Search - Bedrich Smetana, James Levine, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra :: Smetana: Three Selections from "Má Vlast"/Overture and Dances from "Podraná Nevesta"

Great "Bartered Bride" ... mediocre "Má Vlast"

Prescott Cunningham Moore | 01/04/2005

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I usually love James Levine's recordings. His versions of the Dvorak symphonies are some of my favorites. Thus, I eagerly bought this recording. I must agree with other reviewers in that the recorded sound is top notch. Vienna, as always, gives an alert and well balanced performance. However, this really is the most routine of performances. Levine does little to bring out anything from the score. This is simply a very well executed but boring recording of Má Vlast. The orchestra also sounds somewhat distant in this DG recording.



The sections from the Bartered Bride on the other hand are quite fun. The lighthearted and fast paced overture is thrilling in Levine's hands. The subsequent three dances are just as exciting. Levine is much more at home with these operatic works than with the symphonic poem."

Levine is wonderful, best in the Bartered Bride excerpts

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 11/03/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Levine was making some brash, over-driven recordings with the Berlin Phil. and the Chicago Sym. on DG (Sibelius Second and Prokofiev Fifth are cases in point)at the same time he was all metling charm with the Vienna Phil. Who knows why? But his Mozart symphonies from Vienna are almost lilting, a quality one doesn't associate with this Szell protoge. His Tchaikovsky ballet suites are magnificent in every way, and so are the excrepts from The Bartered Bride on this CD.



The orchestra is so ravishing, and the recording captures them so well, that Levine would only need to be half as good. Yet great conductors can outshine themselves, and here he displays joy and brio throughout. The excerpts from Ma vlast are distinctly cooler, no match for Karajan's grand sweep, until the third one, which is rich and dramatic. So call this CD a treasure for at least half the music on it and very good for the rest."