Dvořák: Symphonies Nos. 7 & 8 (Live)

Album review

Known primarily as a conductor who ascribes to period performance practices, Roger Norrington made his name in the Classical and early Romantic repertoire by interpreting works in light of the best historical scholarship. Over time his scope has widened to include late Romantic works, notably the symphonies of Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner, and Antonin Dvorák, and he has persisted in playing the music in authentic period style, observing what is known of orchestral seating plans, 19th century instrumentation, techniques, and tempos that were probably used in the composers' time. All of this historically informed musicianship yields performances that sound clean, meticulous, and faithful to the letter of the scores. But this 2011 Hänssler Classic release of Dvorák's Symphony No. 7 in D minor and the Symphony No. 8 in G major shows, as well as any other Norrington album can, that the essential problem of his approach lies in a lack of expression and a kind of intellectual distancing. It is difficult to feel the ebb and flow of emotion in these live performances, and the dynamics, crescendos, diminuendos, and accents seem for all their accuracy to be merely what's indicated on the page. For all his emphasis on precision and historicity, Norrington often fails to make the symphonies live and breathe, so the music lacks vitality, drama, pathos, lyricism, or beauty, and goes on its note-perfect way without creating a feeling of urgency or compelling listening. In the end, Norrington's performances of the Seventh and the Eighth seem unecessarily fussy, and Dvorák's glorious music is considerably diminished. However, these recordings are quite good for study purposes, because Norrington and Hänssler make sure that every note is audible.
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