Track Listing

1. Symphony No. 9 in E minor ('From the New World'), B. 178 (Op. 95) (first published as No. 5): Adagio...Allegro molto
2. Symphony No. 9 in E minor ('From the New World'), B. 178 (Op. 95) (first published as No. 5): Largo
3. Symphony No. 9 in E minor ('From the New World'), B. 178 (Op. 95) (first published as No. 5): Molto vivace...Poco sostenuto
4. Symphony No. 9 in E minor ('From the New World'), B. 178 (Op. 95) (first published as No. 5): Allegro con fuoco
5. Vltava (The Moldau), symphonic poem (Má Vlast No. 2), JB 1:112/2

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #46551 in Music
• Released on: 1993-10-12
• Number of discs: 1
• Dimensions: .24 pounds

Customer Reviews

Five stars for the sound
In his final days Herbert von Karajan was just crankin' 'em out, sometimes his third or fourth reading of a certain piece, just to try and get as much of his repertoire recorded digitally as possible. This recording - which was also used for one of his Telemondial video productions - is one of those. The Vienna Philharmonic the ensemble used this time after his fallout with the Berliners shortly before. I've had older renditions of this work on vinyl recorded with the Berlin Phil that were quite exceptional. I've always thought, why not just digitally re-master a 20 or 30-year-old recording from the late 50's through the early 70's when he was really in his prime, as opposed to issuing another rendition just to make a digital version of it? Nonetheless, these are still very fine readings of The Dvorak and the Smetana, and after reviewing a library copy, I would still be tempted to buy myself one of this 1985 issue just for the sound quality alone. The Deutsche Grammophon Original-Image Bit-Processing digital sound on this recording will blow you away.

top notch
The Smetana on this CD was the highpoint for me. The Dvorak is a great work and I have heard many excellent productions of it. This one is very enjoyable and the sound is fabulous. All soloists are clearly heard and the stereo image is great. The surprise for me was the Smetana which it turns out is a lovely piece of music played and recorded beautifully here. The beginning in which he tries to reproduce the movement of water in a stream is captivating. That is followed by one of the more hummable tunes I have encountered in music. Recommended highly.

Beautiful melodies
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.