Dvorak Talic

The Shaham siblings play Dvorak's Sonatina, wonderful music with great tones recorded with great clarity! The piano sound is remarkably clear and sharp sounding and no introduction needs to be said about the incredible violin tone displayed here. DG really did an amazing production on this recording. The violin is played with incredible warmth and awesome phrasing, every heartfelt note is carefully shaped by a master craftsman: Gil Shaham shows yet again his ability to speak with every note. The piano is played with a great sense of dynamics and effortless technique while never being obtrusive. Orli shows great maturity in how she handles and shapes the music with her great hands.

A typically rich programme, to celebrate the Zemlinsky Quartet twentieth anniversary, associating the two best-known of all Slavonic quartets and a trio, A homage to Mozart (K424) that the composer (also a violist) loved to play with friends. Irresistible!

The chamber music of Strauss and Dvořák represents for Maisky and his long-time musical partner Pavel Gililov the fruits to years of music-making. Strauss’s Cello Sonata, written by the composer at the tender age of 19, does not have the uniformity or a clear sense of character that Strauss later developed in his Violin Sonata five years later. Notwithstanding, Maisky and Gililov manage to turn the piece positively into a thrilling performance, intelligently interwoven with their commanding dialogues.

In the 1980's, conductor Neeme Jarvi recorded the nine Dvorak symphonies with the Scottish National Symphony for Chandos. Most of the recordings have received favorable reviews, and some critics believe the cycle established Jarvi the interpreter of Dvorak's music. While I do not own all the recordings in the series and for that reason cannot compare it to other Dvorak recordings by Jarvi, I can say it is an excellent recording and one of my favorites in my collection (consisting of nearly 800 recordings). It begins with the tone poem "The Noon Witch." It is a musical telling of a story similar to "Hansel and Gretel" and Dvorak cleverly uses different instruments and themes to tell the story.

A new Dvorák symphony and concerto cycle from the multi-Gramophone-Award-winning conductor and the great Prague-based orchestra. It marks a triumphant return to the orchestra where he trained, the world leading and multi-Gramophone Award-winning maestro Jirí Bìlohlávek records Decca’s first Dvorák cycle since the 1960s. This complete symphonies and concertos set is a pinnacle of brilliant music-making, and the first major cycle to be recorded in high-definition 24bit 96kHz and Mastered for iTunes sound.