The Golden Spinning Wheel receives a vivid, atmospheric performance, perhaps a touch on the slow side but full of characterful detail (even the thrice-repeated “body parts” episode works well here). Unfortunately the symphony isn’t nearly so good. Yakov Kreizberg’s handling of rhythm is too casual: the first movement lacks snap, while the scherzo is both too quick and charmless. By contrast, the finale never gets off the ground. It’s the trickiest movement in the symphony, and it can take a bit of indulgence to offset its rhythmic squareness. Kreizberg’s random manipulation of tempo in the coda, however, isn’t the sort of help it needs, and in any event it’s too little, too late. This is by no means a terrible version of the work, and Kreizberg’s other Dvorák recordings on this label have been respectable. More than a few fine exponents of this composer (notably Kubelik) have foundered on the rock of this tricky symphony, but that doesn’t alter the facts. The sonics are very good in the tone poem in all formats; in the symphony, like the performance itself, things turn a bit murky.
