Bernard Haitink conducts Dvořák: Symphony No. 7 and Scherzo capriccioso
Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 and his ’Scherzo capriccioso’ in an highly impressive recording with the Symphonieorchester des Bayserischen Rundfunks, conducted by Bernard Haitink.
Order online nowANTONÍN DVOŘÁK – SYMPHONY No. 7 d minor, op. 70 and Scherzo capriccioso, op. 66
The Dutch conductor Bernard Haitink and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra enjoyed a long and intensive artistic collaboration, which came to an abrupt end with Haitink’s death in October 2021. BR-KLASSIK now presents outstanding and previously unreleased live recordings of their concerts from past years. This recording of Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony documents a concert given in March 1981 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz. The “Scherzo capriccioso” is a studio recording, also from March 1981.
Following the success of Antonín Dvořák’s first visit to London in 1884, the London Philharmonic Society asked him to return the following year and to compose a new symphony for the occasion. It was an honourable request – after all, the London Philharmonic Society had commissioned Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony six decades earlier! When Dvořák began sketching out the symphony on December 13, 1884, he was well aware of the high expectations involved – both his own and those of others. Most music critics and Dvořák biographers, however, have struggled with the interpretation of this exceptional piece. For example, it has been interpreted “politically” against the background of the growing German-Czech tensions of those years. But the existential power of the D minor Symphony – its anger, its expansive pessimism, i.e. its confessional character – may also derive from the biography and personality of its composer, which were probably far more complex, painful and problematic than any “Bohemian idyll” we might assume. Even in Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony, which is considered to be more cheerful, and in his last symphony, “From the New World”, one can still detect a more or less latent tendency towards tragic longing. The world premiere of the Seventh Symphony took place on April 22, 1885 in London, with the composer conducting. It became one of Dvořák’s greatest successes.
Dvořák’s “Scherzo capriccioso” of 1883 is certainly more than just a filler on this CD. The fact that it is more dramatic and passionate than its playful title suggests is probably due to the fact that it was written at a time of crisis in the composer’s life. The work is an elaborate composition of convincing craftsmanship, skilfully developed both formally and thematically, with great musical ingenuity and dance-like verve.
BR-KLASSIK CD 900223
Antonín Dvořák
Symphony No. 7 D minor, op. 70
(Live recording: Munich, Herkulessaal der Residenz, 26./27.03.1981)
Scherzo capriccioso, op. 66
(Studio recording: Munich, Herkulessaal der Residenz, 24.03.1981)
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Bernard Haitink conductor
Total Time: 49’41 minutes
- Dvořák’s impressive Seventh Symphony of 1884/85 and his “Scherzo capriccioso” of 1883 – essential works of late 19th-century Czech instrumental music
- Recording of a concert given in March 1981 in the Herkulessaal of the Munich Residenz (Symphony No. 7); the studio recording of the “Scherzo capriccioso” was also made at the same time
- A representative example of Bernard Haitink’s long-standing collaboration with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
