It’s an attractive idea: The New York Philharmonic plays a concert on March 31, 2006 and has it for sale on May 23 by digital download through iTunes. But aside from the striking New York skyline photo in the cover art, there’s little that is attractive about the actual product. Even at $9.99 for the album (or $6.96 for the Dvorák Seventh Symphony by itself) this is no bargain. Let’s start with the sound. Quiet combinations of woodwinds and low strings do sound very nice, but anything more complex comes up clotted. The orchestra’s upper strings are recorded with a pinched, glaring quality. Individual playing of the accomplished principal soloists aside, the orchestra as heard here lacks the richness and unanimity of a world-class group.
The best that can be said for any of the three performances is that the Brahms “Haydn” Variations is respectable, but the concert goes downhill from there. Lorin Maazel allows the Galánta Dances to fall apart into separate segments that lack a connecting thread or sense of direction. And in the symphony, where is the lilt, or the rhythmic incisiveness that is Dvorák’s trademark, never mind any sense of a developing emotional drama–the very quality that makes this symphony one of the great ones of the Romantic literature? The result is a kind of generalized grimness. Compare this to Vaclav Neumann’s superb (1984) Supraphon CD. A detailed list is not needed; one comparison suffices. This simply isn’t competitive on any level.
