Meet the
Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria: an ensemble that traces its history back to 1845, making it one of the oldest orchestras in the Spanish-speaking world. Thanks to public funding, the
Orquesta recruited English conductor
Adrian Leaper to be its conductor in 1994. As far as can be told by the evidence of this disc, the
Orquesta under
Leaper is bright to the point of gaudy, vigorous to the point of violence, and raw past the point of being rough.
When applied to the repertoire on this disc, however, these are not entirely bad qualities. Dvorák was one of the supreme composers of the later years of Romanticism, but he could never have been accused of overestimating the tastes of his audience. In his Slavonic Dances, Dvorák aimed at the petit-bourgeois piano players of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and scored a hit with irresistible rhythms and infectious melodies. In his "From the New World" Symphony, Dvorák aimed at the nouveaux riches of the United States and scored a hit with instantly comprehensible forms and immediately unforgettable themes. For
Leaper and the
Orquesta, being gaudy, vigorous, and rough in the Dances is a good thing, and being bright, violent, and raw in the symphony is a good thing. They are capable of hushed playing -- listen to the ineffable pianissimo in the symphony's Largo -- but are most themselves when playing with maximum force -- listen the Scherzo and any of the Dances. There are dozens of better performances of all these pieces, starting with
Vaclav Talich's, but, as an introduction to the playing of the
Orquesta Filarmónica de Gran Canaria, they are impressive in their own way. Arte Nova's on-location sound is honest and warm, but harsh at climaxes.