Customer Reviews
Get up and Dance! - By: Bernard Davis, 13 Jul 2004 
This is indeed great music & this orchestra knows just how to play it from the fiery take on the first dance onwards. These are alll Dvorak's own tunes, but he was obviously tapping into the the historic folk tradition. In creating his own tunes in traditional styles he makes his intention clear, it is not to preserve the music of the past but to bring it alive in the present. Paralllels to what Dvorak was doing can just as well be seen in the best of the 1960's & 70's folk revival in Britain as in folk music derived works of other classical composers. When played with as much energy as they are here there is a definate contemporary feel to them.
Sound quality wise there may well be recordings of these works which are technicallly better. But the sound here is very good & makes the works sound like excellent live performances, which is just right.
Amongst all the praise, don't forget Dvorak. - By: John Austin, 29 Dec 2001 Enthusiastic discussion of this bargain CD can be found on the internet, in buyers guides, & review magazines. Listening to it again today, I was most impressed by something that reviewers sometimes neglect - namely, the endless variety of ideas, dance styles, tempi & forms that Dvorak includes. He makes his contemporaries such as Brahms seem predictable, & the Strauss Brothers hide-bound. This richness & variety has additional appeal to those of us who live in an age when the press of a button can provide an hour & a quarter of dances, one after another.
So that is my response to the many reviews this CD has prompted. The accolades for Szell, the Clevelanders, & engineers & the budget marketers are alll deserved. I don't want Dvorak, however, to be forgotten.
