Well, this is really something! Conductor and soloist are at their best and the sound recording is quite vivid. One of the best - if not the best - Szell concert with the NYPO I've heard so far. Although I personally love more relaxed, rich in chiaroscuro (like Giulini & Concertgebouw on Sony) or "idiomatic" versions of the Seventh Symphony (Kubelik, Neumann and so on), Szell's imperiousness and fire are enthralling, also because the intensity of singing is certainly not sacrificed to rhythmic impetus.
In addition to the presence of Rostropovich, it is difficult to imagine a more qualified conductor for the Concerto, considering the very long attendance with this page also documented by the historic recording with Casals and the Czech Philharmonic (1937) and of course with Fournier and the Berliner Philarmoniker in 1962, both splendid and indispensable.
Antonín Dvořák
Carnival Overture, Op. 92
Symphony No. 7 in D Minor, Op. 70
Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104
MSTISLAV ROSTROPOVICH, cello
New York Philharmonic
GEORGE SZELL
New York - November 20, 1965
FLAC
Note: There is a new working mediafire link for the Mahler 2 Bernstein/Cleveland 1970 (posted in the comments section).
5 comments:
https://www.mediafire.com/file/nbiu9z3u4wep6n9/DVOSZE.zip/file
Dear Guido, Thank you so very much for another amazing treasure!
Best wishes,
Ron
Thank you, I hadn't known that this existed!
Good stuff! Many thx!
I've known this performance since it's Symphonyshare days, just like the previous post. Allow me to express the minority view.
This is, for me, a very rare example of George Szell violating a score all over the place to accommodate the soloist. I know the Talich recording and have to ask, how did Rostropovich get like this such a few years after he "was taught" the piece by Talich? The longer he played it, the worse his Dvorak got. I can't stand this. How many unindicated tempo changes? For what? When have you ever heard Szell pull things around like this?
Best Rostropovich Dvorak is the first one with Talich, and then the one from England, on chronologically. By the Karajan it's not Dvorak anymore. Rostropovich's best work is all in 20th century music. IMHO.
Best Szell Dvorak is everything else. Where are all these "rubatos" in any of his work? Why doesn't he serve them up for Casals or Fournier?
I studied, and had this kind of playing of the Dvorak enforced on me by most teachers. Only one, a Feuermann student, would even entertain my feeling that this received interpretation was all wrong.
Yes, I never won an audition where Dvorak was one of the concertos.
Any idea if there might be an all-Czech recording from the 30s or 40s? Any idea what the first all-Czech recording might be?
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