One of the most-loved symphonies of all is Dvorak's Ninth, the 'New World'.
There are myriad recorded versions. This one, just released, is special on several counts: it's a historic recording, made in Vienna's Musikverein in 1958, and you'll be surprised how golden the sound is from the legendary Golden Room, more than 50 years after the recording was made. Karel Ancerl, conducting the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, directs a beautiful, rounded and wonderfully paced version of the symphony, coupled with a marvellously flowing account of Smetana's Vltava. But the absolute context is Ancerl, a supreme conductor whose humanity beams through this great performance of the symphony, warming its every contour. How he could transcend his experience and produce music-making brimming with such life is beyond description. Ancerl, Czech-born, was Jewish. In 1944, the last "artists' transport" train, packed with Jewish cultural intelligentsia, set off from Theresianstadt to Auschwitz. From that hell on earth Karel Ancerl, incredibly, emerged alive. None of his family did.
Michael Tumelty
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