Dvorak: Symphony No. 6 in D major, Op. 60

“…the performance of the Water Goblin is rewarding. Clearly, Kreizberg has a way with Dvorák, but he seems to have lost it in the Sixth.” BBC Music Magazine, August 2008 ****

“Kreizberg here demonstrates what a fine orchestra the Netherlands Philharmonic is, even rivalling the Royal Concertgebouw in the refinement and precision of the playing……Kreizberg’s approach is generaly to adopt a steady speed and to allow warmly expressive phrasing within that tempo. Another outstanding disc from the enterprising PentaTone company.” Edward Greenfield, Gramophone Magazine, October 2008

“Kreizberg here demonstrates what a fine orchestra the Netherlands Philharmonic is, even rivalling the Royal Concertgebouw in the refinement and precision of the playing. Symphony No 6 in D major in many ways reflects Dvorák's admiration for Brahm's Second Symphony... Yet Kreizberg's reading consistently brings out the fact that not a bar could have been written by any other composer but Dvorák.” Gramophone Magazine, October 2008

“This clearly recorded performance is one to return to even if it does not displace either Kertész or Harnoncourt's classic interpretations.” BBC Music Magazine, May 2008 ***

The celebrations for the centenary of Dvorak's death are certainly good news for the early symphonies, which have always been regarded as the poor relations of the final three. That is unfair at least as far as the Sixth is concerned, for Charles Mackerras' performance, with the orchestra that must know this music better than any, is a reminder of how consistently tuneful and exuberant a piece it is. The real treat here is the account of the symphonic poem, The Golden Spinning Wheel, for which the orchestral playing seems to move on to another level altogether, and which Mackerras marks out in bold, crisply dramatic paragraphs. 4 stars Andrew Clements, Friday August 6, 2004. The Guardian