Dvorak: The Golden Spinning Wheel, Op. 109 (Zlatý kolovrat)

“Kertesz was a distinguished Dvorakian. His symphonic poems and overtures are wonderfully vivid even if the vintage sound is a little thin.” BBC Music Magazine, February 2013 ****

“Kertesz shows the underlying grave beauty of this marvellous set of variations” Gramophone Magazine (Symphonic Variations)

“a bright and delightful performance” Gramophone Magazine (In Nature’s Realm)

“splendidly played and recorded” Gramophone Magazine (The Water Goblin, The Noonday Witch, My Home, Hussite Overture)

“an outstanding version of the Scherzo capriccioso – considered the finest available in its day” Penguin Guide

“Flor's excellent account of Symphony No. 8 stresses its pastoral aspect. Sympathetic interpretations of The Golden Spinning Wheel and the rumbunctious Scherzo capriccioso.” BBC Music Magazine, November 2012 ****

“Flor is an imaginative narrator for The Golden Spinning Wheel, focusing its various episodes with a keen understanding of the full picture and making play with the score's very Czech rhythmic elements...there's spirit and colour to spare and the SACD sound throughout the programme is excellent, with particular acknowledgement of the low brass.” Gramophone Magazine, November 2012

“Mackerras's textures are tender, while the orchestral sound has an inimitable gleam.” The Independent on Sunday, 14th March 2010

“Mackerras is a past master of this music, and in the Czech Philharmonic he has musicians whose experience of Dvorak is second to none. His way with the music is...lyrical and transparent...Mackerras underplays the more lurid and grotesque aspects of the tales...A sumptuous disc.” Sunday Times, 21st March 2010 ****

“Half-Czech by nature and experience, Mackerras brings vital qualities to these Czech Philharmonic performances...Here is surging energy, authentic Czech colouring and a strong dramatic sense.” The Times, 24th April 2010 ***

“Sir Charles...marks the Mendelssohnian drift of the big string theme in The Golden Spinning Wheel, a performance full of warmth and vitality, very realistically recorded and surely the highlight of the disc...dance rhythms are underlined but never overstated” Gramophone Magazine, July 2010

“Mackerras gives marvellously atmospheric performances, and there is plenty of contrasting melodrama...The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is on top form throughout, and there is plenty of warm, tender playing, especially from the strings.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition

“Harnoncourt attends to the subtler aspects of Dvorak's scoring, and his love for the music's unique sound world is abundantly clear...[he] relishes the music's mix of rustic dance forms and colouristic innovation.” Gramophone Magazine, July 2010

“Harnoncourt gives us a compelling account of 'The Water Goblin' savouring to the full both its lyric and its scary elements” International Record Review

“Rattle's readings of Dvorak's tone poems set a new standard” BBC Music Magazine, 1st August 2005

“Yakov Kreizberg's… tempo is graceful, the music's jagged edges are softened, and supple phrasing minimises the breathlessness.” Gramophone Magazine, Awards Issue 2009

“As a whole, this performance is close to ideal.” (BBC Music Magazine)

“Straight to the top of the list for this one! Even on its best showings – Richter and Carlos Kleiber, Firkušný under Somogyi – Dvorák's Piano Concerto has never quite managed to cast off its Cinderella rags. With this recording, the ball beckons, and there's no time limit. Granted, Brahms is still securely in the background and the concerto is hardly as pianistic as the best of its concerto-peers but the beauty of this performance is its utter naturalness, Pierre-Laurent Aimard easing around the solo part as if he's been playing it all his life, and Nikolaus Harnoncourt's sympathy for the work is obvious from the start. Together they make the most of the score's drama, giving the lie to Dvorák's supposedly ineffective piano writing. Albrecht Gaud's excellent booklet note credits the longprevalent revision by Vilém Kurz as giving the part 'not only a more effective form' but also the virtue of extra clarity. Yet it appears that the original is used here and redeemed. Richter's clarity and Firkušný's knowing accent remain attractive, but Aimard's combination of intelligence and informality win the day. A magnificent CD.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Sir Charles Mackerras's vibrant interpretation easily holds its own in the most venerable company.
Not only are the Czech Philharmonic, recorded live in October 2002, at their articulate and spirited best, but Mackerras directs the outer movements with a pliancy and keen sense of long-term proportion reminiscent of his mentor Talich, as well as Rowicki's magnificent (and sadly deleted) 1965 LSO account. He also extracts every ounce of songful poetry from the sublime slow movement, while the Furiant cross-rhythms of the scherzo skip to the manner born. The performance as a whole has a spinetingling thrust, meriting a place alongside any of its distinguished rivals.
The Golden Spinning-Wheel is a studio recording from June 2001. A splendidly opulent and atmospheric reading, observant and affectionate, if without quite the narrative flair and expressive scope of Harnoncourt's riveting Concertgebouw account.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“The celebrations for the centenary of Dvorak's death are certainly good news for the early symphonies, which have always been regarded as the poor relations of the final three. That is unfair at least as far as the Sixth is concerned, for Charles Mackerras' performance, with the orchestra that must know this music better than any, is a reminder of how consistently tuneful and exuberant a piece it is. The real treat here is the account of the symphonic poem, The Golden Spinning Wheel, for which the orchestral playing seems to move on to another level altogether, and which Mackerras marks out in bold, crisply dramatic paragraphs.” The Guardian, 6th August 2004 ****