This is Ferenc Fricsay at his brilliant best conducting music from the Slav masters with unlimited passion and magnificence.
The 'New World' comes alive with an unbridled charisma and drive that place it amongst top New World's from Kertész, Kondrashin and Szell. The 'Largo' is indeed very beautiful yet at times it propels forward with an unerring momentum. The Finale is also very exciting indeed with supremely confident playing from the Berliners. 'Vltava' is also very characterful with the glorious orchestral music coming to life in an unerringly fresh manner.
And finally 'Les Préludes', a gem of orchestral magic that is drawn out to almost seventeen minutes, a cataclysmic piece that shows what excitement Fricsay could generate with his own orchestra. This reissue is another superb confirmation of the gifts with which Ferenc Fricsay was endowed as an interpreter and which were robbed from us all too early in his life.
Copyright © 2002, Gerald Fenech