Posted by Richard on October 29, 2001 at 19:11:39:
In Reply to: Re: Re: New World Symphony posted by oy on October 29, 2001 at 15:26:03:
I've been a captive audience - on the stage - to New World Sym many times too many. In order to achieve some professional and musical gratification, by playing along elsewhere, I've found that there a very few spots where this can be done without changing the color of Dvorak's orchestration, or disrupting the voicing of chords. IMHO those spots are the ends of the the first and last movements, unison in the first case, and mostly octaves in the latter. Otherwise, Dvorak was too good an orchestrator to be messed with. He was not generous to us. He makes us sit through some of the best music in the 8th, only to have us drone through the heavy tuttis. And he leaves us entirely out of the 7th, which is arguably his best symphony. The 6th has a nice part, and it's a fine piece which is neglected by lazy vainglorious conductors.