Dvořák: Carnival Overture
Rafael Kubelik, Bavarian Radio Symphony
Deutsche Grammophon
George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra
Sony Classical
Kubelik captures the lyricism, buoyancy, and special “Czech kick” (found only in Czech dances) of his fellow countryman Dvořák. The recording is utterly infectious. Szell, born next door in Hungary, is just as good.
WebTips: Kubelik’s recording is available on several albums. Look for the 2-CD album titled Overtures, Symphonic Poems that also comes with Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations. It gives you terrific performances of all three Nature Overtures (Carnival is the second) and all of Dvořák’s wicked tone poems about witches and goblins. Avoid the 3-CD album that also includes Kubelik doing the complete Slavonic Dances; there are better recordings of those, and the 3-CD used price is much higher. Szell’s recording comes with the recommended recording of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 (see Phils 3, October 28 & 30, 2010).
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 2
Earl Wild; Jascha Horenstein, Royal Philharmonic
Chandos
It doesn’t get any better than this. Wild and Horenstein’s style, flow, expressiveness, and ensemble make whatever comes next seem inevitable. Add the ripe, rich engineering, and you’ll be swept away.
WebTips: This performance is on an all-Rachmaninoff 2-CD mid-priced re-release with the same artists in all four piano concertos and Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. With the exception of Concerto No. 3, all the other performances also are simply rapturous. You’ll find the same performance of Concerto No. 2 paired with Horenstein’s unmatched performance of Rachmaninoff’s Isle of the Dead on a Chesky CD, but it costs more than the 2-CD Chandos album.
Sibelius: Symphony No. 1
Leopold Stokowski, National Philharmonic
Sony Classical
Colin Davis, Boston Symphony
Philips
Others approach this score by seeing the notes on the page. Stokowski sees its poetry: mysterious, multi-leveled, and emotionally sweeping. He takes the solo introduction with the flexibility of a cadenza. He makes those sweeping multi-octave runs emerge from the ether and end with gale force, serving as atmosphere for the melody line. He turns the symphony more into a tone poem by intimating the “northern woods” sounds that Sibelius would be writing in abundance a decade later. And in the fourth movement, the scurrying, rapidly articulated sixteenth notes are just part of this eagle-sharp, blood-stirring finale. (Did I mention that Stokowski was 94 when he recorded it?) The drawback: the brittle swimming-pool acoustics are awful, drowning many details.
If Stokowski delivers a tone poem, Davis delivers a symphony with a formal grasp of structure and great passion. He makes the Boston Symphony sound like the world’s greatest orchestra: suave and aristocratic with superb principal players. Exquisite details and balances come across seamlessly. In the last two movements, however, some will find the slow sections ponderous; the very ending is unusually heavy. The engineering is astounding, rich and true from treble to bass.
WebTips: The Stokowski is available on two 2-CD albums. The Great Conductors of the 20th Century one costs four times as much as the all-Sibelius Sony Essential Classics one that also contains one of the recommended recordings of the Karelia Suite (see Phils 2, October 21 & 23, 2010). The album is a steal for $4.00 used! The Davis is part of a 2-CD mid-priced album with a superb performance of Symphony No. 2, plus Symphonies Nos. 4 and 5.
