(1956)Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" Eugene Ormandy; Philadelphia Orchestra

[@KMac329]

Ormandy. The Philadelphia Orchestra. Dvorak's 9th. Pure Heaven. So moving and evocative. It should remind everyone what America is all about, in its liberty, glory, and pathos.

[@jonathanehrlich4185]

I agree with that Kevin. And I'm also a very big Ormandy fan as well

[@cvb6957]

I also see it this way, this is, in my opinion, the absolutely best, most impressive, moving and enthralling interpretation of the symphony “From The New World” of Dvorak. Eugene Ormandy performs here with his home orchestra (The Philadelphia Orchestra) and created a gripping, masterly interpretation. This recording goes under the skin and in some moments I always get goose bumps. I know and love this recording since 1981, when I happened to find it in the disk collection of my parents. The record is also from 1956 or 1957, has only a different cover as pictured here. In one point I must contradict Mr. Briggs. In 1956 Columbia Records with certainty used more than a single microphone. This recording was made in "360 Hemispheric Sound", which at this time was the highest quality - state of the art - mono recordings at Columbia Records. It is a mono-recording method, yet with incredible clarity and frequency range. This recording process was the last and most developed in Mono at Columbia, before the subsequent stereo was introduced. I have long been an absolute fan of this "360 Hemispheric Sound" recording technique and can only recommend to every music lover to search for records from Columbia from the mid-50s using this recording method.

[@Ageless-yh7gv]

I own this album since childhood. My late father bought it when it first came out. I have it with the picture shown on this KZbin site. I have since heard untold recordings of the "New World" (hasn't everyone?), some of them excellent. But none has what only can be called "the magic" of this version. It was like conductor, orchestra, and engineers were visited by some otherworldly being to guide them in playing this piece to absolute perfection. The playing is impeccable --- from tempo to dynamics to emotion generated. If I were to dream the perfect performance of this symphony, I'd have come up with this recording. It is unmatched --- and probably unmatchable!

[@JohnDahlquist-nv8vc]

One of my all time favorite symphonies and a marvelous rendition by Eugene Ormandy and his Philadelphia Orchestra

[@juergensteiniger5118]

Danke für diese großartige Interpretation, einzigartiges Orchester. Habe ich so noch nie gehört.

[@robertthomas8300]

I first heard this magnificent LP being played from the music room across the hall of my AXP frat house at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ, while playing poker in the dining room; I had to sit out a hand to go check it out, so later it would be my first classical music & prerecorded audio cassette to play in my newly-installed Mercury cassette deck in my ‘61 Chevy Impala sedan. It was the perfect soundtrack to my ride home through flooded roads detours!

[@Grpw-uz6wi]

This my first vinyl and this album make me love classical music❤ the sound is so pure you can feel the power flowing from this vinyl

[@robertthomas8300]

My experience to a “T!” My first purchase of the new technology of a prerecorded cassette in the late sixties, that I listened to on the drive home from work in NE Philly, after crossing the Delaware River after a Tacony-Palmyra bridge opening during a thunderstorm; I listened to it on my newly installed cassette tape deck as the perfect music accompaniment to my perilous ride of a few detours due to flooded roads; it actually made my longer drive enjoyable! I imagined myself on a storm-ravaged ship as I navigated several new roads, and finally arriving home was anticlimactic!

[@nat.3k4o]

6:16 ❤

[@tonymason1959]

Fred Hinger!!!! The master

[@mike-us4bl]

very nice!

[@the_frumious_bandersnatch4367]

Who better could there be to conduct this majestic symphony than a Slavic emigré who became and remained an American citizen for the rest of his productive, highly accomplished life? (Though Kubelík conducting it as part of the 1990 Prague Spring Festival, on the heels of the Velvet Revolution and as a symphonic rebuke to the Soviets, rivals Ormandy's in historical and cultural significance.) Europe had von Karajan, Solti, and Toscanini, among others, whose praises I'm happy to sing all day - although you'd rather not hear me sing. B^) America gave them competition with Bernstein, Ormandy, and that most American of composers and occasional conductors, Aaron Copland.

[@a.noniem2168]

You imbecile! Hungarians are NOT slavic!!

[@nicholasfox966]

Your point is well taken, but I must observe that Hungarians are not at all Slavic.

[@Ageless-yh7gv]

@@nicholasfox966 And Slavics are not Hungarian. But hear what Kubelik does with Bartok's "Concerto for Orchestra" with the Boston Symphony (still available on CD, I think DGG). Best recording of the work I've ever heard, bar none.

[@peters.5600]

Good enough? Nah, near perfection ....

[@singingquails4520]

Was this released on a CD? I have the LSO version, but this is better and there's an important reason that I need this in CD format. A family member on hospice wants to listen to this as she passes. No turntable -- has to be CD.

[@Ageless-yh7gv]

I believe Presto transferred it to CD at one time. But the sonics, believe it or not, are better on the mono LP. Columbia really had its act together in LP engineering in 1956. Ormandy and the Philadelphia on Columbia is the best recording I've ever heard --- and I've heard many, many.

[@charlesmatthewbriggs6045]

I'm not always a fan of Ormandy's. Like a few critics, I thought he had a tendency to hide details he did not understand behind the strings and turn in plush, routine run throughs instead of actual, heartfelt performances. It just shows you how wrong you can be. He was actually very, very good in many different things. Some of what he recorded was routine and some of it certainly was not. This particular recording seems to me to be one of his best, a great, heartfelt, perfectly paced reading (with the exception of the third movement, which sounds a little deliberate.) Ormandy is unafraid of the drama, the storm, stress and even underlying optimism of the first movement. The second movement is perfect, not just well played but beautifully expressive. The finale is about as exciting as it can be, with Ormandy pushing his Orchestra into a whirlwind of a climax. The recording is rough and, I believe, genuine mono. One microphone hanging over the orchestra. That's all you get, folks. I also admire Kubelik in this work (there's a find KZbin video of Kubelik and the Bavarian Radio available) - and Vladimir Golschman with an unusually competent and expressive Vienna State Opera Orchestra, but this version by Ormandy is now among my favorites. He remade this in stereo with the London Symphony a few years later to critical acclaim, but I haven't heard it in awhile and don't know how it compares to this one. Recommended.

[@josephlewis6181]

Chuck Explain? As compared to what?

[@yehbuddy4251]

I always say Ormandy would’ve been truly great if he had conducted a _string orchestra_ as I’ve always found the woodwinds and brass in his recordings underwhelming. I’ve never heard strings overpower brass like that! I like the Cleveland Orchestra during this time period

[@Ageless-yh7gv]

The one with Ormandy made with the LSO can't compare with this one! This is the best I've ever heard in 65 years of listening to untold versions of the New World. None compares interpretively --- and the sonics are more than adequate.

[@josephlewis6181]

Ahh.......