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I have other recordings of this symphony, one of them a later DG issue with Karajan and the Berlin Phil, another a more recent (and very good) recording on Naxos with Marin Alsop and the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. But this Decca recording with the Vienna Philharmonic remains ... on fresh hearing ... my absolute favourite. I know it was controversial at the time. But controversy in music indicates huge interest. If people aren't interested there is no controversy. Karajan raises the roof with this Dvorak 8, at least in the final movement. But what is so awful about that? Other conductors don't raise the roof with this symphony. That doesn't mean that they are right an Karajan is wrong. Neither does it mean the reverse. What would Dvorak have made of it? We can never know. But, speaking personally, I think he'd have loved it!
Listen carefully to the final movement, where Dvorak has the whole orchestra rushing at break-neck speed towards the very end. There is a little sort of trumpet fanfare which is normally burried amidst the orchestral furore. Karajan applies a little brake just before this point and the trumpet flowers gloriously for a few seconds before more gas is then applied and the symphony charges to its climax. Was Karajan fiddling with the score? Well, aye, I think he must have been because no one else does it like that. Not even Karajan himself, in his later DG recording.

Een post van ChrisRock nu 267 dagen oud, dus niet voor iedereen.