I slept overnight a friend's house when I was in junior high. He had a recording of the "New World" that he played for me, suggesting I would love it. I was skeptical but once I heard it, I was hooked for life!
I discovered Dvořák in my teens, in late 70s, through a combination of my father’s LP collection and Czech Phil concerts I attended. I think it all started for me with the Fifth symphony under Kosler in about 1978. Then in the 79-80 season I saw the piano concerto with Boris Krajny and Kosler (smashing) and the 7th with Neumann (very intense), and I was completely hooked. Later, I discovered Dvorak’s chamber music, operas, oratorios and more. To me, Dvorak is a shining star of the magnitude of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and I cannot imagine living without his music.
I remember a live performance of the 8th symphony, over 50 years ago, which made me fall in love with the music of Dvorak. Later, a live performance of the Cello Concerto, played by Paul Tortelier, with such passion. I agree that Dvorak is a much underrated composer. Nowadays I am drawn to the operas Jacobin, Dimitrij, Rusalka and to the Requiem. My absolute favorite is the fabulous Te Deum. A glorious piece, of which, I never tire.
Moravian Duets are good too. I like that the Jacobin is full of ideas in first two acts, even in the last act, the music is a bit different but very entertaining too. I like the signing, mostly the spranos. I like the piano quintet op. 81 especially some happy tunes in last three movements. But currently I like very much the violin concerto. Augustin Hadelich´s version on TH-cam is excellent. He gives the piece so much confidence. He plays it with great speed compared to Hillary Hahn. She is great but I like his precise but fast playing. Piano concerto is also melodic poetic full of tunes , if its played in intuitive way, I like when the Hadelich or some pianist Alexander Yakovlev on youtube too, play some parts a bit quietly softly, changing the moods.
@@bernardhowell6325 When Tchaikovsky was invited by Umelecká beseda in 1888, they played for him Piano quintet op.81, he liked it wrote about it in his diaries.
@@bernardhowell6325 I tried to find on youtube Eflat Piano Quartet, op87....Some lady shared a sheet music and Dvořak´s quote, when he composed it during summer in Vysoká "Everything goes so easy and the melodies simply flow to me."....But I was wondering which part of the piece represents the melodies flowing to him. I explored only few of his most popular chamber music.
I was a student at the University of Stirling in 1978, and the Scottish National Orchestra came to perform Rossini's Semiramide, Dvorak's The Golden Spinning Wheel, and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. I had never heard any of these before, but the real thrill was The Golden Spinning Wheel -- it was the most beautiful composition I had ever heard with such a celebratory finale (I'm glad it wasn't one of the other symphonic poems with a tragic ending). That's what got me started on Dvorak, hundreds of his records and CDs ago.
As a Czech, I realy can't remember what was the first piece by Dvorak I heard as his music is played quite often here (even in public circumstances). But I do remember how big an impression some of Dvorak's works made on me. And as for many others who commented here, the surprise was a big element of that impression. Like "wow, that Dvorak is a bloody great composer"! These particular works stand out: Piano Trio in F minor - Like Dave said I was simply awestruck how marvelous the work its. Especially in its balanced passion. When I first heard I already knew most of the standard 19th century trio repertoire (Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, etc.) but here Dvorak was right among the best. Poetic Moods - Pianists say that Dvorak couldn't write for piano (which might be true) and that his piano music doesn't sound good. Well, if this most colourful piano cycle doesn't sound great I don't know what else does. String Quartet No.14 - That last movement is a miracle of theme transformation, but not in the "German" sense but rather in mood characterization. The main dance theme, when first introduced, sounds to me quite nervous, shy, maybe a little bit creepy. Yet in the end the same theme is presented in the most grand and rythmically assuring manner. I think I can sense here the total confidence with which Dvorak handles his material. In this aspect I still think he stands above all the others.
My parents, between them, had an extensive classical record collection, but as far as I can remember, I heard no Dvorak as a small child. My first exposure came la bit later, while still in elementary school. I tuned in to one of LB's Young Peoples' Concerts devoted to debunking the myth that Dvorak's "New World" Symphony was somewho "American" music; Lenny argued that it was Czech through and through. That episode left virtually no impression musically, though I found the talk mildly interesting. My epiphany came during my high school years. From time to time my mother received a catalog from "Publishers Central Bureau," an outfit that sold books in many fields and classical recordings at discount prices. My mother would frequently order from them books and, mostly for me, classical records. One such order contained a Vox Box of Dvorak chamber works, including the Piano Trios, the Bagatelles, Cypreses and the Piano Quartet Op. 81. I found the music delightful and played it often. But it was many years later, while in graduate school, that I was motivated to explore Dvorak's music in depth--the Symphonies (Järvi/Chandos), tone poems and overtures (Kubelik/DG), and the Concertos. By the mid-1990's I had acquired a substantial collectin of Dvorak recordings (Kubelik and Rowicki's symphony cycles, and numerous chamber music recordings). I'm still exploring Dvorak's lesser-known works and only recently got to know one of his greatest masterpieces, the Stabat Mater. How can any listener not love this most congenial of Romantic composers?
I have my next door neighbor to thank for my big "Oh wow, THIS is Dvorak!?" moment. He was seriously studying the cello, and he recommended I get a hold of Elgar's cello concerto with Du Pre and Barenboim. So I bought the CD and I'd listen to the concerto on repeat until one time, while my attention was elsewhere, I let the thing keep on playing. And that's how I discovered the Dvorak cello concerto.
I think it was the wind serenade that introduced me to Dvorak, probably as a twelve- or thirteen-year-old. It was one big continuous earworm I could not shake off (and didn't particularly want to). When my record-buying age came along, the things I got first, roughly in this order, were the slavonic dances in pretty awful sound (Vox, Dorati), the cello concerto in a magnificent performance (Vox, Nelsova - those horns announcing the final movement!), the string sextet (Supraphon) and the wonderful Poetic Tone Pictures (Supraphon, Kvapil).By now, I own a recording of pretty much everything there is, bar most operas (I only have a DVD of Rusalke, as yet unwatched).Generally, I'm a practising Dvorak nutcase. In concert, there hasn't been a lot, unfortunately. But what there was has been mostly very memorable. The Dumky Trio (Beaux Arts in their final incarnation), the cello concerto (Wispelwey, marred by balance problems which meant the cello was hardly audible most of the time), the op.96 String quartet (Párkányi quartet), and finally the string serenade, here in the village hall of our 600-people strong hamlet in the Scottish Highlands - by the RSNO, no less! That last performance was on the same day as an open-air Dudamel concert in nearby Stirling, with the Eroica and some more stuff. That got transmitted on TV, so I didn't entirely miss it - but halfway into the opening movement I gave up as it was uninspired, dull and boring. I certainly made the right choice that day!
