Search - Wendy Wasserstein :: Dvorak: Symphony no 9 / Kertsz, London Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series)

The crown jewel of Dvorak's symphonies and Kertesz's cycle

Yi-Peng | Singapore | 06/21/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Despite Kertesz's short life, his recoded legacy was of a uniformly high quality throughout. This Decca recording of the New World Symphony is no exception, with clean-cut London Symphony Orchestra playing and superb Decca engineering. Kertesz elicits peerless playing from his London forces, and perhaps the commitment to making the recording shows by the fact that they were still recording a Dvorak cycle at that time. To top it all off, the Kingsway Hall acoustics suit the orchestral sound admirably well, and the recording giving the rochestra a lifelike presence.
Kertesz's disc (directly reissued from an earlier Decca Classic Sound release) still has the two overture fill-ups that came with the original release, and they enhance the economic value of this lower mid-priced disc while rounding off a more than satisfying musical experience. Even despite my view that putting these overtures at the beginning would have been a better idea to prepare the listener for the symphony to give a sense of what Dvorak was to compose at the time of the other works included here, they are played with polish, gusto and a sense of idiomatic flair. The symphony, at the same time, is given polish, tautness and a sense of drama that only benefits the work more than anything else. After a slow introduction that conveys a deep sense of foreboding, the first movement lurches into action with power, adreanaline and energy that can easily give way to lyricism in the gentler secondary episodes. The Largo in itself is given a ravishing performance, with a clear-toned oboe soloist in the main theme, and the muted strings sounding peerless and beautiful. In time, the performance lurches into action, with a fierce, dynamic and pulsating Scherzo (complete with a light-footed Trio section) and a forward-moving Finale, maintaing electricity up to the closing bars. The energy and excitement of these two last movements in the symphony is enough to crown this kudo-winning performance and in itself Kertesz's entire Dvorak symphony cycle.
To sum everything up, this is one of the finest Dvorak New World performances I have heard in a long time on record. Though I have some slight reservations about the minor lack of warmth in the playing, the slightly poor judgement of tempo in the first movement, and the slightly dryish recording with a boomy timpani, I still find this an enjoyable listen. I'm sure that for many a listener, buying one version of this symphony only means that you may not be able to get enough of this work, and I also recommend the DG recordings of Kubelik, Levine and Abbado to complement the Kertesz recording here. But, I would like to say that this perfect recording is one of the essential recordings with which to start when looking for a Dvorak New World, and its price makes this a more tempting jump-off point for recordings of this much loved work."

Wonderful recording of a remarkable work.

E. Soublet | Portland, OR | 10/08/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Who knew that Penguin, powerhouse publisher of classic literary works, produced CDs? I didn't until this particular recording of the Symphony from the New World was recommended to me. So far I have only managed to listen to it on my computer and even the sub-par speakers can not mask the richness of this recording. I look forward to many listening sessions on a real audio system. And you can't beat the price."