[10/16/2011] Finally we reach Dvořák's glorious "New World" (continued)

How inexhaustible is the Largo of the New World Symphony? Here's a performance by a brass quintet, Boston Brass (in Duluth, November 2007), that seems to me to capture some of the music's special qualities especially well.


I titled the October 2009 Sunday Classics post devoted to Dvořák: "Dvořák's music isn't just music to love, it's music that loves you back," and I'm going to stand by that. This for me draws an unmistakable spiritual line back to Mozart, to add to a feeling for musical structure that seems to me to owe much to a composer who provided him with so much inspiration (and indeed with considerable professional support), Brahms, and a lyrical gift that unmistakably recalls Schubert. In the remarks that follow I note that I've also thrown Haydn into the mix, not to mention marking a signpost to Mahler.

This is a lot of billing to live up to, but I don't think I'm overselling Dvořák. I don't think it's possible to oversell this symphony.

ANTONIN DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor,
Op. 95 (From the New World)

i. Adagio; Allegro molto

I think I've said enough about this movement, but before we listen to it (again! we actually heard the whole thing in Friday night's preview), we should touch on two perennial performance issues: the exposition repeat, and the common habit of slowing down, sometimes drastically, for the lyrical second subject. In the matter of the repeat, we have one performance that observes it and one that doesn't. And in the matter of the second-subject slowdown, not indicated by the composer -- and therefore rather frowned on nowadays -- but nevertheless highly understandable, as it happens neither of our conductors slows down much. Indeed Sir John Barbirolli, back in the '50s, took it pretty much at tempo.

If you were here for our tour of Dvořák's Eighth Symphony, you may recall how I gushed over Sir John's Pye recording, from which we heard the throbbingly alive first movement. I mentioned then that he had recorded all thee of the final Dvořák symphonies, and I have to say I'm also pretty crazy about his New World. No, the Hallé Orchestra strings aren't the world's most luxurious, but my goodness, listen to the passion and vividness with which all the orchestra's players bring every moment to such passionate, vivid life.

Sawallisch's performance is notably less vivid in the detailing, more concerned with overall line and shape -- which is, by the way, contrary to what one might expect, the way (to risk a sweeping generalization) many native Czechoslovak conductors deal with the "Czech"-ness of this very "Czech" music.

As to the exposition repeat, Sir John, like most conductors back then, doesn't bother with it, while Sawallisch observes it. Considering the length of the Adagio introduction, and of the exposition proper of the Allegro moderato, and the relative modesty of the central development section (in the tradition of Haydn, Dvořák has begun "developing" his melodic materials even before he finishes stating his first theme), I can see a good case for not taking the exposition repeat. At the same time, partly because the music is so wonderful and partly because I love the effect made by the little transition the composer provided to get from the end of the exposition back to the start of the Allegro molto, I also enjoy hearing the repeat. (I've mentioned Bruno Walter's general objection to first-movement repeats -- that having gotten this far, he hated going back to the beginning. In this case, I rather like going back to the beginning.)

Hallé Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli, cond. Pye/EMI, recorded Sept. 3, 1958 [audio link]
Philadelphia Orchestra, Wolfgang Sawallisch, cond. EMI, recorded April 1988 [audio link]


ii. Largo

As I noted in the post on the Eighth Symphony, back in 2009 we already poked around and listened to the Largo of the New World, and we did some more poking around Friday night, not to mention hearing the entire movement again. Still I can't resist taking a couple more pokes.

First, I want to pick out one of Dvořák's signature tricks for creating variety: introducing a strikingly different, often hard-to-pin-down rhythm. In this instance, out of it he seemingly effortlessly builds the movement's majestic climax and then just as effortlessly scales back down.

Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell, cond. Epic/Sony, recorded Mar. 20-21, 1959 [audio link]

It was with great difficulty that I stopped the above example where I did. What follows in the remaining not-quite-three-minutes of the movement is some of the composer's most beautiful music, which is saying a mouthful. No tricks here, really -- it's just his extraordinary ability to hear new possibilities in his materials. Note that some of the most heightened effect comes from stripping down. By the end of the previous excerpt, he has reduced his orchestral strings to four players per part; now he reduces that to two, and then to just to solo violin and cello (plus a "solo" viola sustaining a low D), and then . . . well, you'll hear.

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy, cond. Ondine, recorded Aug. 27-28, 1999 [audio link]

Now let's hear the whole of the Largo.

Cleveland Orchestra, George Szell, cond. Epic/Sony, recorded Mar. 20-21, 1959 [audio link]
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Ashkenazy, cond. Ondine, recorded Aug. 27-28, 1999 [audio link]


iii. Scherzo: Molto vivace

We've already done our teasing of the Scherzo. Here's the whole thing, with a dip back to the early-'50s Leonard Bernstein, for the special exuberance and energy that characterized his work then (and that always remained part of his musical makeup, even as it evolved, in some ways quite dramatically). I've chosen Otto Klemperer's Scherzo, as may have been suggested in our pre-click-through tease, for his uncanny sensitivity to and decisiveness with its playful rhythms.

New York Stadium Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. American Decca/Andromeda, recorded in Carnegie Hall, July 28, 1953 (mono) [audio link]
Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemperer, cond. EMI, recorded Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 1963 [audio link]


iv. Finale: Allegro con fuoco

As I've mentioned before, it has seemed increasingly strongly over the years that the kind of journey Dvořák undertakes in this finale, including a journey through the earlier movements, was a springboard from which his fellow Bohemian Gustav Mahler launched the finale of his First Symphony. It's a commonplace to call attention to the "Jewish" elements in Mahler's music, but the Czech elements, not so much.

We're going to hear those two finales side by side in a bit. For now, I just want to call attention to some deliciously Dvořákian rhythmic play, from early in the New World Finale.

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Neumann, cond. Praga, broadcast performance, January 1971 [audio link]

Oh yes, and then, just because I can't resist, there's this. "Three Blind MIce"?

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded Nov. 9, 1957 [audio link]

Now it's time to hear the whole Finale.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Fritz Reiner, cond. RCA/BMG, recorded Nov. 9, 1957 [audio link]
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Neumann, cond. Praga, broadcast performance, January 1971 [audio link]

And since I already made the audio file, for the sake of contrast I'm going to toss in another, later performance by Neumann and the Czech Phil, which seems to me distinctly less "dug in" than the above broadcast performance.

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Václav Neumann, cond. Supraphon, recorded Apr. 16, 1982 [audio link]


FROM DVOŘÁK'S LAST SYMPHONY
TO MAHLER'S FIRST

I'm not going to make any fancier a case for my perceived link between these two finales. I just invite you to listen to them. Since I'm positing a sort of "Czech connection" here, I assumed I would be turning to that eminent Dvořák and Mahler conductor Rafael Kubelik, but lo and behold, I'm going instead with Carlo Maria Giulini.

DVOŘÁK: Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (From the New World): iv. Allegro con fuoco
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. Sony, recorded May 7-8, 1992 [audio link]

MAHLER: Symphony No. 1 in D: iv. Stürmisch bewegt
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Carlo Maria Giulini, cond. EMI, recorded Mar. 30, 1971 [audio link]


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