I was just listening to Antonín Dvo?ák‘s New World Symphony (Symphony No.9, opus 95, “From the New World”) and realized one thing that had been irritating me all these years – only, I could never identify it.
Just listen to the 4th movement: Allegro (con fuoco)
(delicious mp3 playtagger enabled!)
Now, just as much as I would love to hear more and more classical music being played on historical instruments to catch the dynamics of the original compositions, I would like to hear this piece on modern, electronical instruments instead.
Why? Because I think this composition is way too fast – similar to Keith Jarrett‘s interpretation of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier. To my mind, this Symphony has such a vivid speed that it equals a shame to sort of “waste” the vibrating sounds of wooden instruments. It doesn’t give them a chance to develop a proper, a full sound. Instead, I think, electronical instruments take less time to develop a clean and stable sound. Delivering the tone pitch the moment it’s required. This assumption especially applies to the strings in the beggining of this movement.
Or in other words: playing such a fast composition with traditional instruments is like breaking a butterfly on a wheel / taking a Mercedes-Benz S600 to the next duka only to buy chewing gums.
Isn’t it that you sometimes hear interesting music and instantly think: naaaa, I would have played this in a different way…?
I don’t know if my small creative speakers that are attached to my laptop really actually “display” such specific differences in music – but the idea surely is prbbly worth a test – a “digital” against an “analog” orchestra could show the difference. I somehow try to listen to classical music with more heart than brain I guess, let the drama and the intensity, the suspense and romance of the music speak to me. I’d somehow argue that the wood in creating music is as important as the wood in making wine … but that’s just me.