Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" / Smetana: Die Moldau

I'm obviously not as "into" classical music as I should be as I wasn't familiar with The New World Symphony until I happened to hear the National Symphony perform it in March 2007. But it's a beautiful piece of music with not one, but several, beautiful melodic lines that I recognized, but hadn't previously associated with this piece of music. "Oh, that's from the New World Symphony!" It's gorgeous stuff. One thing that's sort of interesting about this symphony is that Dvorak doesn't repeat his melodic themes very often. There are some beautiful strains, but you'd best catch them when they arise because he clearly doesn't have a lot of repeats built into the score. On the plus side, this characteristic of the music encourages re-playing the CD. Let me also say a few words about Smetana's "Moldau." This CD is more expensive than some other "New World" CDs, but I think it's worth the price premium due to "Moldau." "Moldau" is, as I understand it, the national song of the Czech Republic. It's a lovely tune, you can almost hear the river flowing through Prague. I've found myself playing this CD a lot, which is the ultimate testimony to its virtues.

Item as described. Prompt shipping.

A wonderful CD. One can never go wrong listening to classical music. This CD is everything I had hoped for.

I must admit this was a gift for my elderly mother. A Mothers Day gift. She is a big Classical music fan. (Me as well). Have asked her if she liked it and the comments were all good. Too short though. Huh? Apparently in the Tom Hanks movie Castaway, they used a favourite portion of this symphony in one of the final touching scenes. I have gotten the impression that it was extended to match the scene. No worries though. Her birthday is coming up and the "Castaway" soundtrack will be efficiently delivered by Amazon. So could probably bump the rating to five stars. Cheers Greg.

I have other recordings of the Dvorak and the Smetana, but I did not have the Liszt in my library. I have heard wonderful things about Maestro Fricsay, but again had nothing in my library, so I took a flyer on this CD. This has quickly become one of my favorite recordings. All three pieces are worthy by themselves, but as a collection, they are absolutely stunning. Despite its age, the recordings are very clean, with no evidence of compression or limited audio range. The DG engineers did a great job recording and mixing the performance. The sound is easily on par with a recording done in the past ten years, not one done 50 years ago. But the wonder for me are the interpretations of Maestro Fricsay. All of the performances sound energetic and fresh, and develop the music in a very engaging manner. For me, these performances are the best I have ever heard of each of these pieces, and I enjoy listening to them repeatedly. This recording is easily one of the very best I have ever heard. It is a real tragedy the Fricsay died so young, thus leaving such a limited legacy. If you hear this recording you will understand that what a great artist he was.

Coming on the heels of Kondrashin's superb 1979 digital account of the Dvorak "New World" Symphony, the Vienna Philharmonic made this recording with Karajan in 1985. Karajan had recorded this work many times before and his interpretation had changed very little. The work is superbly played and recorded. My only caveat is that Karajan's legato phrasing mitigates against the rustic flavor of this work and the accompanying Smetana "Moldau". The result is a more generalized, less Czech sounding performance. Fans of the conductor, however, will not be disappointed with the results. The sound of the recording alone is worth the price of admission.

We took my son to hear the St. Louis Symphony perform "From the New World" and loved it, so we decided to get a disk of the pieced. Based on reviews, we selected the Vienna Philharmonic version. The performance on the disk fantastic. What totally blew me away was the extra track of Smetana's The Muldau. I had never heard it before and have absolutely fallen in love with it. I have listened to several other versions on Pandora since receiving the disk, but as good as they are (the composition is awesome), none are presented as beautifully as the version on this disk. I could easily wear the disk out. One note, the dynamic range on the disk is tremendous, so when listening while driving, I have to crank it up to hear the softer parts. Then when the louder parts come on, it really lets me feel the crescendo! I am definitely going to have to check out other disks by the Vienna Philharmonic, as their musicianship if fantastic.

I don't need to tell you anything about the music, you'd have to have lived in a cave for your entire life to have never heard this. A few points on the performance - excellent pacing, great sound and the brass in the final movement is room-shaking. A great version for sure, with the added bonus of Smetana's Die Moldau from his symphonic poem, Ma Vlast. Kubelik's and Kertesz's readings of the 9th are probably better and more individualistic, but in terms of sonics this recording blows those out of the water. Expensive but worth every penny.

A avoir dans sa collection

Very good quality recording

これは文句なしに素晴らしい。ドヴォジャークの「新世界」、スメタナの「モルダウ」と来れば、どうしてもラファエル・クーベリックを思い出してしまうが、クーベリックの「新世界」（DGG,奇しくも伯林フィル）「モルダウ」（スプラフォン、チェコ・フィル）の“超名盤”が素晴らしいが、フリッチャイの「新世界」は伯林フィルの録音の中でも“白眉”とでも言える程の自発性を伴った指揮者との一体感に支えられた、将に“夢のような”素晴らしい風合いだ。各楽章が夫々の深い表情で浮き上がり深い感動を誘う。特に管楽器の使い方が抑制されていて、要所に来ると金管、木管が浮き上がって聴こえて来る。録音セッションではあるが、当時の伯林フィルのメムバーは忘れがたい感動を得たのではないか？とさえ思わしめる名録音だ。 「モルダウ」がまた最高！最初から最後まで死んだ音が一つもない生気溢れる演奏、こんなに清々しく味わい深い「モルダウ」は聴いたことがない。これが自身の死期を自覚していた指揮者の音楽なのかと思うと、死後半世紀が経つ今でも聴いていて涙が出そうになる。 独逸DGGのリマスターのせいか、適当な周波数補正をして聴けば目の覚めるような良い音質で聴ける、演奏会場で聴く場合と同等の大音量で聴くと臨場感は抜群！日本プレスとは大違いの密度の高い演奏が蘇る。将にフリッチャイ万歳！の名盤だ。

Todavía conservo esta grabación en cinta de cassette, y aún la oigo en el coche alguna vez. Cuando ví que podia comprar el CD y el precio que tenía no me lo pensé. Es quizás la interpretación más sublime que una obra tan genial podría tener. Fricsay y la Filarmónica de Berlín alcanzan un estado de gracia que no he podio apreciar en otras grabaciones de esta sinfonía. Por otro lado la grabación es impecable a pesar de ser de 1960. El que compre este CD tendrá dos satisfacciones en una: Un interpretación para mí fuera de serie por un precio mínimo.

Super CD!! Einfach anhören!!