CD10/2010
Prague Symphony Orchestra
Zdeněk Košler
The Albert Hall, Nottingham
Recording: 13th February 1967
MusicWeb International
“[Košler’s] Tod und Verklärung gains in amplitude and expressive depth, Košler reserving the longest of lines for the work’s moving culminatory pages. Earlier he is plangent and the wind playing is notably communicative.”
“This [Dvořák] is a considered but highly personal view of the symphony.”
“The recording has been well realised […] well balanced and well caught by the microphone.”
—Jonathan Woolf, MusicWeb International, November 2011
“Dvořák’s 8th is simply magnificent, the more so given how often these players must have performed it. There is no hint of routine anywhere. The rhythms have a lift and an incisive quality born of native instinct and the impact is helped by the distinctive colouration of the wind and brass.”
—Dave Billinge, MusicWeb International, June 2018
International Record Review
“… transparent textures, rhythms that are always animated as well as clear, an effortless handling of tempo changes and an acute sense of the bucolic character of the music [Dvořák]. Košler’s handling of the contrasting moods and speeds of the first movement is very effective, and the rest of the performance is on a similar level of excellence – the finale is particularly vibrant. The purposeful and direct account of the Strauss is an admirable coupling.”
—Nigel Simeone, International Record Review, June 2012
| Track listing | Time | |
|---|---|---|
| Antonín Dvořák: Symphony no 8 in G major, op 88 | 38' 50" | |
| 1 | I Allegro con brio | 9' 47" |
| 2 | II Adagio* | 12' 42" |
| 3 | III Allegretto grazioso – molto vivace | 5' 51" |
| 4 | IV Allegro ma non troppo† | 10' 30" |
| 5 | Richard Strauss: Tod und Verklärung, op 24 | 24' 29" |
| Total time: | 63' 19" | |
*Sample extract (control with the Sound Sample tab at the top of the page)
†This track may be heard on the Sampler CD