Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 - II. Poco Adagio

this whole symphony is closely related - directly inspired, in fact - to brahms 3rd, which is probably one of my favorite three symphonies of all time. this symphony, too, is a great favorite of mine, especially the very popular third mvt. :)

this is a pretty sympathetic recording, if a bit on the brisk side. youtube actually doesn't offer a whole lot for this movement.
i'll be brief today. this symphony was written in 1885. it's the first of the trilogy of symphonies dvorak is mostly known for, originally billed as No. 2, composed on commission by the London Royal Philharmonic Society [dvorak's symphonies were pretty much all published out of order in terms of when he actually composed them. see if you can find the original order :) ]. he wanted it to reflect the political struggles of the Czech, but as opposed to being simply full of patriotism, it was a pretty conscious attempt to internationalize his message. probably every program note ever written about this symphony mentions two quotes by dvorak - "may this czech music move the world" (referring to the symphony) and "there is not one superfluous note" (referring to the 2nd mvt in particular).

the reason he refers to the 2nd movement this way is because originally the movement was about 150% as long. a really interesting experiment using his original score for this movement can be found here.
http://kingouf.wordpress.com/jukebox/dvorak-symphony-no-7/
the coolest thing, i think, is how you can sort of hear nuggets of the third movement in the stuff that gets cut out (beginning about 4 minutes in). i don't think anyone knows for sure, but it is kind of cool to imagine that he culled the superfluous parts of the 2nd mvt to make them into the awesome 3rd mvt that we know.

other things to note about the symphony in general are the semi-program/subtitles attached to it. it's sometimes called the "tragic" symphony, usually with reference to the then-recent death of his mother, and makes terrific use of an "undercurrent" of tension - sometimes (as in the very opening of the symphony) with drones and tremolo, other times (as in the sinuous string melody around 1:15 of the recording, and the dark colored wind chords that affirm it). more subtly, notice how almost every line ends in sort of wistfulness, never really reaching the heights you want it to (just listen to the beginning - it's nice chorale writing, but not exactly cathartic).

for one of the most beautiful horn solos and horn writing, go to 2:20. fantastic.

one of my favorite things about dvorak slow movements is that they aren't ever sleepy. note the tumultuous f minor section at 3:02 (one more "disappointment" arrival, when you think it's going to hit the big F Major... and it keeps getting further - d-flat major after this). also note how the line keeps falling and falling.

as a violinist i'm pretty much obliged to have my favorite part in the movement be the violin melody at 3:56 which is angsty and songful and really worth savoring, especially the out-of-nowhere d-sharp (and the big b-octave yawn right after that).
but as always in dvorak, celli get the best melodies (5:22). man, i wish i could play that instrument.