tracks

[Disc 1]
1. 1st mvt. A quiet beginning, sorrow, syncopation, and sequence
2. 1st mvt. Instrumental colour as a prime element: clarinets and bassoons, an outburst by the French
3. 1st mvt. The opening tune again, with different instrumental colouring: now flutes and oboes
4. 1st mvt. The first big surprise: strings, shattering drumbeats, shrieks from flutes, oboes, and cla
5. 1st mvt. Cellos and basses take us into a new key while flutes and oboes dance in syncopation.
6. 1st mvt. Horns, violas, and cellos introduce a new idea, soon to evolve into the main theme.
7. 1st mvt. A tiny detail from the opening culminates in a wild drumming that heralds a major event
8. 1st mvt. Introduction complete
9. 1st mvt. A solo horn introduces the main theme, perkily answered by bassoons and horns.
10. 1st mvt. The theme moves to G major; answering phrase from flutes, oboes, bassoons; the main theme
11. 1st mvt. Long crescendo, tremolo strings, back to tonic and biggest statement yet of the main theme
12. 1st mvt. Transition to the secondary theme through the use of sequence. Sonata form; stability and
13. 1st mvt. Three-bar groupings and again the use of sequence, spelling out a chord
14. 1st mvt. The sequence continues to rise, and the four-bar phrase returns as the standard unit.
15. 1st mvt. The first violins start off the next phrase, but the melodic shape is more compact.
16. 1st mvt. The violins fall silent; the violas and cellos answer with a new figure, a variation of th
17. 1st mvt. So now we have a two-bar group, made up of statement and answer.
18. 1st mvt. The same thing again (through not quite the same)
19. 1st mvt. Transition complete. The secondary theme arrives, with French horns as bagpipes.
20. 1st mvt. The bagpipe drone is taken over by cellos with their insistently repeated G and D.
21. 1st mvt. The tune is taken up by cellos and double-basses, shadowed by the second violins; a fanf
22. 1st mvt. The violins continue a patterns of steady pairs, and the cellos and basses introduce a new
23. 1st mvt. Unexpectedly, we find ourselves back with the secondary theme. A new idea emerges.
24. 1st mvt. Again we hear the shortened version of the secondary theme, followed by mounting instabili
25. 1st mvt. The suspense is heightened as everything slows down; a soft, still variant of the interru
26. 1st mvt. This beautiful flute tune is said to resemble Swing Low, Sweet Chariot.
27. 1st mvt. A big crescendo leads to a final statement of the closing theme, bringing the exposition t
28. 1st mvt. The development section begins with a conversation between cellos, double-basses, and viol
29. 1st mvt. The beginning of the closing theme is taken up in turn by the horn, piccolo, and trumpet.
30. 1st mvt. Sequential chirping from the oboes based on the answering part of the main theme, now in
31. 1st mvt. Much of the development comes from a diminution of the closing theme from the exposition.
32. 1st mvt. A tiny detail becomes a major ingredient, giving an agitated quality to an originally sunn
33. 1st mvt. Through a sequence of keys so quickly that it is hard to keep track of them: there is a de
34. 1st mvt. The main theme from massed cellos and double-basses, topped by two trumpets over tremolo v
35. 1st mvt. After that major climax, we arrive at the threshold of the recapitulation, courtesy of win
36. 1st mvt. Dvorák flouts tradition by setting the secondary theme and the closing theme in unexpected
37. 1st mvt. The tumultuous convulsion of the coda brings the first movement to its epic close.
38. 1st mvt. Humpty Dumpty: putting the bits back together again
39. 1st mvt. First movement (complete)
40. 2nd mvt. The very opening chords unmistakably herald the arrival of something special.
41. 2nd mvt. The role of instrumentation in setting the scene...
42. 2nd mvt....and in enhancing the quality of one of the most famous tunes in symphonic history.
43. 2nd mvt. The cor anglais is joined by the clarinet, creating a fascinating change in the timbre.
44. 2nd mvt. For the closing part of the tune, there is another new sonority: cor anglais plus bassoon.
45. 2nd mvt. The closing bar is repeated by clarinets and bassoons, the horn adding a new touch of colo
46. 2nd mvt. Back to the start to hear the whole of the story so far, this time without commentary
47. 2nd mvt. A change of scoring: the slow opening chords return, this time played by the winds alone.
48. 2nd mvt. The changes in scoring are just beginning
49. 2nd mvt. The flutes and oboes introduce a new tune, over hushed tremolo strings.
