Search - Antonin Dvorak, Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra :: Antonín Dvorák: Violin Concertos/Cello Concerto

A Dvorak full of fire and passion

Peter Halter | LAUSANNE Schweiz | 11/10/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"In a review of recent recordings of Dvorak's Cello concerto in the BBC Music Magazine, a reviewer wondered what had happened to the artists playing this concerto since the days of Casals, Piatogorsky and Fournier. On an average, he noticed, the cellists need 5-10 minutes longer to get through the concerto, maybe because they want to savour every little detail, but at the price of losing sight of the great lines and the "drive" that is so essential for this wonderful piece. Navarra's recording of 1951 puts you once again in touch with the "old" style. Here you get all the drama missing in many of the more recent recordings. Navarra's Dvorak is full of fire and passion, and his playing is characterized by a rare drive and a breathtaking intensity from the first to the last moment. The sound, I'm afraid, of this recording is very bad, giving you the feeling that you listen to a tape from the 1930s instead of 1951. (It's a live recording from the Prague Spring Festival, and the equipment used seems to have been very bad indeed.) So for all those caring about Navarra, one of the greatest cellists of the century, it's better to have this CD than nothing, but many eagerly wait for a reissue of the 1955 Capitol recording of the Dvorak concerto (with the London Symphony Orchestra), a studio recording with an excellent sound, even by 1950s standards."