Prague Symphony Orchestra & Tomas Brauner - Dvořák: Slavonic Dances (2023) [Official Digital Download 24/192]

Highly impressed by the Moravian Duets, even though the set had yet to be issued, the Berlin-based publisher Fritz Simrock wrote to the young Antonín Dvořák, commissioning from him another work and outlining his idea of its being in the fashion of Brahms’s Hungarian Dances. The composer duly sketched the first series of Slavonic Dances within a few hours, and completed the version for piano four hands in three weeks. At the same time, he worked on the orchestration. In an extensive essay in the NationalZeitung in Berlin, the influential critic Louis Ehlert lauded Dvořák so keenly that he brought the then unknown Czech artist overnight fame: “I consider the Slavonic Dances a piece that will circle the world just as Brahms’s Hungarian Dances have… Divine naturalness circulates in this music… Dvořák writes such cheerful and singular basslines that the heart of a true musician jumps for joy… I think how wonderful it would be to see once again emerging a musician about whom we would need to argue as little as about spring.” During the first year after its publication, selected Slavonic Dances were performed in Prague, New York, Boston, London, Berlin, Dresden, Hamburg, Cologne, Bonn, Nice, Graz, Lucerne, and other cities… Dvořák’s music is deeply engraved in the DNA of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, who have performed it under conductors of such renown as Jiří Bělohlávek, Charles Mackerras, Václav Neumann, Tomáš Netopil, etc. The new recording, made with Tomáš Brauner, the orchestra’s current music director, draws upon an illustrious interpretation tradition, with its rounded and transparent sound capturing the best qualities of the exquisite Art Nouveau Smetana Hall of the Municipal House in Prague.

Tracklist:
01. Slavonic Dances, Series I., Op. 46, B. 83: I. in C major. Presto
02. Slavonic Dances, Series I., Op. 46, B. 83: II. in E minor. Allegretto scherzando
03. Slavonic Dances, Series I., Op. 46, B. 83: III. in A flat major. Poco allegro
04. Slavonic Dances, Series I., Op. 46, B. 83: IV. in F major. Tempo di menuetto
05. Slavonic Dances, Series I., Op. 46, B. 83: V. in A major. Allegro vivace
06. Slavonic Dances, Series I., Op. 46, B. 83: VI. in D major. Allegretto scherzando
07. Slavonic Dances, Series I., Op. 46, B. 83: VII. in C minor. Allegro assai
08. Slavonic Dances, Series I., Op. 46, B. 83: VIII. in G minor. Presto
09. Slavonic Dances, Series II., Op. 72, B. 147: I. in B major. Molto vivace
10. Slavonic Dances, Series II., Op. 72, B. 147: II. in E minor. Allegretto grazioso
11. Slavonic Dances, Series II., Op. 72, B. 147: III. in F major. Allegro
12. Slavonic Dances, Series II., Op. 72, B. 147: IV. in D flat major. Allegretto grazioso
13. Slavonic Dances, Series II., Op. 72, B. 147: V. in B flat minor. Poco adagio
14. Slavonic Dances, Series II., Op. 72, B. 147: VI. in B flat major. Moderato, quasi minuetto
15. Slavonic Dances, Series II., Op. 72, B. 147: VII. in C major. Presto
16. Slavonic Dances, Series II., Op. 72, B. 147: VIII. in A flat major. Lento grazioso, quasi tempo di valse


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