Zubin Mehta’s Dvorak Seventh features some outstanding playing from the Israel Philharmonic, especially the horns, and is recorded with remarkable richness and depth. His interpretation is effectively passionate in the first movement, though he should have made more of Dvorák’s indication to press forward at the climax toward the end. Just about everyone does the slow movement well, and the Scherzo is razor sharp. I was enjoying the finale as well, at least until the coda, when Mehta doubles the violins with a shrieking first trumpet, not just at the beginning of the final chorale as many other conductors do, but all the way until the end. A little discrete support is fine, but this tactic offers nothing more than parade-ground vulgarity at its most garish. A pity. The performances of The Wood Dove and the Carnival Overture, on the other hand, are just fine. Overall, this is a recommendable disc, but it would have been much more so had Mehta kept his trumpet to himself.
