Sunday Classics: Finally we reach Dvořák's glorious "New World"

The Scherzo from Dvořák's New World Symphony played by the Kamuela Philharmonic under music director Madeline Schatz at the Kahilu Theatre in Waimea (on the Big Island of Hawaii), Jan. 6, 2008

by Ken

As I noted in Friday night's preview, after poking around Dvořák's Eighth Symphony and then his Seventh, we arrive at the Ninth, his final symphony, which he himself called From the New World, recalling his 1892-95-year sojourn in the U.S. as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York.

In the Friday preview we sneak-peeked the first and second movements of the New World Symphony, so I thought we'd start today with some teasing from the third, once again a scherzo. Dvořák has built rhythmic quirkiness into the main theme of the Scherzo, but that doesn't prevent him from playing with those rhythms -- and transforming them into something very different!

Philharmonia Orchestra, Otto Klemeprer, cond. EMI, recorded Oct. 30-Nov. 2, 1963 [audio link]

Our other tease again involves playing with rhythm as part of the toolkit for transforming the musical mood, in this case paving the way for the outbreak of the jolly trio section of the Scherzo.

New York Stadium Symphony Orchestra, Leonard Bernstein, cond. American Decca, recorded in Carnegie Hall, July 28, 1953 (mono) [audio link]


FOR TODAY'S JOURNEY THROUGH DVOÁK'S NEW WORLD,
AND SOME FORWARD EXTRAPOLATION, CLICK HERE

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