Colin Davis conducted an excellent “New World” Symphony with the Concertgebouw Orchestra on Philips. It’s available coupled to a superb Seventh Symphony and a decent if not great Eighth, on a Philips Duo twofer. If you want Davis’ view of the work, then that’s the way to go. This new version has absolutely nothing significantly different or more interesting to offer, other than slightly less refined playing, droopier tempos in the outer movements, and noticeably boxier recorded sound. Although better than his recent LSO Eighth and certainly a good performance overall, it remains a poor value and a wholly pointless duplication of repertoire. Davis and the LSO should smarten up in this regard. After all, someone’s paying for these productions, so why waste the money?
