Does Andrés Orozco-Estrada really like Dvorak? I’m not so sure. What else explains a performance so lacking in character, played with such a limited range of dynamics, tone and texture? It’s irritating to hear interpretations of this music that treat is as a sort of “Brahms lite,” rather than as the vividly original body of work that it surely is. Orozco-Estrada’s tempos are unusually swift, and there’s nothing wrong with that. So were Rowicki’s. But the Houston Symphony sounds like a string orchestra with other stuff way out back somewhere. Dvorak’s colorful scoring barely registers.
Consider the main theme of the first movement; the counter statement features fortissimo strings answered by forte brass. Is this what we hear, or is it just a generalized mezzo-something-or-other? The quick tempos encourage Orozco-Estrada to clip phrase endings and short-change note values, sometimes to the point (as in the scherzo) where the melody isn’t even articulated cleanly. It’s a bore; granted, a quick bore, but a bore nonetheless. The coupling, two randomly chosen Slavonic Dances, is as unimaginative as the interpretation. Even the sonics sound comparatively dull. Pass on this one.
