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5.0 out of 5 stars
Super in Every Way, Sep 2 2003
By A Customer
Lots of Naxos discs are bargains. Then again, even at the price, lots are not. But the current CD represents an outstanding value. Everything-music, performances, and recording-are of the highest order. First, the music. Has anyway created more gorgeously Schubertian melodies (except, of course, for Schubert himself) than Antonin Dvorak? And is there any more glorious an example of latter-day Schubertian melodiousness than Dvorak's Opus 44 Serenade? While the first and last movements feature a stern little march in D minor, the Serenade is mostly a sunny work, except for the middle section of the charming Andante, where clouds gather much as they do in parts of the essentially sunny Octet of Schubert. Is this one of Dvorak's models? A fine model if so, and I think Dvorak surpasses it to create one of his best works. Then there is Janacek's quirky Mladi, a tribute to the composer's music-inspired youth, written when the master was seventy-a piquant and memorable piece. Enescu's Dixtuor is maybe a little less memorable than either of these works, written in what the writer of liner notes for the CD calls an "international style," which translates to something like the wind music of Richard Strauss without the pomp and circumstance-fine with me, by the way. In the slow middle movement, Enescu seems to use Romanian folk elements, and the sounds are both attractive and very interesting, by far the most arresting music in the piece. (I fail to find any influence of Bach, which the note writer swears to hearing in the Dixtuor.) The players from the distinguished Oslo Philharmonic bring great style to these three works. Mladi, not easy to bring off, has never seemed more cogent to me, and the Enescu undoubtedly sounds like a finer piece than it really is in the Norwegian musicians' capable hands. But the performance of the best work on the disc, the Dvorak, is the capper. I can't imagine a more mellifluous or tender one. Even the recording, made in a couple of churches in Oslo, is outstanding, melding atmospherics and punch in just the right measure. Top-notch!
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