Dvorak - Symphony No.8; The Wood Dove

Antonin DVORAK (1841-1904)

Symphony No.8 in G, Op.88

The Wood Dove (Holoubek) Symphonic Poem, Op.110

The Royal Scottish National Orchestra

Neeme Jarvi

Recorded August 6-8, 1987 at Henry Wood Hall, Glasgow

Jarvi's time with the Scottish orchestra was an especially fruitful time for collectors with issue after issue rising to the top of received opinion as interpretations, performances and as recordings.

The Dvorak series has had a long-lasting appeal and especially as regards symphonies 5-9, all of which have an exhilarating freshness of approach without any of the expressive changes of tempi (downwards) presumably to increase expression. Dvorak, of course, knew better and so thankfully does Jarvi who does not slow at the climatic points in the outer movements but maintains tempo to exciting effect. This is what Dvorak wrote in his scores and this underwrites the Slavonic dance idiom so essential to his musical language and sound world.

The fill-up is the fine symphonic poem known as the Wood Dove. It is one of the increasingly popular poems written around folk stories and legends - often rather grim and enable Dvorak to give full reign to his imagination. We should all be thankful to Kertesz for introducing us all to these works as part of his earlier Dvorak cycle on Decca. However those recordings and performances have now been superseded, not least by Jarvi.