If you think of “authentic performances”, historically informed and on instruments from the period of the music’s creation, you probably do *not* connect this with a composer like Antonin Dvorak, or the late 19th century. And yet, one new and one older recording explore the sonorities and mindset of the late romantic period, where instruments, phrasing, embellishments and performance style were different than the now evolved performing styles.
This is especially apparent in a brand new recording of arguably the most famous piece by Dvorak, the Symphony in e minor “from the new world”. Brass and woodwind timbres differ significant from the vibrato laden sound of a 21st century orchestra, while the use of embellishments and legato in the string section is much more differentiated than in the present day practice. Fine performance by the Anima Eterna orchestra and conductor Jos van Immerseel.
Between 1967 and 1972 Radoslav Kvapil recorded all known works for piano composed by Antonin Dvorak on the composer’s own Bösendofer concert piano, build in 1879. Surprisingly close in timbre to a modern Concert piano, but leniger in the discant and slightly more transparent in the middle and low registers. Kvapil is an unsurpassed advocate for the relatively unknown output of this composer and still one of the most convincing recordings of these works. I’ve chosen the most prolific works Dvorak wrote for piano, the Suite in A major op 98 also nicknamed “the American” , the Humoresques op 101 (and yes, no VII is THE Humoresque by Dvorak :-) and the wonderful Poetic moods op 85.
Hope you will enjoy this authentic selection ;-)
Antonin Dvorak (1941-1904)
-Symphony in e minor op 95 “from the new world” (1893)
Anima Eterna
Jos van Immeseel, conductor
Rec 2015
-Suite in A major (original piano version) “American” op 98 (1894)
-Humoresques op 101 (1894)
-Poetic Moods (Poetické nálady) op 85 (1889)
Radoslav Kvapil, on Dvorak’s own Bösendorfer piano from 1879
Rec between 1969 and 1972.
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