ANTONIN DVORAK: Symphony 8 - 9, The Noonday Witch (Seiji Ozawa) [CD de audio] Seiji Ozawa, Wiener Philarmoniker, Dvorak and Seij

Antonin Dvorák's (1841-1904) reputation as a symphonist was definitively established with the publication of his 5th and 6th symphonies, and the triumphant reception of his greatest symphony, the 7th. The 8th is a lighter and sunnier work and was an immediate success, especially in the United Kingdom, where Dvorák enjoyed good press and public adoration, and the work was for a short time strange to the English, considering that it is full of cheerful Czech and Bohemian dance rhythms. The 9th Symphony is both an American and a Czech symphony. Dvorák commented that by discovering black melodies I discovered everything necessary for a great and noble school of music. He was also at the time of the composition of the 9th, staying in the small American town of Spillville (population 300), which had a large community of Czech emigrants. Although surrounded by people from his homeland, he longed to return home, and a nostalgic feeling permeates the score along with the influences of Native American themes and black spirituals. What the 9th lacks in terms of structure compared to numbers 6 and 7, it makes up for in pure melodic richness. It has been a concert hall favorite since its New York premiere in 1893. Dvorák abandoned the symphony after 1893 and embarked on a series of tone poems that contain some of his most notable music, and anticipate the later tone poems of both Sibelius as well as Strauss, as well as the sound world of Janácek. The Midday Witch, along with the other 3 works in the series, are based on often brutal and terrifying Czech folktales. In this play, the mother tries to calm her baby by saying that the midday witch will come as punishment if the baby doesn't stop crying...the baby keeps crying, the witch appears and kills mother and child.