Review by JW May 22, 2003 (2 of 10 found this review helpful)
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Performance: Sonics: |
Fifteen pounds Dvorak pocketed for his first 8 Slavonic Dances ! After that he was asked to do another set, for the first 5 of which he received a similar amount of money. Fortunately the entire second series ended up being more profitable for him because overall he received about ten times what he got for the first. You probably paid more for this SACD than Dvorak's fee for the first series of Slavonic Dances :-)
So you got your money's worth. These are delighful pieces. Happy, upbeat, rhythmically interesting and varied and they really do best when played loud! The second set is more divers than the first set but also more 'symphonic'. If you are looking for the folk elements in these dances, you are up for a difficult task. Even the experts can't find them, in spite of the fact that Dvorak was inspired by the folk music of the rich Polish, Serbo-Croat, Slovak and Bohemian legacy.
This is uncomplicated music, in the good sense of the word. The roots are dance music and it shows. Ivan Fisher and the Budapest Festival Orchestra play them well. You can hear that they enjoyed it. But at the same time they give us drama when it is called for (for example in Dance no 4, 6 and 10 with its sweeping Violins). The only 'problem' I have with this disc is that I prefer to listen to one set at the time. Listening through it all becomes too much of the same - this has cost the SACD one star in my Performance rating. Especially the second set of Dances is too similar for my taste. I prefer the first set as it is more subtle.
Jw
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