Here is a review from Audiophile Audition by Charles T. Downey on DVORAK - Symphony No. 9, “From the New World”

We have been hearing Marin Alsop go through the Dvořák symphonies with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, the eighth and the sixth this past season…

… once again Alsop puts an overly heavy mark on the score, tending to shave time off…

… By report — for example, Alsop’s podcast interview — she has studied the scores of these 19th-century composers very closely…

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On August 26, ATMA-Classique releases the much-anticipated 10th recording by one of today’s most important young conductors: Montreal native Yannick Nézet-Séguin. For this recording, he leads the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal in a performance of Bruckner’s towering Symphony No. 9 (ATMA SACD2 2514). 32-year-old Nézet-Séguin, who has led the OM since 2000, has built the orchestra into a formidable ensemble. This recording marks their seventh for the ATMA label, and the second recording in their ongoing Bruckner cycle. ATMA released Nézet-Séguin’s recording of the Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 last year; Symphony No. 8 will be released in 2009.

This September, Nézet-Séguin will assume the role of Music Director at the Rotterdam Philharmonic, replacing Valery Gergiev, and will also become the Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic. In October, he embarks on a five-concert tour of Spain with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Additionally, 2008 marks Nézet-Séguin’s debut at the Salzburg Festival in Austria, where he will be conducting nine performances of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette and one performance of the Mozart C minor Mass, K 427.

During the 2008-09 season, Nézet-Séguin makes his U.S. debut, with engagements scheduled for The Philadelphia Orchestra in December, the Boston Symphony in February, and the Los Angeles Philharmonic in March.

Nézet-Séguin’s return engagements this year include the Staatskapelle Dresden, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester Berlin, Orchestre National de France, Vienna Symphony, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, and Toronto Symphony Orchestra. As of June 2008, he is leading the Rotterdam Philharmonic on a tour of Japan, Korea, and China, including concerts in Shanghai, Beijing, Seoul, Taipei, Yokahama, and Tokyo. Throughout all this, he continues as Artist Director of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal and will conduct them in a full season of concerts in and around their home city.

Recorded in the same great hall where it received its premiere in 1903, Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony lives on in this performance by Franz Wesler-Möst and the Cleveland Symphony in the Vienna Musikverein. For this powerfully contoured and sharply profiled interpretation, Wesler-Möst guides the ensemble without spectacular effects, instead preferring to showcase the concentrated, lean textured sound of the Cleveland Orchestra. The concert was unanimously acclaimed by the press, who hailed the “tremendous impact” of Franz Wesler-Möst’s calm and intense conducting and the Cleveland Orchestra’s inimitable intonation and ensemble playing.