Delighted to read Dieter's praise of Neumann. Note that Neumann recorded the complete Dvořák symphonies twice for Supraphon, in startlingly different styles: a warmer, more laid-back 1970s analogue cycle now in an 8-CD Symphonic Works box (coupled with N’s recordings of the symphonic poems & overtures), and a much tauter, sharper-edged 1980s cycle in characteristic early digital sound, now reissued on three 2-CD sets. When the latter cycle first came out I was rather horrified by the change, and I don’t think it has the immediate appeal of the earlier one, but over the years I’ve learned that it’s tremendously good for cleansing the ears of schmaltz!
In fact I like to hear Dvořák done in a diversity of styles. I yield to nobody in my love of tangy Czech performances (Talich, Neumann, etc), but I also admire those conductors who absorb Dvořák totally into the Central European tradition, as if he isn’t a mere parochial figure but a solid symphonic craftsman who can look Schubert & Brahms straight in the eye without flinching. My complaint is that the very best Teutonizers of Dvořák confined their attention to Nos. 8 & 9. (Here I’m thinking not only of early Karajan, but also of the two conductors named Bruno Walter—the Sturm-und-Drang 1940s New Yorker and the Indian-Summer 1960ish Californian—at least as different as the two Neumanns!) I wish they had gone further.
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