Terrific orchestra. I'm a tired bitter twisted professional bass player of 40 years standing in England, about to retire, and I love these tone poems from Dvorak. I only recently discovered them when tutoring at a music college where they were programmed for the college orchestra. Beautiful classy playing by Frankfurt.
Another extraordinary happening by this orchestra and Orozco-Estrada! The men exudes explosive energy, laughs, danses with the music, draw it in the air with his baton and is able to transform any boring piece of music (which is not the case, mind you) into something you "have" to hear. He is the very Mittagshexe in here! The orchestra musicians must adore beeing lead by a conductor like Estrada and that's why they are so unbevlievably perfect. No one enters a microsecond too early or too late, no one "drowns" the other instruments with his own, the timing and the dynamics are just perfection. I used to buy season tickets for an orchestra which I will not mention (gave up, now) and when the conductor was good or "decent" the results were OK but if the conductor was 2nd or 3rd rate all I wanted was that the concert to finish so I could head home to "wash" my ears with a good recording of what I just heard beeing murdered.
I whole heartedly agree. He has taken my home town orchestra (Houston) from technical excellence but lifeless performance under Hans Graf to captivating brilliance. Surely one of the greatest of the younger conductors.
I love how, at 7:44, Orozco-Estrada conducts the drums to be more forcefull. After they followed, the piece immediately got more tension and he is very happy about it at 7:52. It just shows the correlation between orchestra and conductor. Ich liebe es, wie Orozco-Estrada bei 7:44 die Pauken anregt, kraftvoller zu spielen. Nachdem sie dem Aufruf gefolgt sind, ist gleich viel mehr Spannung in der Musik. Andrés ist bei 7:52 sichtlich zufrieden mit den lauteren Pauken. Das zeigt schön wie Orchester und Dirigent im Zusammenspiel agieren.
If you like the drums listen to Mackerras/Czech P.O. much more forceful. Both performances are great anyway but I would probably give a slight edge to Mackerras.
This may not be Dvorak's best work, but I've never enjoyed it as much as in this performance! Orozco-Estrada has the flair for this music; it really comes to life.
Actually this is one of the finest tone poems of the romantic period. There´s so much more to Dvorak than the over performed 9th symphony, it´s a mystery to me why this work and The Water Goblin are not played more often but at least the great 7th symphony gets a lot of performances and rightly so.
Such a nice piece! I always imagine that string flourish at the very end to represent the Noon Witch with the child in her arms, laughing, disappearing with a spiraling flourish ...
00:34 Allegretto (Binary) A mother warns her son that if he does not behave she will summon the Noon Witch to take him away. 06:28 Andante sostenuto e molto tranquillo (Binary) the witch arrives at the stroke of noon. The witch, described as a horrible creature, demands the child. 10:20 Allegro The mother, terrified that the witch has actually come, grabs her son, and the witch begins chasing them. Finally the mother faints, grasping her child. 12 sounds of the Bells, the witch disappeared. (12:07) 12:32 Andante-Maestroso Later that day, the father arrives home, and finds his wife passed out with the dead body of their son in her arms. The mother had accidentally smothered their son while protecting him from the witch.
Dvorak wrote three of these, based on actual poems. The Noon Witch, the Water Goblin and the Golden Spinning Wheel. All are great pieces, very enjoyable!
Rhythmische Aufführung dieses verborgenen Schatzes, der die helle und etwas komische Seite des Komponisten darstellt. Dieses Werk soll viel häufiger aufgeführt und gehört werden.
Eine Mutter die ihrem Kind , was keinen Mittagsschlaf halten will, die Geschichte der mittagshexe erzählt . Die Mittagshexe kommt und bringt die Kinder die keinen Mittagsschlaf halten wollen um. Verkleidet als Hexe kommt die Mutter und Tötet ihr eigenes Kind! Traurig!
