Your two favourite DVORAK and TCHAIKOVSKY SYMPHONIES

[salymap]

A pre proms time waster, if you like. Reasons for choice would be good.


To kick off- Dvorak no 7 in D minor, no 8 in G major.

Tchaikovsky no 4 in F minor, the Manfred [no number that I know of}

[Ferretfancy]

salymap,

Seconded on that, but I'd also like to put in a word for Tchaikovsky's "Winter Daydreams" and Dvorak 6, which is as delightful as the 8th and much less well known for some reason

[jayne lee wilson]

Peaches and cream here, isn't it?

Dvorak - No.5 (Rowicki or Suitner) and No.7 (possibly the recent Malaysia PO/Flor)...
easy to forget that No.5's slow movement, despite being Dvorak's shortest, is one of the loveliest - and then that finale, a desperate ride to the abyss! The note of triumph at the end is almost manic.

Tchaikovsky - currently No.3 again (Dorati/LSO), still so fresh, following the recent BaL thread. The 3 middle movements are nearly a suite in themselves, and the conclusions to first and last movements are among Tchaikovsky's grandest. But usually 6 (Svetlanov 1990)...

[Hornspieler]

Dvorak: Nº 7 for its easy flow and Nº 9 (as a horn player, for obvious reasons but also for its changing moods throughout)

Tchaikowsky: Nº 2 for its charming simplicity and Nº 4 for sheer excitement.
(I might have gone for Nº 6 if it were not for that syruppy quasi-waltz second movement and the heartrending despair of the last movement)

HS

[teamsaint]

Dvorak. Has to be 9. Thoroughly deserves its popularity. I would like to prefer one of the others , but I can't honestly say I do, (and I am a big Dvorak fan !)However, of the others 7 might be my choice...but 6 runs it close, and the scherzo is just so brilliant that I would probably choose it just ahead of 7.

As for Tchaikowsky, an inexpert vote for 4 and 1. 1 is just a lovely work.

[EdgeleyRob]

Dvorak, 8 (musical sunshine) and 9 (this was one of my mum's faves and one of the first classical pieces I was ever aware of).
I don't really listen to much Tchaikowsky but I'll go for 4 (excitement) & 5 (great tunes).

[Tony Halstead]

Of course, we all LOVE Dvorak 6,7,8,9 'to death'...!
Deservedly so.

During a mostly harrowing and stressful few years when I played with the LSO in the early 1970s, I was delighted to discover TWO wonderful Dvorak works of whose existence ( and musical quality) I had been blissfully unaware:

1) Symphonic Variations ( LSO/ Decca/ Kertesz recording which I was lucky enough to take part in - although to this day I am still baffled that Maestro Kertesz kept coming up to me in the recording breaks and saying: 'your tone - it is "too much 'dumpf'".
Maybe I got the spelling wrong..?

2) Symphony no. 2 in Bb, once again I was - in retrospect ( although I wasn't too sure at the time) very lucky to have recorded this with Witold Rowicki.
What a beautifully TUNEFUL work with 'almost too many tunes for its own good'!
a 'Philips' recording ( 1971?) in the amazingly lovely wood-panelled acoustic of Wembley Town Hall.

[aeolium]

Of course, we all LOVE Dvorak 6,7,8,9 'to death'...!

And 5 - well, me anyway, and especially in the Kertesz LSO recording (though I also like the Oslo PO/Janssons recording).

[jayne lee wilson]

Of course, we all LOVE Dvorak 6,7,8,9 'to death'...!
Deservedly so.

During a mostly harrowing and stressful few years when I played with the LSO in the early 1970s, I was delighted to discover TWO wonderful Dvorak works of whose existence ( and musical quality) I had been blissfully unaware:

1) Symphonic Variations ( LSO/ Decca/ Kertesz recording which I was lucky enough to take part in - although to this day I am still baffled that Maestro Kertesz kept coming up to me in the recording breaks and saying: 'your tone - it is "too much 'dumpf'".
Maybe I got the spelling wrong..?

2) Symphony no. 2 in Bb, once again I was - in retrospect ( although I wasn't too sure at the time) very lucky to have recorded this with Witold Rowicki.
What a beautifully TUNEFUL work with 'almost too many tunes for its own good'!
a 'Philips' recording ( 1971?) in the amazingly lovely wood-panelled acoustic of Wembley Town Hall.

Maybe Kertesz was a dumpfkopf...

Waldhorn - I have the original CD issue of the Rowicki box here and it was indeed 1971 for No.2. It is a high point of a great cycle with a dramatic and sensuous poco adagio, its beauty only enhanced by those Wagnerian echoes that occur here and there in all the early symphonies. It's a special set for me - thanks to you and the orchestra for giving these to us.

Rozhdestvensky also has a glorious, little-known reading of the 2nd with the "USSR TV&Radio Large Symphony Orchestra" which by dint of including all repeats stretches to over 62 minutes! Rowicki economises a little to a mere paltry 52...

If anyone finds the obscure "Audiophile Classics" remastered gold CD of the Rozh, grab it! Avoid the Philips Duos of the Rowicki (grey sound), go for the original 2ndhand or perhaps try the recent reissue (haven't heard that one).

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Dvorak - Symphony no 8, because it is so beautiful and haunting from start to finish, and Symphony no. 3 - a work you'd never hear on Breakfast.

Tchaikovsky - What? Only two? Well it will have to be no. 6 (especially that syrupy quasi-waltz second movement and the heartrending despair of the last movement), because it's the most staggering musical composition ever; and number 4 (or perhaps 2, 5 or even "7" - for which I have a particularly soft spot - I've never had a problem with completions).

[Petrushka]

Dvorak: it took me a long time to get into the 7th but persistence paid off and I now consider it the finest. Bernard Haitink's very first recording (1959) was of this work and it's a cracker! The 7th featured in the only concert I attended with Vaclav Neumann and the Czech Philharmonic way back in November 1977.

Tchaikovsky: Manfred without a doubt. An extraordinary work and greater, in my view, than any of the numbered symphonies except the 6th. Is there anything more thrilling than the end of the first movement of Manfred? Favourite recordings: Philharmonia/Muti and LSO/Previn - were you playing on that one Waldhorn?

Edit: Oh we're allowed two are we? Well, in that case I'll go for Dvorak 8, there's a terrific live Giulini from a 1963 Prom on BBC Legends and for Tchaikovsky it must be the 6th. The most stunning Pathetique on disc just has to be a live performance from Mravinsky and the Leningrad Philharmonic that was/is available on the Erato label.

[Beef Oven]

Dvorak - 3 & 7

Tchaik - 3 & 4

[Roehre]

Dvorak 7
Tchaikovsky 5

[gurnemanz]

Dvorak 6 (Pešek Czech Phil)

Tchaik 4 (LSO Szell)

[jayne lee wilson]

Dvorak: Nº 7 for its easy flow and Nº 9 (as a horn player, for obvious reasons but also for its changing moods throughout)

Tchaikowsky: Nº 2 for its charming simplicity and Nº 4 for sheer excitement.
(I might have gone for Nº 6 if it were not for that syruppy quasi-waltz second movement and the heartrending despair of the last movement)

HS

HS - would it help to know what Klemperer said about the allegro con grazia of No.6?...

"But it must be charming; it is the ladies and gentlemen skating in Moscow."