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

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
This entry in the new Penguin Music Classics collection presents one of the best readings of Dvorák's Ninth, From the New World. In her liner essay, playwright Wendy Wasserstein--author of the acclaimed Heidi Chronicles--describes playing the Ninth at blaring volumes on her discman as she traversed downtown Prague. And this is exactly how the music should be heard: loud. Dvorák's Ninth is, of course, so frequently played that it can become cumbersome, but Istvan Kertész and the London Symphony Orchestra play the score wonderfully, tender in the Largo and pouncing in the Molto vivace. This performance gives off pristine string and brass architectural detail even as the Ninth swoons in romantic washes and blasts in robust high energy. And there are few crescendos as brilliant as the Allegro section, with the brass crying out as if from the precipice between Dvorák's centuries-old Prague and the young, multiracial United States. Much has been made of the presence of Native American and African-American strains in this piece, and these elements make it one of the 19th century's acknowledged gems. The Ninth was a huge splash for Dvorák when he unloosed it in 1893 at Carnegie. Wasserstein relates how it invigorated her as a high school student in 1966, and it still electrifies listeners in 1998. --Andrew Bartlett

Dvorak: Symphony no 9 / Kertsz, London Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series), Music, Antonin Dvorak, Istvan Kertesz, London Symphony Orchestra, Wendy Wasserstein, Classical, Classical Composers, Classical Music, Orchestral, Orchestral & Symphonic, Romantic Overture for Orchestra, Romantic Symphony, Symphonic

Dvorak: Symphony no 9 / Kertsz, London Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series)
Average customer rating:

A robust, exciting 'New World,' but not the best of Kertesz's cycle

Wonderful recording of a remarkable work.

all recordings are excellent but GET IT FOR "OTHELLO"!

Fair, but Decca should re-issue the finest "New World" !

Found it emotionally flat

Dvorak: Symphony no 9 / Kertsz, London Symphony Orchestra (Penguin Music Classics Series)
Wendy Wasserstein
Manufacturer: Decca
ProductGroup: Music
Binding: Audio CD

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ASIN: B00000AFQN
Release Date: 1998-09-29

Tracks:

Symphony no. 9 in E minor, op.95 'From the New World': I Adagio - Allegro molto
Symphony no. 9 in E minor, op.95 'From the New World': II Largo
Symphony no. 9 in E minor, op.95 'From the New World': III Scherzo
Symphony no. 9 in E minor, op.95 'From the New World': IV Allegro con fuoco
Othelo: Overture, op.93
Overture, op.92

Amazon.com essential recording

This entry in the new Penguin Music Classics collection presents one of the best readings of Dvorák's Ninth, From the New World. In her liner essay, playwright Wendy Wasserstein--author of the acclaimed Heidi Chronicles--describes playing the Ninth at blaring volumes on her discman as she traversed downtown Prague. And this is exactly how the music should be heard: loud. Dvorák's Ninth is, of course, so frequently played that it can become cumbersome, but Istvan Kertész and the London Symphony Orchestra play the score wonderfully, tender in the Largo and pouncing in the Molto vivace. This performance gives off pristine string and brass architectural detail even as the Ninth swoons in romantic washes and blasts in robust high energy. And there are few crescendos as brilliant as the Allegro section, with the brass crying out as if from the precipice between Dvorák's centuries-old Prague and the young, multiracial United States. Much has been made of the presence of Native American and African-American strains in this piece, and these elements make it one of the 19th century's acknowledged gems. The Ninth was a huge splash for Dvorák when he unloosed it in 1893 at Carnegie. Wasserstein relates how it invigorated her as a high school student in 1966, and it still electrifies listeners in 1998. --Andrew Bartlett

Customer Reviews:

A robust, exciting 'New World,' but not the best of Kertesz's cycle.......2006-05-16

I enjoyed the loopy Amazon review, but to my ears this is a fairly conventional Dvorak Sym. #9, done in Kertesz's characteristic style, with plenty of excitement, freshness, and robust attack. But if you listen to the Carnival Over. first, you hear that extra dash of spontaneity and inspiration lacking in the symphony. (Ditto the excellent Othello Over.) Kertesz does best with the Scherzo, taken hell-for-leather at the outset, and the first movement, which feels genuinely committed. I got very little from the thrice-familiar Largo, however, and the finale, while energetic, never quite builds to the exuberant climax it deamnds. I am eager to hear Kertesz's earlier version with the Vienna Phil. recommended so highly in a review below.

Wonderful recording of a remarkable work........2005-10-08

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.

all recordings are excellent but GET IT FOR "OTHELLO"!.......2005-01-23

This compilation of Dvorak's masterpieces is really good and all of them worth listening. Istvan Kertesz, who recorded all orchestral works of Dvorak for Decca Classics, is one of the most perfect performers of music of the composer. The recording, sound quality is very good.

But, I think the another star of this CD -with the "New World"- is Othello Overture. OK, Carnival Overture is brilliant, colourful, but Othello is my favourite. It has typic Dvorakian rhtymic combinations, dark colours. This overture describes very succesful of Othello's hesitations, suspicions and jealous, loathing about his wife, Desdemona because of (as you know), Othello thinks that she to cheats him. And later Othello nodes Desdemona at her bed, but then Othello learns that, she was innocent because all of this affair is the plan of Iago, who the assistant of Othello. And so, Othello pays with kill himself... And this overture is very dramatic, romantic and a masterwork. London Symphony under the baton of Kertesz played very sensitive, emotional, impressive.

This is an essential recording. Highly recommended for any Dvorakians and music lovers.

Fair, but Decca should re-issue the finest "New World" !.......2002-07-11

This is the second rendering of Dvorak's Ninth by Kertesz. The first was recorded close to 1960 on the same London/Decca label with the Vienna Philharmonic. I wish I could feel as exuberant about recommending this more recent London Symphony version; however, while the playing is competent, the interpretation is missing those attributes that made the earlier Vienna version so non-pareil. For starters, one reviewer hits it right on the nose---this London Symphony account "seems flat", that is, in comparison to the Vienna, which serves up in spades an aura of poetic nostalgia, panoramic vistas and sweeping dynamics. And the recorded sound is absolutely wonderful. I've heard a lot of "New Worlds", but the Kertesz/Vienna Philharmonic matches, for me, the ideal of what this work should sound like. Why Decca has not reissued it in its Legendary Performances series, I don't know. If and when they do, get it immediately, and you will see/hear what I mean. However, in the absence of the Kertesz/Vienna version, I would go with the sensitive Walter/Columbia Symphony performance.

Found it emotionally flat.......2002-01-05

At most three stars. Can't go with the other reviewers. I'm all for a rousing, full volume New World Symphony, and no doubt this rendition has its virtues, but seems that these chaps actually pound it flat. Emotional effect lost somewhere. Still clearly tops by me and something beyond is Fritz Reiner and The Chicago Symphony (RCA).... Also those essays Penquin includes with its liner material are pretty much a waste.

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