Search - Great Conductors in Rehearsal & Performance: Karel Ancerl & Hermann Scherchen on DVD

Old Music From the New World

BLee | HK | 11/03/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Fricsay once rehearsed the same piece with a German orchestra and it was well edited, full of inspiration and insights. Whereas for Ancerl, it is more routine as though it was filmed with only one take, one session, sort of a final or semi-final rehearsal. For those who haven't had any close look of an orchestra from the New World, we have a first rate Canadian orchestra here-- the best performance I have come across was the one played with Ida Haendel in a violin concerto though.

This DVD was filmed in comfortable colour and in the rehearsal, the directions from the conductor is much easier to follow than say those from Celibidache in his later years which were all in German. It is in English so for us who don't speak German could dispense with any subtitles at all. For those who are not too familiar with this piece of music, they might as well go direct to the performance first and then return to the rehearsal for more insights.

As for Scherchen, even though it was telecasted in 1966, just two years earlier than Ancerl, it was in B/W. The rehearsals were quite long. As for the "performance", it was merely done by a harpsichordist with the orchestra just sitting in the background."