[SACD-R][OF] George Szell, Cleveland Orchestra - Dvorak – Symphony No. 7; Smetana – Moldau, The Bartered Bride - 1958-1963/2000 (Orchestral)

SA-CD.net Review(s):
By PureAudio:
With this disc you can hear why Szell was a master. His devotion and commitment created a masterpiece. I got this disc primarily because of Smetana´s Moldau. For my personal taste I don´t like every track on the disc but the remaining 35min of music are sheer pleasure.
It´s really sad to hear that the original tape from the early 60s deteriorated this far. Yes there is a hiss and the orchestra is not that clear. This resulted in a stereo SACD with below average sonics. Nonetheless I still recommend it.
PRO: Great performance
CON: Original material limited the sonics
By Ed T:
I love this disc. Best performances I’ve ever heard of the Dvorak 7th, Carnival Overture, The Moldau and Dances from the Bartered Bride. Ok, supposedly Talich and the CPO were better in an ancient recording not likely to appear on SACD.
Again, we have Szell, master of this idiom with one of the world’s greatest orchestras in its prime. Caveats? Well, yes. The Seventh is from a 1960 recording and isn’t up to the sound on the Carnival or Moldau. So does anyone care? Well, I do for the rating. Obviously 5 for the performances. The sound on the 7th and Bartered Bride Overture are a bit lacking. As bad as a 3?
If your interest is sonics buy this for Carvival, The Moldau and Bartered Bride Dances. Wonderful music, wonderfully played in excellent sound. As a bonus, you’ll get the best modern Dvorak 7th.
Amazon Customers Reviews:
By A Customer:
Without doubt one of the greatest recordings of the Dvorak Seventh, perhaps the best, sounds as if newly minted on this lustrous DSD transfer on a Sony Classical SACD. Szell achieves from his Cleveland players a precision of articulation, clarity, and transparency of orchestral textures that is unmatched. Add to that the very tangy Czech-sounding playing he gets from his winds and the white hot intensity of the performance and you have a must-have for Dvorak and Szell fans alike. As a big bonus you get classic performances of other Czech staples adding up to a very generous disc of over 75 minutes (rare from Sony in these reissues). To sample this disc, listen to the “Bartered Bride” overture, perhaps the most thrillingly precise and exciting rendition I have heard. The incredible realism of the DSD transfer means that you can hear all of the orchestral textures with breathtaking clarity (including some amazing bite from the double basses and sharp, incisive tympani) and can clearly hear Szell audibly urging on his forces! Recommended in the strongest possible terms.
By Jeffrey Lee:
From my earliest memories of listening to this work, I have always thought of it as a nature painting, similar to the marvelous Brahms Third Symphony, and richly suffused with light and shadow, storminess and calmness and an appealing range of tonal colors from glowing to subdued. I view it also as a nice, somewhat contrasting companion piece to Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony, my favorite among all symphonies. When it comes to these grand opuses, quite a few over the years have been drawn to the performances of George Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra, although he also recorded a first rate mono version of the Eighth with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. But perhaps his reading of the Seventh more exclusively has had the field to itself. Even had he re-recorded this late 1950s account, I doubt he would have duplicated or surpassed it. Some time ago, in a review I gave of Vaclav Talich’s 1938 Dvorak Seventh, I commented that no one, not even Szell, had given as fulfilling a performance as Talich. While I still consider Talich’s reading to be special, this Sony SACD re-do reveals Szell’s rendition to be even finer than I had previously realized. As superb as it is, I would probably be inclined to return to it for repeated listening. I have always considered this performance most impressive in terms of its authority and dynamics, but I find here another ingredient that others have either rarely or not associated with George Szell—sensitivity. Listen to the splendid detail he elicits from his great orchestra in the melodious second movement. This is clearly one of the gems of the Szell/Cleveland legacy. I place it on par with their Tchaikovsky Fifth, Brahms Third and late 1950s Schubert Ninth, originally on Epic lp, now on Sony Essential Classics with the “Unfinished”.

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