra play in a way that can only be described as heart-stopping. True, the Berlin Staatskapelle (ca. 1985) is not as great an orchestra as Leinsdorf's BSO, Szell's Cleveland Orchestra or Kertesz's London Symphony. But they exhibit a wonderfully idiomatic sound that's just right for this music: lovely strings whose warm glow never overwhelms orchestral textures, and pert and tangy woodwinds that provide just the right amount of localized, rustic charm. The five discs are uniformly well-recorded, projecting a slightly diffuse but impactful orchestral sound that is transparent enough that individual instruments can be heard without unnatural spotlighting. Packaging is very attractive, if a bit austere: the five CDs are housed in a compact box with minimal liner notes. But what really matters here is that Suitner has produced a Dvorak cycle of character and charm which, in its present incarnation, you can buy for about the price of one premium CD ...."

A natural Dvorakian

Paul Bubny | Maplewood, NJ United States | 10/21/2007

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Listening to this Dvorak symphony cycle, originally recorded between 1979 and 1982 and now reissued at an incredibly low price, I was put in mind of another conductor who took an unsentimental, unlingering approach to this composer yet had a natural feel for the idiom and allowed its charm and character to shine through--George Szell. If Szell had recorded a complete cycle, it might well have sounded something like this. Of course, Szell's Clevelanders would have produced playing of higher caliber, but Suitner's orchestra does itself proud; for me, they're more authentic sounding than the London Symphony under Kertesz in his "classic" cycle. This cycle wears very well, and at the price it's a no-brainer. Get it while it's still in print!"

The real thing

Ralph Moore | Bishop's Stortford, UK | 03/12/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Every so often you buy and play a disc, or set of discs, and know as instantly and instinctively as the conductor who first directed the recorded performance that this is how the music is meant to sound and to go. There is a rightness about Suitner's interpretations which goes straight to the heart: he understands that these are not so much grand, monumental compositions which arouse our admiration but rather visceral, "heart-on-the-sleeve" music which engages our emotions and has its roots in folksong and dance.



Thus it matters less that the Staatskapelle is not the Berlin Philharmonic or the LSO, as a certain roughness and drive is wholly in keeping with Suitner's conception; the orchestra really sound as if they enjoying playing Dvorak and there is no hint of the smooth technician in their approach. A little more edge on the woodwind and some lack of sheen on the strings is entirely welcome. Suitner manages to encompass both the pathos and the drama of these wonderful symphonies with a kind of Schubertian humanity.



All this on five discs at a super-bargain price. The analogue recordings from 1979-83 are just a little dim and dry; no-one would mistake them for state-of-the-art modern digital but they are more than serviceable. This is a neat, slim, tastefully packaged set with a short, informative essay and some brief biographical information on Suitner, providing briliant, unpretentious, wholly idiomatic performances - the perfect introduction to Dvorak's symphonies.



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