I can't recall how I discovered Dvorak, but it is thanks to him that I discovered the sound of a great orchestra. As an adolescent and very young adult, I often accompanied my mother to the subscription concerts of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, which was a somewhat scrawny sounding band in those days (the 50s) under the batons of Dr. Malcolm Sargent and Hugo Rignold. The visit of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Karel Ancerl playing the New World was an absolute revelation. Even playing piano and pianissimo, the orchestra's sound filled the hall with beauty and the fortissimo was stunning without being astringent. It really transformed a piece with which I was already quite familiar from radio. Naturally this led on to his superb (5-8) other symphonies, tone poems, chamber music, Rusalka...... I particularly love Kubelik's renderings. If Vasily Petrenko's records are representative, the Liverpool Philharmonic has improved enormously since then.
What comes to my mind instantly as surprising is the slow movement from his magnificent 13th String Quartet. This piece (in G Major) has generally an optimistic mood and altought it can be considered as somewhat melancholic and dramatic, I believe no one would called it tragic. Yet in that second movement comes this dark, almost surrealist section, where it sounds like a crowd crying on a funeral or whatever. This devastating effect is enhanced by unbelievable writting, sound is simply grandious, you cant believe that it is scored only for a quartet and not for a full orchestra. There are plenty of other examples in Dvoraks ouevre: whole bursting “brass parts” in the 8th finale where you cant tell whether it is simple happinnes or some twisted aggresive triumph; devastating beginning of Stabat Mater which paints the shattering baroque-like image of Jesus on the cross; or heavenly and yet tribalistic Aeterna Fac from Te Deum; or the serene beauty of Piano Quintet op. 81 final coda when everything slows and then explode frenetically. However as you have mentioned 2nd symphony finale, which I love very much, I would also point out its creepy, avant-garde beginning which is so unexpecting after the previous over-optimistic scherzo movement. It is extremely short, almost disturbing, seemingly unthematical - and yet once you hear it, it has to be there.
"Songs my mother taught me," one of his Gypsy songs, opus 55. I recall hearing this performed by the De Paur Infantry Choir. Those guys did lullabies and spirituals like nobody else on earth. I didn't connect it with the composer of "New World symphony" until quite a bit later.
The Time Machine is set for 1969, the summer before grad school. A teacher in undergraduate school had rekindled my classical interests when I accidentally visited him when he was recording an FM broadcast of Mahler symphony #2. The idea of doing such recordings meant my summer job money was going towards real hi fi gear with a Sony reel to reel tape recorder. When I picked it up, I asked the salesman if he recommended any pre-recorded reel to reels. It was the Columbia recording of Lenny B and NYP playing the New World. It is still my favorite version despite the criticism of tempi that I have read about since. And down the Dvorak rabbit hole I went, hook , line and all the chamber music.
It's an easy tune to fit many lyrics to. My favorite is Portia's speech from the Merchant of Venice. ("The quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.")
Re: surprising Dvorak For me, it's the Stabat Mater. One of the most profoundly moving choral works in the entire canon, surpassing even Pergolesi's famous setting. I'd also say that his seventh symphony is one of the most impressive symphonies of all, and probably the only one written by a non-German that can go toe-to-toe with the Usual Suspects in structural rigour. It's no more Brahms's fifth than Brahms' first is Beethoven's tenth - but then these comparisons are always fatuous!
The scherzo of symphony number seven which moves from a lyrical, almost nonchalant dance to a tensely rhythmic one with a threatening wrap-up before the trio, was an eye opener to me as a kid. I heard it on a radio show in the 90s called Classical Hit Parade which introduced me to a lot of great music. At that point I knew Dvorak could do anything. I love the way he creates new forms despite being an absolute master of sonata form. Dumky trio is my personal favourite, at least currently, simply because of its beauty, inspiration and wonderfully intense mood swings. And I agree there is no composer greater in the second half of the 19th century.
Relatively early in exploring Classical music I heard the first Symphony and I was hooked! It led me on a Dvorak purchasing spree, and I was amazed more and more every time. It was a wonderful discovery.
After the “From the New World”, my first ‘further’ was the Casals/Szell Seraphim recording of the Cello Concerto (1937?). The sound quality was awful, but it didn’t matter. The lyricism and power shone through it all. What really hooked me, though, were the string quartets. Lovely as it is, it wasn’t #12, but #13. Fifty years later, the slow movement never fails to move me. My heart has belonged to Dvorák ever since. You get everything with his music. Joy, sorrow, passion, tenderness, whatever you may be seeking he has it. It’s a shame that his fame rests on the shoulders of just a few works, as he wrote so many masterpieces. Like the f minor piano trio, as you pointed out. He’s one composer I don’t have a favorite work of, as there are just too many to choose from.
I think if someone says the composer wasn´t good pianist. They don´t understand what being artist means. Its like saying poet is bad writer because he writes poetry and not a novels. Or paitner can not paint because he is painting details of nature instead of landscape. Just because Dvořák focused on a poetic romantic version of writing in some pieces to make an artistic statement doesn´t mean that he can not write something different. I guess some naivety of his style in some pieces suits him. But I am not musician so Its hard to explain the science of it. As Steven Isserlis said he likes the childlike naivety of the greatest Czech composers.
My first exposure to Dvorak was specifically the cello concerto recorded by Yo-Yo Ma and Masur with the NY Phil on Sony in 1995, around the time I was first exploring classical music. The final moments of the third movement blew me away, and listening to this recording again now it still does. The cello almost seems to yearn to the point of tears. It was only some time later that I became accustomed to the New World Symphony and other works.
The cello concerto has always been my favourite piece of his (or anyone for that matter). It's got so many great tunes and expresses such a range of emotions
I discovered him listening to Sissel Kyrkjebø singing the Song to the Moon last week. I fell completely in love with the melody and have been awestruck since, listening to Lucia Popp, Frederica von Stade, and Libuše Domanínská. Now listening to the 9th symphony and I really love movements 2 and 4. It will certainly not be the last I hear of Dvořák . . . .
Mine was the very first piece of classical music i heard...Live. Carnival Overture late eighties. I was 9.I remember absorbing the music whilst scrutinising the orchestra and being amazed at the performance each individual put in to relay this wondrous sound...something that has never left me to this day...and whilst Beethoven is my favourite...there would be (in my eyes) no Beethoven or classical music at All!!..without Dvora'k
My first exposure to Dvořák, was a BBC TV programme in the early 1970s (I was a young teenager) called "André Previn's Music Night" with the LSO, and one of the Slavonic Dances was the intro music. It was a wonderful programme, with André Previn briefly talking about the pieces they would play. Then my best friend and I bought the 'New World' LP soon after. In fact, this TV show really and André Previn got me into classical music. I have much to thank maetsro Previn for.
