Search - Dvorak, Philharmonia Orchestra, Mackerras :: Symphony 7 & 8

Softly beguiling readings -- late Mackerras doing well

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 02/28/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I'm not quite sure why the Philharmonia has faded from view recently, at least to those of us across the Atlantic. They remain a very refined orchestra, and their new music director, Salonen, may prove to be the spark they need. They have been late to appear with a house label (ditto the Boston Sym. over here), and Signum seems to be filling in the gap. It's too bad that the design of the cover art is so utterly lacking in excitement or even the ability to be noticed. So far, the Philharmonia releases have mostly featured the outgoing Christoph von Dohnanyi, but here we have the beloved senior doncutor Charles Mackerras in Dvorak, one of his specialty Czech composers.



To be candid, I've never heard anything remotely approaching greatness in the reliable Mackerras, and I resent that his run-of-the-mill Janacek opera recordings for Decca have become the "standard," certainly not a gold one. Grumbling aside, he's in good form here, primarily because the orchestra's contribution exhibits such finesse and glowing tone. The fast movements in both symphonies could use more zest, but Mackrras feels personal here, a quality I rarely find from him, so the slow movements are touching. There's sufficient lilt in the Scherzos, with careful emphasis on the off-beats. The naturalness of these readings is appealing, and although there are many great Dvork Sevenths and Eighths with more drama, few are this softly beguiling, in the style of late Bruno Walter."