This is Nikolaus Harnoncourt's best Dvo?ák so far, and one of the great recordings of the "New World" Symphony. Comparing it to the recent Abbado/Berlin recording on Deutsche Grammophon is instructive. Where Abbado is leaden, boring, and totally lacking in imagination and vitality, Harnoncourt offers bright colors, sprung rhythms, and an orchestra that plays with total commitment, on the edge of its collective seat. Listen to the thrust Harnoncourt gives the opening of the finale, to the gorgeous woodwind playing in a largo that is really slow yet never motionless or slack, or to the toe-tapping lilt he injects into the Scherzo's dance rhythms! Harnoncourt's care for detail uncovers fresh sounds everywhere, from the incredibly clear string figurations in large stretches of the first movement, to the single swish of cymbals in the finale and the gorgeous fade-away of the final chord.
The performance of The Water Goblin is no less gripping. Again, Harnoncourt takes great care with the percussion parts--the best in this department since Kubelik--clearly relishing the music's narrative aspects. When the Water Goblin thumps (via the bass drum) on the door of his (unwilling) wife's house, demanding her return, you can feel the room shake. He infuses the lyrical themes representing the girl and her mother with great passion and nostalgia, while the Goblin's tunes radiate malice and spite thanks to some magnificent wind playing. Harnoncourt and the orchestra sound as though they're having the time of their lives, like great narrators relishing a good ghost story over a campfire at night. Glorious sonics too, deep and rich. If you love Dvorák, you've just got to hear this.