Oh where to start. Of course, my dad had an LP of Dvorak’s 9th from Everest with the London Symphony. When I was playing the cello in school, one of the pieces we were rehearsing was an arrangement of the finale from his 8th symphony. Definitely beautiful moments for the cello section. Unfortunately, we never got to perform it for a concert. Meanwhile, I got a tape recording of both symphonies and the Carnival Overture. Definitely an exciting piece. My first choral piece to listen was the Stabat Mater with Atlanta and Shaw. When I was taking 19th Century Music in college, I wrote my paper about it. But thanks to you, Mr. Hurwitz, I have expanded my listening to this wonderful composer. I love the piano concerto, the Wild Dove, and even his Requiem. Paul D. P.S. If course, I adore his Cello Concerto. So lyrical and wonderful.
Last installment of my confessions regarding my indirect path to classical music. Technically, I discovered Dvorak when I tape a performance of the New World Symphony off someone's album. I don't remember the ensemble or conductor. But I discovered the Slavonic Dance No. 7 watching the movie Allegro Non Troppo. And I still cannot hear the piece without remembering how it was animated.
My first memory of Dvorak was hearing the Talich recording of the "New World" on the radio at my cousin's place. I suppose the next salient moment was the purchase of the G Major quartet, which I found captivating.
My first conscious notice of Dvorak’s music was hearing the cello concerto in a recording that also had the Schumann cello concerto. I was intrigued by the long orchestral tutti introduction in the first movement which had the major themes. Such powerful orchestral writing even before hearing the cello’s entrance. I had been a big fan of Brahms, and had read somewhere that upon hearing the concerto, Brahms said “so that’s how it’s done,”
Yes I believe Brahms is quoted as saying that if he'd realised a cello concerto could be composed so well he would have tried himself! Or words to that effect. You can't get a much bigger compliment than that.
My parents had the New World recording by Ormandy and Philly. That and Bernstein's recordings of the 1812, Capriccio Italien, and Marche Slav were my intros to the symphony. A more than 50 year love affair.
The first distinctive thing about Dvorak that struck me (in my childhood) was the conclusion of the 9th symphony, for which there is no corollary. A jubilant, triumphant conclusion melds seamlessly into a longing chord in the woodwinds. Bernstein draws this out particularly well.
One day in the late 60's the local record store in my college town had "In Nature's Realm" playing on their turntable when I walked in. It's infectious energy immediately caught my attention. I had heard of Dvořák but didn't really know his music. I think it was Ančerl with the Czech Philharmonic. Dvořák has been on my radar ever since.
For me it was hearing his 8th Symphony on radio. It was one of the first few symphonies I heard, almost certainly within the first week after I discovered classical music via the radio, around the beginning of 8th grade. I have no idea whose recording it was, but the first movement pretty much blew me away and it only got better from there. Coincidentally: I started playing the viola in high school, and more than two decades on, Dvorak's 8th happens to be the orchestral piece I've played more than any other. It's the only orchestral piece I've performed four times.
been getting into classical music over the past three months. you were the gateway with the recommendation of Bernsteins’ New World. I downloaded all your Dvorak favorite symphonies. It’s going to be a Dvorak Sunday
Me too on the 9th. Initially anyway. Then the first, the "Bells of Zlonice" and I was quickly becoming hooked. Then the rest by Istvan Kertesz and I was indeed hooked. Dvorak is truly one of the greats, and a definite favorite of mine.
I first heard the New World in the Toscanini recording. Then there was an lp box of the last three symphonies by Szell and Cleveland and fell in love with those as well as the Odyssey reissue of the Slavonic Dances.A more experienced friend sat me down and said I had to hear this. This was the Dumky Trio and I was agape. I had to hear more of the chamber music. Our high-school marching band also did an arrangement of parts of the last mvt of the 9th but by then I knew the symphony well. By the way, before I saw the score I thought that theme you mentioned from the 1st mvt was syncopated, rather like a rag or cakewalk. Thats the way I heard it. Little did I realize that it was 4 even 16ths.
My first Dvorak encounter was the Great Falls (MT) Symphony playing the Eighth. I was 7 or 8 and recall the impression that the Scherzo made me feel under water. I didn’t hear the symphony again until, as a teenager, I bought it on Nonesuch (Mackerras and Hamburg, if memory serves). Rehearing the scherzo surprised me by bringing back that swimming impression all over again. My second Dvorak impression was the New World - which I absolutely loved on Seraphim with Giulini. But my favorite of all as a teenager was the 7th with Monteux on London’s Stereo Treasury Series - still my favorite seventh. I adore Dvorak.
I can't remember a time when I didn't know and love Dvorak. But the first encounter will of course have been the "New world". I love his chamber music especially the trios. I owe the biggest surprise to you though, sir. Thanks to your video I heard the Wind Serenade for the first time and it was a revelation.😊
My first recording of Dvorak was the George Szell stereo recording of the Slavonic Dances. In I think 1978 - german CBS. A very very exiting recording.
My first exposure to Dvořák was probably Johnny Maddox's arrangement of the seventh Humoresque (by far the best known, of course). It was the flip side of the Crazy Otto Medley, which I was absolutely mad about when I was seven years old. The Humoresque was in one of my mother's piano anthologies. When she played it, I at first thought that she played it wrong, since she didn't jazz it up as Maddox did. My other childhood exposure was on a record by Mitch Miller and the Sandpipers of selections from most of the major composers from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries (usually in variously butchered versions, though a few were played straight). The selection by Dvořák was the theme from the Largo of the New World Symphony. To tell the truth, I was rather indifferent to both of these. It wasn't until I was in high school and started hearing the Slavonic Dances on the radio that I went wild over Dvořák. I soon acquired a complete recording of them (by Jonel Perlea and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, which is excellent. My only reservation is that parts of the eleventh dance could have been played with more abandon.) From these, I graduated to the symphonies, the symphonic poems, the overtures (especially Othello), and practically everything else, being guided by Alec Robertson's book on Dvořák in the Master Musicians series. He is still one of my favorite composers.
I first encountered Dvorak through the New World Symphony. In the UK there was a very famous advert for Hovis bread - directed by Ridley Scott - which used the "Coming Home theme". But for me, it wasn't that one but another advert for dogfood (what is it with Dvorak and nutrition?) which used the jolly bit half way through the first movement of the New World Symphony over scenes of hordes of mutts leaping healthily over fields (new world or old world fields, I couldn't say which.) Despite this, I didn't really develop a real appreciation of Dvorak's genius until I started hearing his string quartets: specifically The American, which is wonderful: the Lindsay Quartet issued a series of CDs called "The Bohemians" which i started collecting, and I still reckon that Dvorak's chamber music is his magnum opus: I love it.
