FIRST OFF . . .

Orchestras for decades have been playing the wrong version of Anton Dvorak’s “New World Symphony,” and at least five of his other symphonies, a conductor who analyzed the composer’s original manuscripts said Sunday in London. Denis Vaughan, a free-lance conductor who spent two weeks examining the manuscripts in Czechoslovakia, said he found hundreds of differences between six of Dvorak’s original scores and the versions that were published in the last century. They include differences in phrasing, nuance, accent, dynamics and the way various instruments are blended, he told the Associated Press. Vaughan said Dvorak’s wit and composing skills were beyond his early editors, who took out his idiosyncrasies and wrote straight versions of what they thought he meant. The variations were taken out and the phrases standardized before the score was published, he said. Vaughan said he hopes to record the six Dvorak symphonies for which the original manuscripts are available. He said it will take him about a year to prepare the scores for an orchestra.