The Augmented Station Orchestra, conducted by Warwick Braithwaite
This is surely one of the most exhilarating pieces of music ever written. Its themes ore taken from Berlioz' Opera, Benvenuto Cellini, which was produced in 1838, but was not a great success as a whole.
At the opening we find ourselves in the midst of Carnival jollity.
In a moment, however, there comes a lovely slow tune, given to Cor Anglais, with but a slight accompaniment, mainly with plucked Strings.
Then the Violin takes up the slow tune, Flutes weaving another one in with it. Further treatment of this tune follows.
All this is introductory - an Overture to an Overture, so to speak. At last comes a quick passage, with a change to six-in-a-bar time (beginning with Muted Strings) and with this we dash into the Overture proper-a lively and brilliant thing, full of fine orchestral effects.
This Symphony consists of four separate Movements. They are quite distinct, though from the Second Movement onwards one constantly hears bits of tunes from the other Movements.
The First Movement begins with a portentous and rather gloomy Introduction. Soon, however, this gives way to a vigorous, lively piece of music.
The Second Movement was intended, it is said, to express the composer's reflections on Hiawatha's courtship of Minnehaha. Certainly the greater part of it is like a very expressive love-song.
The Scherzo reminds us that Dvorak, the son of a butcher-innkeeper, never lost his love of peasant ways. There is something here of the countryman's boisterous good humour-almost, we might say, of the horse-play variety.
The Last Movement is forceful and dramatic.