In the UK the slow movement was the backdrop for the sliced bread brand `Hovis` tv adverts - emphasising how universal Dvorak's music is! A lot of Brits will have that imprinted. That got me into buying a vinyl recording (a picture on the cover of a close up of fields of corn in the USA by something like the Minneapolis Orchestra). I then went onto Kubelik CDs.
Of course the 9th was my into, in this case the 80s digital HVK/VPO rendition (which is stellar, IMO). Then I purchased the Belohlavic/Czech Phil cycle, which is lovely, too (and includes the cello/violin concertos). Then, once I finally got into chamber music, the String Quartets, which are no less amazing. Then overtures, by Hrusa/Prague Phil. He really was a jack of all trades, and a master of basically all of them.
Back when I was a sophomore in college and expanding my record collection to include some works of the Romantic era, I bought a 3-LP set titled "Great Romantic Symphonies" conducted by Bernstein. It included Dvorak's New World, Schubert's Unfinished, Mendelssohn's Italian, and Franck's D minor. The Schubert was an old friend, but the other three were new to me. The Dvorak and Mendelssohn were fairly easy to enjoy, the Franck took longer. Anyway, the New World was the first work by Dvorak that I remember listening to in its entirety knowing what it was. (I qualify it like that because I know that years earlier my junior high school band teacher had played some recordings of classical music for us as an occasional break from daily band practice, but I don't recall what piece represented Dvorak.) As far as later discoveries by Dvorak that I liked, I'd have to rate Symphonies 6 (Kertesz) and 7 (Szell) and the Violin Concerto (Milstein/Fruhbeck de Burgos) as others that were major discoveries when encountered. Of course, I've collected all of his symphonies and concertos in multiple versions by now along with quartets, trios, overtures, tone poems, etc.
Same here. Symphony 9. However, since my hometown is Cleveland, my recording was Szell's. I probably first heard it in my public-school music class. I liked it, but it didn't really grab me. My addiction to Dvořák came later, with the Vaclav Neumann symphony cycle and my discovery of the chamber music through the Beaux Arts Trio.
My favorite piece by Dvorak is the Humoresque in G-flat because of how Dvorak used the blue note (B double flat) along with the chain of secondary dominants that presaged ragtime and jazz.
I can relate to your experience, in my case he was the first ever composer that I listened to consciously. The Kyrie of his Mass, which my father was studying for his choir at the time. Was 4 years old and I asked him what 'Kyrie eleison' meant and why he was playing the same cassette over and over again. Discovered Bruckner around the same time, his Locus Iste was on dad's choir repertoire too. In the case of Dvorák soon after I found the Brabants Orkest recording of the 9th, with Hein Jordans (former 2nd conductor of the Concertgebouw during Van Beinum's tenure) released on a label called Pergola in 1968. The Humoreske on the other hand popped up in my repetroire as a pianist once I became the accompanist of my mum's more advanced violin pupils.
Well as Czechoslovak kid I've had Dvořák around me all my life - but as kid I guess you don't care that much about who wrote what, as long as you like it. For example the Slavonic dances were played quite a lot on radio :) but I'd guess it was Rusalka and The Devil and Kate, as my mother played in the opera/balet orchestra and I was able to get free tickets and I was aware it's Dvořák :) BTW the 2024 will be "Year of Czech music" (200 years from Smetana's birth, 170 since Janáček's birth, 150 since Suk's birth, 120 years since Dvořák's death), so definitely get more of it into your life :)
My Dvorak gateway was also the New World, but in the transcription of the finale for wind band made by Eric Leidzen. And then by chance, a catalog showed up which listed an LP set of symphonies on the old Murray Hill label. Remember those? I asked for it and got it a week later. Got to know the whole New World and the other symphonies that way - probably the same performers you had.
This is another composer whose music was part of the underlying culture when I was a child, so there isn't a particular moment of discovery. The story seems to be the same as many others. There were a few popular pieces and melodies (i.e. Symphony No. 9, Humoresque, Slavonic Dances) that were out there in the world, heard in bits and pieces in cartoons, movies, and advertisements. Then, when I started attending concerts and collecting records, there was the realization - "so that's where that tune came from." It went on from there, and I gradually got to know his music, but there wasn't any one particular recording or performance that captured my attention more than others. I could copy this comment and use it, with minor modifications, for many other videos in this series.
Arturo Toscanini and Dvořák probably met because there is a card with his picture and with date 1903, dedicated to Toscanini and signed with little part of music.
As a 90s kid I liked collecting classical LPs that I would find at neighborhood garage sales. I hadn’t heard of Dvorak, nor could I figure out how to read that name. I found Reiner with Chicago doing the new world symphony. They called it number 5, which would confuse me later. That little bit you hummed of the transition music brought back memories from that first listen. That part struck me in the same way and I think was the part I hummed most often. I am remiss though, because I’ve not heard the other symphonies yet; maybe the evil god Kancrizan’s influence. Is there a best approach to the others?
Do you have the Lyrita disc of Henry Wood transcriptions? It has a very fun version of Pictures at an Exhibition. Written before Ravel did his (far, far better) version.
It was basically two tunes that introduced Dvorak to me: the "Humoresque" and the New World "Largo"--both encountered early on in my piano lessons in one of those "Melodies from the Classics" compilations that teachers often gave students back then in the hopes of introducing them to Great Music. Problem was it didn't seem like Great Music to me. I didn't like either tune at all. The first seemed positively inane, a silly kind of musical cartoon doodling, and the second seemed just boring (hopelessly repetitive and obsessed with that same little phrase) and just too gloomy. So there wasn't anything inducing me to look further. And frankly it wasn't until I was around 20, after I'd discovered piano chamber music, that I found what is still, for me, the best of Dvorak: the piano quintets, quartets, and trios. Here was a world of musical riches far different from the "Humoresque" of my youth, and it's what finally encouraged me to listen to the symphonic works. Naturally, once I'd heard the irresistible 8th Symphony I went all in on Dvorak--though it's interesting how that 9th Symphony Largo has never overcome my childhood aversion to it.
I slept overnight a friend's house when I was in junior high. He had a recording of the "New World" that he played for me, suggesting I would love it. I was skeptical but once I heard it, I was hooked for life!
I discovered Dvořák in my teens, in late 70s, through a combination of my father’s LP collection and Czech Phil concerts I attended. I think it all started for me with the Fifth symphony under Kosler in about 1978. Then in the 79-80 season I saw the piano concerto with Boris Krajny and Kosler (smashing) and the 7th with Neumann (very intense), and I was completely hooked. Later, I discovered Dvorak’s chamber music, operas, oratorios and more. To me, Dvorak is a shining star of the magnitude of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven and I cannot imagine living without his music.
