Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 From the New World

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This entry in the new Penguin Music Classics collection presents one of the best readings of Dvorák's Ninth, From the New World. In her liner essay, playwright Wendy Wasserstein--author of the acclaimed Heidi Chronicles--describes playing the Ninth at blaring volumes on her discman as she traversed downtown Prague. And this is exactly how the music should be heard: loud. Dvorák's Ninth is, of course, so frequently played that it can become cumbersome, but Istvan Kertész and the London Symphony Orchestra play the score wonderfully, tender in the Largo and pouncing in the Molto vivace. This performance gives off pristine string and brass architectural detail even as the Ninth swoons in romantic washes and blasts in robust high energy. And there are few crescendos as brilliant as the Allegro section, with the brass crying out as if from the precipice between Dvorák's centuries-old Prague and the young, multiracial United States. Much has been made of the presence of Native American and African-American strains in this piece, and these elements make it one of the 19th century's acknowledged gems. The Ninth was a huge splash for Dvorák when he unloosed it in 1893 at Carnegie. Wasserstein relates how it invigorated her as a high school student in 1966, and it still electrifies listeners in 1998. --Andrew Bartlett, ISBN13:B00000AFQN ISBN10:B00000AFQN Material Type:audioCD