Ivan Anguélov is a Bulgarian conductor who bills himself as a Dvorák “specialist”, and with good reason: These are superb performances. Indeed, as a cycle, this set belongs right up there with the very best (Rowicki, Kubelik), and may be the most consistently well-realized of them all. There are no outstanding weaknesses. Anguélov has the Slovak Radio forces sounding much better than they previously have in this music, and indeed his versions of Symphonies 1-4 probably are the best available. Lively tempos, transparent textures, special care with the wind parts, and good, sharp rhythms pay huge dividends. Highlights include a stunning first movement of the Second, perhaps the first performance to make total sense of it; Anguélov’s incomparable slow movement of the Third; and great scherzos everywhere.
In the big “final three”, there’s too much competition for me to say that these performances rank with the very best, but they are totally at one with the cycle as a whole. The first movement of the Seventh builds to a wonderfully tragic climax, and the scherzo is again outstanding. Only the finale strikes me as a touch stiff, though the ending is terrific. The Eighth falls squarely in the Czech tradition of Talich and Neumann (that is, with a steady tempo in the finale), and the “New World” seldom has been more powerfully shaped, with a gorgeous Largo and a finale that represents virtually the last word in cogency–and the big climax just before the coda is spectacular, with the timpani finally getting their due. So from an interpretive point of view, and taken has a whole, Dvorák fans will need to hear this.
Now for some housekeeping. Anguélov omits all exposition repeats, which doesn’t bother me, and makes quite a few cuts in the First Symphony’s first movement, which I find gratuitous and unnecessary, even though almost everyone does it. The Czech Suite (here called “Bohemian Suite”) also is excellently done. The sonics are very good, with plenty of impact and body, and they present the rustic timbres of the orchestra in a very flattering light. I would love to hear this conductor take on some of the overtures and tone poems–his identification with the idiom is absolute, and if you had to live with just this set of symphonies, you could do so with a great deal of satisfaction. A very pleasant, first-class surprise!