I remember a live performance of the 8th symphony, over 50 years ago, which made me fall in love with the music of Dvorak. Later, a live performance of the Cello Concerto, played by Paul Tortelier, with such passion. I agree that Dvorak is a much underrated composer. Nowadays I am drawn to the operas Jacobin, Dimitrij, Rusalka and to the Requiem. My absolute favorite is the fabulous Te Deum. A glorious piece, of which, I never tire.
Moravian Duets are good too. I like that the Jacobin is full of ideas in first two acts, even in the last act, the music is a bit different but very entertaining too. I like the signing, mostly the spranos. I like the piano quintet op. 81 especially some happy tunes in last three movements. But currently I like very much the violin concerto. Augustin Hadelich´s version on TH-cam is excellent. He gives the piece so much confidence. He plays it with great speed compared to Hillary Hahn. She is great but I like his precise but fast playing. Piano concerto is also melodic poetic full of tunes , if its played in intuitive way, I like when the Hadelich or some pianist Alexander Yakovlev on youtube too, play some parts a bit quietly softly, changing the moods.
@@alenaadamkova7617 Hi Alena, I agree about the Piano Quintet op 81. A wonderful piece. Also, the Eflat Piano Quartet, op87.
@@bernardhowell6325 When Tchaikovsky was invited by Umelecká beseda in 1888, they played for him Piano quintet op.81, he liked it wrote about it in his diaries.
@@bernardhowell6325 I tried to find on youtube Eflat Piano Quartet, op87....Some lady shared a sheet music and Dvořak´s quote, when he composed it during summer in Vysoká "Everything goes so easy and the melodies simply flow to me."....But I was wondering which part of the piece represents the melodies flowing to him. I explored only few of his most popular chamber music.
I was a student at the University of Stirling in 1978, and the Scottish National Orchestra came to perform Rossini's Semiramide, Dvorak's The Golden Spinning Wheel, and Beethoven's 7th Symphony. I had never heard any of these before, but the real thrill was The Golden Spinning Wheel -- it was the most beautiful composition I had ever heard with such a celebratory finale (I'm glad it wasn't one of the other symphonic poems with a tragic ending). That's what got me started on Dvorak, hundreds of his records and CDs ago.
As a Czech, I realy can't remember what was the first piece by Dvorak I heard as his music is played quite often here (even in public circumstances). But I do remember how big an impression some of Dvorak's works made on me. And as for many others who commented here, the surprise was a big element of that impression. Like "wow, that Dvorak is a bloody great composer"! These particular works stand out:
Piano Trio in F minor - Like Dave said I was simply awestruck how marvelous the work its. Especially in its balanced passion. When I first heard I already knew most of the standard 19th century trio repertoire (Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, etc.) but here Dvorak was right among the best.
Poetic Moods - Pianists say that Dvorak couldn't write for piano (which might be true) and that his piano music doesn't sound good. Well, if this most colourful piano cycle doesn't sound great I don't know what else does.
String Quartet No.14 - That last movement is a miracle of theme transformation, but not in the "German" sense but rather in mood characterization. The main dance theme, when first introduced, sounds to me quite nervous, shy, maybe a little bit creepy. Yet in the end the same theme is presented in the most grand and rythmically assuring manner. I think I can sense here the total confidence with which Dvorak handles his material. In this aspect I still think he stands above all the others.
My parents, between them, had an extensive classical record collection, but as far as I can remember, I heard no Dvorak as a small child. My first exposure came la bit later, while still in elementary school. I tuned in to one of LB's Young Peoples' Concerts devoted to debunking the myth that Dvorak's "New World" Symphony was somewho "American" music; Lenny argued that it was Czech through and through. That episode left virtually no impression musically, though I found the talk mildly interesting. My epiphany came during my high school years. From time to time my mother received a catalog from "Publishers Central Bureau," an outfit that sold books in many fields and classical recordings at discount prices. My mother would frequently order from them books and, mostly for me, classical records. One such order contained a Vox Box of Dvorak chamber works, including the Piano Trios, the Bagatelles, Cypreses and the Piano Quartet Op. 81. I found the music delightful and played it often. But it was many years later, while in graduate school, that I was motivated to explore Dvorak's music in depth--the Symphonies (Järvi/Chandos), tone poems and overtures (Kubelik/DG), and the Concertos. By the mid-1990's I had acquired a substantial collectin of Dvorak recordings (Kubelik and Rowicki's symphony cycles, and numerous chamber music recordings). I'm still exploring Dvorak's lesser-known works and only recently got to know one of his greatest masterpieces, the Stabat Mater. How can any listener not love this most congenial of Romantic composers?
I have my next door neighbor to thank for my big "Oh wow, THIS is Dvorak!?" moment. He was seriously studying the cello, and he recommended I get a hold of Elgar's cello concerto with Du Pre and Barenboim. So I bought the CD and I'd listen to the concerto on repeat until one time, while my attention was elsewhere, I let the thing keep on playing. And that's how I discovered the Dvorak cello concerto.
I think it was the wind serenade that introduced me to Dvorak, probably as a twelve- or thirteen-year-old. It was one big continuous earworm I could not shake off (and didn't particularly want to). When my record-buying age came along, the things I got first, roughly in this order, were the slavonic dances in pretty awful sound (Vox, Dorati), the cello concerto in a magnificent performance (Vox, Nelsova - those horns announcing the final movement!), the string sextet (Supraphon) and the wonderful Poetic Tone Pictures (Supraphon, Kvapil).By now, I own a recording of pretty much everything there is, bar most operas (I only have a DVD of Rusalke, as yet unwatched).Generally, I'm a practising Dvorak nutcase.
In concert, there hasn't been a lot, unfortunately. But what there was has been mostly very memorable. The Dumky Trio (Beaux Arts in their final incarnation), the cello concerto (Wispelwey, marred by balance problems which meant the cello was hardly audible most of the time), the op.96 String quartet (Párkányi quartet), and finally the string serenade, here in the village hall of our 600-people strong hamlet in the Scottish Highlands - by the RSNO, no less! That last performance was on the same day as an open-air Dudamel concert in nearby Stirling, with the Eroica and some more stuff. That got transmitted on TV, so I didn't entirely miss it - but halfway into the opening movement I gave up as it was uninspired, dull and boring. I certainly made the right choice that day!
I can't recall how I discovered Dvorak, but it is thanks to him that I discovered the sound of a great orchestra. As an adolescent and very young adult, I often accompanied my mother to the subscription concerts of the Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, which was a somewhat scrawny sounding band in those days (the 50s) under the batons of Dr. Malcolm Sargent and Hugo Rignold. The visit of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Karel Ancerl playing the New World was an absolute revelation. Even playing piano and pianissimo, the orchestra's sound filled the hall with beauty and the fortissimo was stunning without being astringent. It really transformed a piece with which I was already quite familiar from radio. Naturally this led on to his superb (5-8) other symphonies, tone poems, chamber music, Rusalka...... I particularly love Kubelik's renderings.
