Search - Antonin Dvorak, Witold Rowicki, London Symphony Orchestra :: Antonin Dvorak: The Early Symphonies, Vol. II

Passionate music of a genius

Lubomir Masar | Houston, TX | 10/03/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I recently bought "Early Symphonies II" and - as an avid fan of Antonin Dvorak (my compatriot, btw) - eagerly awaited great music.

Well, it took me several weeks of listening to start loving these pieces - so different than his monumental, heroic 7th, grandiose 8th and victorious 9th!

I personally love the 6th - I think it is one of the best pieces he has ever written. Wonderful lively passionate music which literally takes you at heart ... if you really get into it, you will find all the movements as simply breathtaking. You heart and soul will fly with Dvorak ... guaranteed.



I strongly recommend these CDs - high quality sound is another (technical) thing which will please you."

Two wonderful performances

Precession | 07/26/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Witold Rowicki and the London Symphony Orchestra recorded all the Dvorak Symphonies, together with some smaller orchestral pieces, in the 1960s. All the performances were of a high standard, but the first two to be recorded, Symphonies No 6 and 5, (in the case of No 6, pre-dating the performance with the same orchestra conducted by Istvan Kertesz) were absolutely outstanding. As Rowicki includes the repeats in the first movements, the total time would be just too long to get on to one CD (in spite of some very fast tempi in both), so this two-CD set is an excellent idea. The other symphonies are available in two other companion 2-CD sets, also good, but of the three sets, this is the outstanding one.



The performance of Symphony No 4 is also fine, and there is nothing wrong with the performance of the Hussite Overture, though it doesn't have the intensity of the earlier mono performance conducted by Karel Sejna or the spontaneity of the more recent DVD with Vladimir Ashkenazy, both conducting the Czech Philharmonic.



The My Home Overture is to me the nearest Dvorak could ever come to being dull, though this performance is as good as any. It is a great pity that for some reason Philips did not record Rowicki in the lovely 'In Nature' Overture although they did record the other two overtures in the cycle with him - it would have been excellent to have 'In Nature' on this set.



In the Symphony No 6, the first movement is as trenchant as in the earlier Sejna performance, but even more powerful as the repeat is included (and that means also some beautiful bars which lead into it), and in good stereo sound. The second movement is quite a bit faster than in any other performance I've heard, but this is just a different view rather than any disadvantage. The rhythms of the third movement are vigorously and cleanly delivered, and the power of the finale really makes its mark as the climax of the work.



The Symphony No 5 is one the same level - in this case the slow movement is not taken at a particularly faster speed than usual. The finale (which had been used in the 1950s in a rather tamer performance as the theme music for a Children's Hour series on the BBC) is terrific - possibly Dvorak would have been surprised, but also thrilled.



There were only three or four earlier recorded performances of these two works, including the also outstanding Sejna performances neither of which included the first movement repeats. There have been many good performances recorded later, but none in my opinion quite the equal of these, and it is is excellent that Philips has recognised this by bringing them together in this 2CD set.



"