Word: dvo
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DVORAK: Serenade for Strings, Op. 22; Czech Suite, Op. 39 (Orchestre de Chambre de Lausanne, Armin Jordan, conductor; Erato). Dvořák is best known for his last three symphonies (including the inescapable "New World") and his omnipresent Cello Concerto, but many have long admired his smaller works. The Czech Suite brims with rustic high spirits−it includes a polka, a sousedka, or "neighbors' dance," and a dashing furiant−while the Serenade for Strings is a five-movement study in country-squire elegance. Jordan, a Swiss conductor who came to general attention leading the score...
...amphitheater is made of wood, and its vast roof arches gently overhead like the soundboard of a huge violin. It begins to resonate to the sonorities of Dvořák's Eighth Symphony. "Wood is the best acoustic material there is," Gottschalk says. "Concrete is dead. Wood is alive." Appearing peaceful and intent, hearing nothing that requires correction, he lets the Dvořák build and flow...
...something fresher and equally palatable? Instead of Zarathustra, for example, why not Strauss's eloquent valedictory, the Metamorphosen for 23 solo strings? Instead of yet another oft-encountered romantic symphony, how about Austrian Composer Franz Schmidt's dark, troubled Fourth Symphony? Instead of one more go at Dvořák's "New World" Symphony, why not his exhilarating tone poem The Wood Dove...
...DVOŘÁK: CONCERTO FOR CELLO (Lynn Harrell, cellist; London Symphony Orchestra; James Levine, conductor; RCA; $6.98). Its jubilant fire, four-seasons color and unstrained lyric impulse make this the finest cello concerto ever written. The fast-emerging Harrell recalls the heroic eloquence of the late Emanuel Feuermann, and the peripatetic Levine, soon to become music director of the Metropolitan Opera, offers a brilliant reminder that Dvořák wrote the work for orchestra as well as cello...
...Dvořák: The Golden Spinning Wheel, Symphonic Variations (London Symphony Orchestra, Istvan Kertesz conductor; London, $5.98). Mention the words "tone poem" and the average post-Romantic music buff will think of Franz (Mazeppa) Liszt or Richard (Don Juan) Strauss, but rarely of Dvorak. A pity, since Dvorak, too, was a master of the genre. His subjects varied from The Watersprite to The Midday Witch, but he was never more magical than in The Golden Spinning Wheel. Recounting the fairy tale of a lovely spinning girl who pays somewhat gruesomely for a king's love, Dvorak filled...