If Vasily Petrenko's records are representative, the Liverpool Philharmonic has improved enormously since then.
What comes to my mind instantly as surprising is the slow movement from his magnificent 13th String Quartet. This piece (in G Major) has generally an optimistic mood and altought it can be considered as somewhat melancholic and dramatic, I believe no one would called it tragic. Yet in that second movement comes this dark, almost surrealist section, where it sounds like a crowd crying on a funeral or whatever. This devastating effect is enhanced by unbelievable writting, sound is simply grandious, you cant believe that it is scored only for a quartet and not for a full orchestra.
There are plenty of other examples in Dvoraks ouevre: whole bursting “brass parts” in the 8th finale where you cant tell whether it is simple happinnes or some twisted aggresive triumph; devastating beginning of Stabat Mater which paints the shattering baroque-like image of Jesus on the cross; or heavenly and yet tribalistic Aeterna Fac from Te Deum; or the serene beauty of Piano Quintet op. 81 final coda when everything slows and then explode frenetically.
However as you have mentioned 2nd symphony finale, which I love very much, I would also point out its creepy, avant-garde beginning which is so unexpecting after the previous over-optimistic scherzo movement. It is extremely short, almost disturbing, seemingly unthematical - and yet once you hear it, it has to be there.
"Songs my mother taught me," one of his Gypsy songs, opus 55.
I recall hearing this performed by the De Paur Infantry Choir. Those guys did
lullabies and spirituals like nobody else on earth. I didn't connect it with the
composer of "New World symphony" until quite a bit later.
The Time Machine is set for 1969, the summer before grad school. A teacher in undergraduate school had rekindled my classical interests when I accidentally visited him when he was recording an FM broadcast of Mahler symphony #2. The idea of doing such recordings meant my summer job money was going towards real hi fi gear with a Sony reel to reel tape recorder. When I picked it up, I asked the salesman if he recommended any pre-recorded reel to reels. It was the Columbia recording of Lenny B and NYP playing the New World. It is still my favorite version despite the criticism of tempi that I have read about since. And down the Dvorak rabbit hole I went, hook , line and all the chamber music.
To the tune of Humoresque: "Now it's night here in the park, I'm tickling statues in the dark, if Sherman's horse can take it, why can't you?"
It's an easy tune to fit many lyrics to. My favorite is Portia's speech from the Merchant of Venice. ("The quality of mercy is not strained; it droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven upon the place beneath.")
Re: surprising Dvorak
For me, it's the Stabat Mater. One of the most profoundly moving choral works in the entire canon, surpassing even Pergolesi's famous setting.
I'd also say that his seventh symphony is one of the most impressive symphonies of all, and probably the only one written by a non-German that can go toe-to-toe with the Usual Suspects in structural rigour. It's no more Brahms's fifth than Brahms' first is Beethoven's tenth - but then these comparisons are always fatuous!
The scherzo of symphony number seven which moves from a lyrical, almost nonchalant dance to a tensely rhythmic one with a threatening wrap-up before the trio, was an eye opener to me as a kid. I heard it on a radio show in the 90s called Classical Hit Parade which introduced me to a lot of great music. At that point I knew Dvorak could do anything. I love the way he creates new forms despite being an absolute master of sonata form. Dumky trio is my personal favourite, at least currently, simply because of its beauty, inspiration and wonderfully intense mood swings. And I agree there is no composer greater in the second half of the 19th century.
Relatively early in exploring Classical music I heard the first Symphony and I was hooked! It led me on a Dvorak purchasing spree, and I was amazed more and more every time. It was a wonderful discovery.
After the “From the New World”, my first ‘further’ was the Casals/Szell Seraphim recording of the Cello Concerto (1937?). The sound quality was awful, but it didn’t matter. The lyricism and power shone through it all.
What really hooked me, though, were the string quartets. Lovely as it is, it wasn’t #12, but #13. Fifty years later, the slow movement never fails to move me. My heart has belonged to Dvorák ever since.
You get everything with his music. Joy, sorrow, passion, tenderness, whatever you may be seeking he has it. It’s a shame that his fame rests on the shoulders of just a few works, as he wrote so many masterpieces. Like the f minor piano trio, as you pointed out. He’s one composer I don’t have a favorite work of, as there are just too many to choose from.
I think if someone says the composer wasn´t good pianist. They don´t understand what being artist means.
Its like saying poet is bad writer because he writes poetry and not a novels. Or paitner can not paint because he is painting details of nature instead of landscape.
Just because Dvořák focused on a poetic romantic version of writing in some pieces to make an artistic statement
doesn´t mean that he can not write something different. I guess some naivety of his style in some pieces suits him.
But I am not musician so Its hard to explain the science of it. As Steven Isserlis said he likes the childlike naivety of the greatest Czech composers.
My first exposure to Dvorak was specifically the cello concerto recorded by Yo-Yo Ma and Masur with the NY Phil on Sony in 1995, around the time I was first exploring classical music. The final moments of the third movement blew me away, and listening to this recording again now it still does. The cello almost seems to yearn to the point of tears. It was only some time later that I became accustomed to the New World Symphony and other works.
The cello concerto has always been my favourite piece of his (or anyone for that matter). It's got so many great tunes and expresses such a range of emotions
Humoreske:
"Passengers will please refrain from from flushing toilets while the train is standing in the station, I love you"
I discovered him listening to Sissel Kyrkjebø singing the Song to the Moon last week. I fell completely in love with the melody and have been awestruck since, listening to Lucia Popp, Frederica von Stade, and Libuše Domanínská. Now listening to the 9th symphony and I really love movements 2 and 4. It will certainly not be the last I hear of Dvořák . . . .
Mine was the very first piece of classical music i heard...Live.
Carnival Overture late eighties. I was 9.I remember absorbing the music whilst scrutinising the orchestra and being amazed at the performance each individual put in to relay this wondrous sound...something that has never left me to this day...and whilst Beethoven is my favourite...there would be (in my eyes) no Beethoven or classical music at All!!..without Dvora'k
My first exposure to Dvořák, was a BBC TV programme in the early 1970s (I was a young teenager) called "André Previn's Music Night" with the LSO, and one of the Slavonic Dances was the intro music. It was a wonderful programme, with André Previn briefly talking about the pieces they would play. Then my best friend and I bought the 'New World' LP soon after. In fact, this TV show really and André Previn got me into classical music. I have much to thank maetsro Previn for.
