Carlo Maria Giulini reviews
Dvořák: Cello Concerto; Schumann: Cello Concerto; Villa-Lobos: Bachianas Brasileiras No. 5 – Aria
Jacqueline du Pré, Mstislav Rostropovich, Galina Vishnevskaya; BBC Symphony Orchestra/Jean Martinon; London Symphony Orchestra; Philharmonia Orchestra/Carlo Maria Giulini (ICA Classics)
Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 in D minor; Symphony No. 9 in E minor (From the New World)
Sombre and urgent matters underlie Dvorák’s Seventh Symphony. Its opening theme occurred to the composer while watching the arrival of a train in Prague, but it is much more than the idle fancy of an enthusiastic train spotter: the train contained anti-Habsburg patriots. Unfortunately, Giulini homes in on the sombre rather than the urgent aspects of the work. Tempi are slow and he has a tendency to dwell unduly on small details; as he stoops to pick each wayside flower, the pace flags, with fatal results.