Antonín Dvořák:
Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B 163 (with Score)
Composed: 26 August - 8 November 1889
Conductor: István Kertész
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra
00:00 1. Allegro con brio (G major)
10:09 2. Adagio (C minor - C major)
20:12 3. Allegretto grazioso - Molto vivace (G minor - G major)
26:14 4. Allegro ma non troppo (G major)
After the crisis of the mid-1880s, represented above all by the sombre Seventh Symphony and the Piano Trio in F minor, the period during which Dvořák produced his Eighth Symphony was now a time of equilibrium, when the composer sought the answers to fundamental issues of human existence. The work was written during the summer and early autumn of 1889, mainly at his summer residence in Vysoka. This environment, in which Dvořák was most at ease, seemed to be reflected in the overall atmosphere of his new symphony. Here he created a work filled with the joys of life and his admiration for natural beauty and, once again, the piece reveals the composer’s fondness for Czech and Slavonic folk music. Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8 is characteristic for its variable moods, which follow one another in a colourful sequence of pastoral images, then dance and march temperaments, and finally passages of heightened drama. In terms of its thematic material, the work is marked by a cantabile style whose clear-cut contours and largely diatonic progressions are more typical of a vocal, rather than instrumental, type of melody.
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