Oh where to start. Of course, my dad had an LP of Dvorak’s 9th from Everest with the London Symphony. When I was playing the cello in school, one of the pieces we were rehearsing was an arrangement of the finale from his 8th symphony. Definitely beautiful moments for the cello section. Unfortunately, we never got to perform it for a concert. Meanwhile, I got a tape recording of both symphonies and the Carnival Overture. Definitely an exciting piece. My first choral piece to listen was the Stabat Mater with Atlanta and Shaw. When I was taking 19th Century Music in college, I wrote my paper about it. But thanks to you, Mr. Hurwitz, I have expanded my listening to this wonderful composer. I love the piano concerto, the Wild Dove, and even his Requiem.
Paul D.
P.S. If course, I adore his Cello Concerto. So lyrical and wonderful.
Last installment of my confessions regarding my indirect path to classical music. Technically, I discovered Dvorak when I tape a performance of the New World Symphony off someone's album. I don't remember the ensemble or conductor. But I discovered the Slavonic Dance No. 7 watching the movie Allegro Non Troppo. And I still cannot hear the piece without remembering how it was animated.
How could anyone forget!
My first memory of Dvorak was hearing the Talich recording of the "New World" on the radio at my cousin's place. I suppose the next salient moment was the purchase of the G Major quartet, which I found captivating.
My first conscious notice of Dvorak’s music was hearing the cello concerto in a recording that also had the Schumann cello concerto. I was intrigued by the long orchestral tutti introduction in the first movement which had the major themes. Such powerful orchestral writing even before hearing the cello’s entrance. I had been a big fan of Brahms, and had read somewhere that upon hearing the concerto, Brahms said “so that’s how it’s done,”
Yes I believe Brahms is quoted as saying that if he'd realised a cello concerto could be composed so well he would have tried himself! Or words to that effect. You can't get a much bigger compliment than that.
My parents had the New World recording by Ormandy and Philly. That and Bernstein's recordings of the 1812, Capriccio Italien, and Marche Slav were my intros to the symphony. A more than 50 year love affair.
The first distinctive thing about Dvorak that struck me (in my childhood) was the conclusion of the 9th symphony, for which there is no corollary. A jubilant, triumphant conclusion melds seamlessly into a longing chord in the woodwinds. Bernstein draws this out particularly well.
I would also add that, based on my experience in my high school orchestra, he handles each woodwind with a magical sense of its character.
Oh, how I wish for a Reference Recordings Honeck ninth!
One day in the late 60's the local record store in my college town had "In Nature's Realm" playing on their turntable when I walked in. It's infectious energy immediately caught my attention. I had heard of Dvořák but didn't really know his music. I think it was Ančerl with the Czech Philharmonic. Dvořák has been on my radar ever since.
For me it was hearing his 8th Symphony on radio. It was one of the first few symphonies I heard, almost certainly within the first week after I discovered classical music via the radio, around the beginning of 8th grade. I have no idea whose recording it was, but the first movement pretty much blew me away and it only got better from there.
Coincidentally: I started playing the viola in high school, and more than two decades on, Dvorak's 8th happens to be the orchestral piece I've played more than any other. It's the only orchestral piece I've performed four times.
been getting into classical music over the past three months. you were the gateway with the recommendation of Bernsteins’ New World. I downloaded all your Dvorak favorite symphonies. It’s going to be a Dvorak Sunday
Thank you for listening (and watching)!
You could try his string quartets (especially #8-14), string quintets, piano trios and quintet, his three concertos, just for starters.
Me too on the 9th. Initially anyway. Then the first, the "Bells of Zlonice" and I was quickly becoming hooked. Then the rest by Istvan Kertesz and I was indeed hooked. Dvorak is truly one of the greats, and a definite favorite of mine.
I first heard the New World in the Toscanini recording. Then there was an lp box of the last three symphonies by Szell and Cleveland and fell in love with those as well as the Odyssey reissue of the Slavonic Dances.A more experienced friend sat me down and said I had to hear this. This was the Dumky Trio and I was agape. I had to hear more of the chamber music. Our high-school marching band also did an arrangement of parts of the last mvt of the 9th but by then I knew the symphony well.
By the way, before I saw the score I thought that theme you mentioned from the 1st mvt was syncopated, rather like a rag or cakewalk. Thats the way I heard it. Little did I realize that it was 4 even 16ths.
My first Dvorak encounter was the Great Falls (MT) Symphony playing the Eighth. I was 7 or 8 and recall the impression that the Scherzo made me feel under water. I didn’t hear the symphony again until, as a teenager, I bought it on Nonesuch (Mackerras and Hamburg, if memory serves). Rehearing the scherzo surprised me by bringing back that swimming impression all over again. My second Dvorak impression was the New World - which I absolutely loved on Seraphim with Giulini. But my favorite of all as a teenager was the 7th with Monteux on London’s Stereo Treasury Series - still my favorite seventh. I adore Dvorak.
I can't remember a time when I didn't know and love Dvorak. But the first encounter will of course have been the "New world". I love his chamber music especially the trios. I owe the biggest surprise to you though, sir. Thanks to your video I heard the Wind Serenade for the first time and it was a revelation.😊
My first recording of Dvorak was the George Szell stereo recording of the Slavonic Dances. In I think 1978 - german CBS. A very very exiting recording.
My first exposure to Dvořák was probably Johnny Maddox's arrangement of the seventh Humoresque (by far the best known, of course). It was the flip side of the Crazy Otto Medley, which I was absolutely mad about when I was seven years old. The Humoresque was in one of my mother's piano anthologies. When she played it, I at first thought that she played it wrong, since she didn't jazz it up as Maddox did. My other childhood exposure was on a record by Mitch Miller and the Sandpipers of selections from most of the major composers from the late eighteenth to the early twentieth centuries (usually in variously butchered versions, though a few were played straight). The selection by Dvořák was the theme from the Largo of the New World Symphony. To tell the truth, I was rather indifferent to both of these. It wasn't until I was in high school and started hearing the Slavonic Dances on the radio that I went wild over Dvořák. I soon acquired a complete recording of them (by Jonel Perlea and the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, which is excellent. My only reservation is that parts of the eleventh dance could have been played with more abandon.) From these, I graduated to the symphonies, the symphonic poems, the overtures (especially Othello), and practically everything else, being guided by Alec Robertson's book on Dvořák in the Master Musicians series. He is still one of my favorite composers.
I first encountered Dvorak through the New World Symphony. In the UK there was a very famous advert for Hovis bread - directed by Ridley Scott - which used the "Coming Home theme". But for me, it wasn't that one but another advert for dogfood (what is it with Dvorak and nutrition?) which used the jolly bit half way through the first movement of the New World Symphony over scenes of hordes of mutts leaping healthily over fields (new world or old world fields, I couldn't say which.)
