Dvorak - Symphonies Nos. 1-9 - Otmar Suitner, Staatskapelle Berlin [5CD]

Dvorak - Symphonies Nos. 1-9 - Otmar Suitner, Staatskapelle Berlin [5CD]
Berlin Classics | Release 2005 | EAC | flac, cue, no log, scans | 1.59 GB | RS




ANTONIN DVORÁK
Symphonies Nos. 1-9
Staatskapelle Berlin
Otmar Suitner


Composer: Antonín Dvorák
Conductor: Otmar Suitner
Orchestra/Ensemble: Berlin Staatskapelle Orchestra
Release Date: 06/28/2005
Label: Berlin Classics / Edel Classics
Catalog #: 2782
Spars Code: ADD
Number of Discs: 5
Recorded in: Stereo
Length: 5 Hours 53 Mins.



Finally reissued as a boxed set, albeit stripped of the shorter orchestral works that came attached to a couple of the symphonies, Otmar Suitner's Dvorák unquestionably ranks with the very best, right up there with Kertesz, Kubelik, and Rowicki. He secures absolutely gorgeous playing from the Staatskapelle Berlin, with glowing string textures and a truly Czech character from the woodwinds, and all of the performances are beautifully recorded, save for an annoying creaking chair in the scherzo of the Fourth Symphony. There isn't a weak link here, though like most conductors, Suitner makes some cuts in the First Symphony. Highlights include a stunning third movement of the Second Symphony, a glorious funeral march from the Third, a rousing finale of the Fifth, a simply gorgeous account of the Sixth from first note to last, a fiery and passionate Seventh, and a final pair full of individual touches (in the Eighth especially) that you won't find anywhere else. Make no mistake, this set represents a major achievement by a seriously underrated conductor–not a showman, perhaps, but a fine musician with good ideas and the means to realize them. Don't miss it this time around.

-David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

Recorded by VEB Deutsche Schallplatten in East Germany between 1979 and 1983, and only fitfully available in the U.S., Austrian conductor Otmar Suitner's Dvorak cycle would deserve a hearing even at full price. Reissued in a specially-priced box, however, it is an irresistible opportunity to hear deeply felt, virtuosic and often illuminating performances whose main competition comes from much more expensive and only marginally superior sets by Witold Rowicki (Philips) and Istvan Kertesz (Decca).

Born in 1922, Suitner was a pupil of Clemens Krauss at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, and began his career during WW II. He eventually became music director of the Dresden State Opera and Staatskapelle in 1960, and enjoyed a successful touring career. He was particularly popular in Japan where his Dvorak set, luxuriously packaged, became a best seller.

His conducting is elegant and gently lyrical, with long-limbed phrasing and understated rhetoric. As most Dvorak performances are, his are lacking a bit in what I always imagine to be Czech "personality," but then Dvorak was a devoted disciple of Brahms, and anyway there are very few performances, even by the great Czech conductors like Talich and Ancerl which I find to be recognizably idiomatic in a Czech way. The Staatskapelle, which bills itself as "Berlin's oldest orchestra" (it dates its founding in 1570!), is superb, with wonderful light and fluent woodwinds and silky strings.

The warm and powerful sound lacks the kind of detail we have come think of as audiophile, but is totally suited to Suitner's music making. Dirk Stöve's liner notes are brief but enthusiastic.

- Laurence Vittes

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