5 Favorite Dvorak Recordings

[Spineur]

Samples sound great! Thanks for posting.

Dvorak composed his requiem eary in his carrier after two of his children passed away at a few month interval.  It is very meaningful, compared to some of its other very nice compositions just posted: serenade, slavonic dances, tone-poems...
Actually, this thread should be renamed as Dvorak-must-have-at-any-cost....

[Xenophanes]

Symphony No. 9, Bruno Walter, Columbia SO. There are several iterations, including a sonically refurbished one on Sony. But the old one is fine.

String Quartets 10 and 14, Vlach Qt. on Naxos.

Cello Concerto, Dorati, Starker, on Mercury.

Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 and 72, Dorati, Minneapolis SO, which I have on LP.

String Quartets 12 and 13, Vlach Qt. on Naxos

I have nothing against other recordings, but thought I would provide some different recommendations.

[Herman]

I love Dvorak's chamber music. I find I have a really hard time listening to his more public works, in the sense that I wander off after a while.

The lovely op 97 string quintet (the viola gets to introduce the material every time): the Leipzig Quartet with Hartmut Rohde, coupled with the op. 81 with Christian Zacharias.

The op. 106 string quartet by the Prazak Quartet

The amazingly hard to play op. 105 string quartet by the Panocha Quartet.

Piano Trios by the Suk trio.

The op. 81 either by Richter and Borodin or Firkusny and the Ridge String Qt

[springrite]

The Sinopoli recording of the Stabat Mater. A bit too operatic for most tastes, I must admit. But very effective for me.

[PerfectWagnerite]

Dvorak composed his requiem eary in his carrier after two of his children passed away at a few month interval.  It is very meaningful, compared to some of its other very nice compositions just posted: serenade, slavonic dances, tone-poems...
Actually, this thread should be renamed as Dvorak-must-have-at-any-cost....

This is ANTONIN Dvorak we are talking about right? I am not normally a stickler for facts but what is your definition of "eary in his carrier(sic)"? The Requiem was Op. 89, composed in 1890 when Dvorak was 49 years old and had a vast international reputation already. It came AFTER such mature works like the 7th and 8th Symphonies and the Stabat Mater.

Also I am not sure what you mean by two of his children passing away at a few months interval. Dvorak married Anna in 1873 and their first 3 children sadly all died young, the last on September of 1877.  They went on to have 6 more children all lived to adulthood (in the case of Aloisie to the ripe old age of 79). So if Dvorak wrote his Requiem in rememberance of his first three children he sure waited a long time - 13 yrs. The work was the result of a commission(as a lot of works are) from the Directors of the Birmingham Festival in 1889. Whereas the death of his three children might have weighted on Dvorak's mind, this rather romantic notion is highly speculative and unsubstantiated.

[Artem]

If I'm not mistaken, the death of Dvorak's daughters is usually mentioned in relation to Stabat Mater.

[Brian]

If I'm not mistaken, the death of Dvorak's daughters is usually mentioned in relation to Stabat Mater.

And I think Stabat Mater is an earlier work, more under the influence of Brahms?

[North Star]

From Wikipedia:

Stabat Mater (Op. 58, originally Op. 28,[1] B. 71) was sketched in 1876 and completed in 1877.

The composing of the cantata was Dvořák's reaction to the death of his daughter, Josefa. The sketch was written between 19 February and 7 May 1876, and was dedicated to František Hušpauer "as a souvenir to the friend of his young days."[2] However, Dvořák was forced to postpone the orchestration of the work due to his other obligations. He returned to the final stylisation of the composition in 1877, when his two surviving children died within a short time of each other. The definitive version of the score was written between the beginning of October and 13 November 1877 in Prague.

[Spineur]

And I think Stabat Mater is an earlier work, more under the influence of Brahms?

Sorry, my mistake.  I mixed them up.

[Old Listener]

Cello Concerto - Fournier/ Szell/ Berlin PO

Slavonic Dances - Szell / Cleveland Orchestra (Sony)

The first two stand above alternatives.  The next three are ones among many alternatives that are close in appeal.

Symphony No. 9 - Kertesz / VPO (or Szell/Cleveland Orchestra for 7,8,9)

Symphony No. 8 - Kertesz / LSO

String Serenade and Wind Serenade - Orpheus CO (or Marriner/ASMF or others for the serenades individually)

And if I had a sixth choice

String Quartet No. 12 in F major "American"