Despite this, I didn't really develop a real appreciation of Dvorak's genius until I started hearing his string quartets: specifically The American, which is wonderful: the Lindsay Quartet issued a series of CDs called "The Bohemians" which i started collecting, and I still reckon that Dvorak's chamber music is his magnum opus: I love it.
In the UK the slow movement was the backdrop for the sliced bread brand `Hovis` tv adverts - emphasising how universal Dvorak's music is! A lot of Brits will have that imprinted. That got me into buying a vinyl recording (a picture on the cover of a close up of fields of corn in the USA by something like the Minneapolis Orchestra). I then went onto Kubelik CDs.
Directed by Ridley Scott, no less!
Of course the 9th was my into, in this case the 80s digital HVK/VPO rendition (which is stellar, IMO). Then I purchased the Belohlavic/Czech Phil cycle, which is lovely, too (and includes the cello/violin concertos). Then, once I finally got into chamber music, the String Quartets, which are no less amazing. Then overtures, by Hrusa/Prague Phil.
He really was a jack of all trades, and a master of basically all of them.
Back when I was a sophomore in college and expanding my record collection to include some works of the Romantic era, I bought a 3-LP set titled "Great Romantic Symphonies" conducted by Bernstein. It included Dvorak's New World, Schubert's Unfinished, Mendelssohn's Italian, and Franck's D minor. The Schubert was an old friend, but the other three were new to me. The Dvorak and Mendelssohn were fairly easy to enjoy, the Franck took longer. Anyway, the New World was the first work by Dvorak that I remember listening to in its entirety knowing what it was. (I qualify it like that because I know that years earlier my junior high school band teacher had played some recordings of classical music for us as an occasional break from daily band practice, but I don't recall what piece represented Dvorak.)
As far as later discoveries by Dvorak that I liked, I'd have to rate Symphonies 6 (Kertesz) and 7 (Szell) and the Violin Concerto (Milstein/Fruhbeck de Burgos) as others that were major discoveries when encountered. Of course, I've collected all of his symphonies and concertos in multiple versions by now along with quartets, trios, overtures, tone poems, etc.
Same here. Symphony 9. However, since my hometown is Cleveland, my recording was Szell's. I probably first heard it in my public-school music class. I liked it, but it didn't really grab me. My addiction to Dvořák came later, with the Vaclav Neumann symphony cycle and my discovery of the chamber music through the Beaux Arts Trio.
My favourite discovery of Dvorak is the Requiem by Wit which you recommended.
My favorite piece by Dvorak is the Humoresque in G-flat because of how Dvorak used the blue note (B double flat) along with the chain of secondary dominants that presaged ragtime and jazz.
I can relate to your experience, in my case he was the first ever composer that I listened to consciously.
The Kyrie of his Mass, which my father was studying for his choir at the time. Was 4 years old and I asked him what 'Kyrie eleison' meant and why he was playing the same cassette over and over again. Discovered Bruckner around the same time, his Locus Iste was on dad's choir repertoire too. In the case of Dvorák soon after I found the Brabants Orkest recording of the 9th, with Hein Jordans (former 2nd conductor of the Concertgebouw during Van Beinum's tenure) released on a label called Pergola in 1968. The Humoreske on the other hand popped up in my repetroire as a pianist once I became the accompanist of my mum's more advanced violin pupils.
Well as Czechoslovak kid I've had Dvořák around me all my life - but as kid I guess you don't care that much about who wrote what, as long as you like it. For example the Slavonic dances were played quite a lot on radio :) but I'd guess it was Rusalka and The Devil and Kate, as my mother played in the opera/balet orchestra and I was able to get free tickets and I was aware it's Dvořák :)
BTW the 2024 will be "Year of Czech music" (200 years from Smetana's birth, 170 since Janáček's birth, 150 since Suk's birth, 120 years since Dvořák's death), so definitely get more of it into your life :)
Can't remember their name, but it was from a heavy metal band that used melodies from ' new world' that I heard Dvorak for the first time.
My Dvorak gateway was also the New World, but in the transcription of the finale for wind band made by Eric Leidzen. And then by chance, a catalog showed up which listed an LP set of symphonies on the old Murray Hill label. Remember those? I asked for it and got it a week later. Got to know the whole New World and the other symphonies that way - probably the same performers you had.
This is another composer whose music was part of the underlying culture when I was a child, so there isn't a particular moment of discovery. The story seems to be the same as many others. There were a few popular pieces and melodies (i.e. Symphony No. 9, Humoresque, Slavonic Dances) that were out there in the world, heard in bits and pieces in cartoons, movies, and advertisements. Then, when I started attending concerts and collecting records, there was the realization - "so that's where that tune came from." It went on from there, and I gradually got to know his music, but there wasn't any one particular recording or performance that captured my attention more than others. I could copy this comment and use it, with minor modifications, for many other videos in this series.
Arturo Toscanini and Dvořák probably met because there is a card with his picture and with date 1903, dedicated to Toscanini and signed with little part of music.
As a 90s kid I liked collecting classical LPs that I would find at neighborhood garage sales. I hadn’t heard of Dvorak, nor could I figure out how to read that name. I found Reiner with Chicago doing the new world symphony. They called it number 5, which would confuse me later. That little bit you hummed of the transition music brought back memories from that first listen. That part struck me in the same way and I think was the part I hummed most often.
I am remiss though, because I’ve not heard the other symphonies yet; maybe the evil god Kancrizan’s influence. Is there a best approach to the others?
I'd start with 3, 5-8 and work on the others later.
@@DavesClassicalGuide I will do that.
Do you have the Lyrita disc of Henry Wood transcriptions? It has a very fun version of Pictures at an Exhibition. Written before Ravel did his (far, far better) version.
Yes, I have it.
It was basically two tunes that introduced Dvorak to me: the "Humoresque" and the New World "Largo"--both encountered early on in my piano lessons in one of those "Melodies from the Classics" compilations that teachers often gave students back then in the hopes of introducing them to Great Music. Problem was it didn't seem like Great Music to me. I didn't like either tune at all. The first seemed positively inane, a silly kind of musical cartoon doodling, and the second seemed just boring (hopelessly repetitive and obsessed with that same little phrase) and just too gloomy. So there wasn't anything inducing me to look further. And frankly it wasn't until I was around 20, after I'd discovered piano chamber music, that I found what is still, for me, the best of Dvorak: the piano quintets, quartets, and trios. Here was a world of musical riches far different from the "Humoresque" of my youth, and it's what finally encouraged me to listen to the symphonic works. Naturally, once I'd heard the irresistible 8th Symphony I went all in on Dvorak--though it's interesting how that 9th Symphony Largo has never overcome my childhood aversion to it.
How do you spell "uhr" (or "ohr") motive?
ur.