Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 – Suk: Serenade, Op. 6 (Mariss Jansons) (CD, Br-Klassik)

After the gloomy seventh symphony and before the popular ninth symphony, which owes its epithet From the New World to the composer’s three-year stay in the USA, he succeeded in writing a work here that was different from my other symphonies, with individual thoughts that were worked out in a new way. That the music is completely inspired by the Bohemian landscape southwest of the capital Prague, where he owned a country house, becomes clear in every sentence, every melody. And that Dvo ák knew and loved Slavic folk music as well as his intense preoccupation with Tchaikovsky’s symphonies: the rhapsodic Adagio or the waltz-like Scherzo, for example, are clearly reminiscent of the important Russian symphony in their melodic inventiveness and their formal structures. The work, written in 1889, had a successful world premiere on February 2, 1890 in Prague. Since Dvo ák had the score printed by a London publisher and his eighth symphony brought him great success, especially during his concert tours to England, it is occasionally referred to as the English one.