50. 2nd mvt. A memorable combination of continuous, asymmetrical melody with steady, march-like counter
51. 2nd mvt. Back in that woodland glade, the light and shadows have changed, revealing new shapes and
52. 2nd mvt. The next section is new and forward-looking, yet also a kind of dream-recollection of a pa
53. 2nd mvt. An abrupt change of mood, much discussion and embellishment, and a hushed note of expectan
54. 2nd mvt. Subjectivity and expertise; Sourek and Tovey disagree; onwards, into the final section
55. 2nd mvt. Cue to whole movement
56. 2nd mvt. Second movement (complete)
[Disc 2]
1. 3rd mvt. Dvorák, Beethoven and the Scherzo. Dvorák purposely confuses the listeners expectations.
2. 3rd mvt. Using a little fanfare, Dvorák further builds up expectation before revealing the movement
3. 3rd mvt. When the theme is revealed, we find that it is not exactly a tune.
4. 3rd mvt. Two little bursts of rhythm povide the seeds from which much of the movement grows.
5. 3rd mvt. It is the second half of the theme that dominates.
6. 3rd mvt. Back to the beginning to hear the whole of this opening section
7. 3rd mvt. Without ever being remotely academic or intellectual, there is much counterpoint going
8. 3rd mvt. Dvoráks very Czech love of combining conflicting rhythms, sometimes metres
9. 3rd mvt. A clearly transitional passage, obsessed with the rhythmic tag that both opens and closes
10. 3rd mvt. Sooner than we may have expected, we seem to have arrived at the Trio section.
11. 3rd mvt. A new kind of tone quality sheds a subtly different light on the theme.
12. 3rd mvt. The flutes and oboes now chime in with an answering variant of the opening...
13. 3rd mvt...and the cellos and bassoons take up the original version of the theme.
14. 3rd mvt. A false alarm: it was not the traditional Trio section at all, but rather part two of the
15. 3rd mvt. Soon, after a very rapid build, the Scherzo proper does reach its final phase.
16. 3rd mvt. The orchestral texture thins dramatically, and we approach what this time really is the Tr
17. 3rd mvt. The Trio section is reminiscent more of the Old World than the New.
18. 3rd mvt. In the second half of the Trio, a new tune emerges, a kind of Slavonic waltz.
19. 3rd mvt. The main theme of the Trio returns against a much fuller orchestral background.
20. 3rd mvt. Then it is all a matter of repeats, until we reach the coda, which ends with an explosive
21. 3rd mvt. Third movement (complete)
22. 4th mvt. Like the first movement, the fourth begins not with its main theme but with an introductio
23. 4th mvt. The main theme: an imposing march, introduced by trumpets and trombones, with timpani
24. 4th mvt. The main theme, part two. A codetta-like passage closes off the march and introduces the
25. 4th mvt. The transitional theme, while outwardly contrasting, is actually a hidden variant of the
26. 4th mvt. A point of future obsession
27. 4th mvt. The second half of this transitional theme is given to the winds as soon as the strings
28. 4th mvt. The obsession takes root, with a ten-fold repetition, before the arrival of the second s
29. 4th mvt. The hidden traps in sonata-form terminology: second main theme vs. second subject
30. 4th mvt. The unexpected entry and subsequent ubiquity of Three Blind Mice
31. 4th mvt. We meet the mice again, now in the cellos and double-basses, where they persistently refus
32. 4th mvt. More Three Blind Mice material
33. 4th mvt. The mice return to the basement, where the bassoons have joined the cellos and double-bass
34. 4th mvt. Next, they are back with the clarinets, now joined by pizzicato violas, who pass them back
35. 4th mvt. Now they return to the high winds, delicately trilling.
36. 4th mvt. Relief, at last: the mice back off, making way for a reminder of the main theme from the t
37. 4th mvt. The mice yield to woodpeckers (clarinets); the main theme (or its opening gambit) is now d
38. 4th mvt. The triplets of the transitional theme are now handed down through strings from the viol
39. 4th mvt. Reminders of past movements begin to fly by, thick and fast, sometimes very fast.
40. 4th mvt. In fact there are three bits of quotation going on here simultaneously.
41. 4th mvt. The violas react every time the Goin Home theme is quoted by the winds.
42. 4th mvt. The rhythm of the opening of the Goin Home theme dominates, transformed by trumpets and
43. 4th mvt. The march theme reappears as a Mendelssohnian fairy; the main theme from the first movemen
44. 4th mvt. We reach an interesing point: have we heard the beginning of the recapitulation, or not?
45. 4th mvt. Perhaps this is it? Back for a reminder of the theme proper, as we first heard it
46. 4th mvt. Tovey places the start of the recapitulation here.
47. 4th mvt. The main theme recast in pathetic rather than heroic terms - and with magical scoring
48. 4th mvt. This unexpected crisis in confidence plays a major role in the overall dramatic impact of
49. 4th mvt. The main theme returns - not complete, but chopped up into shorter and shorter fragments.
50. 4th mvt. A glorious thematic stew; high drama, a powerful build-up...but then?
51. 4th mvt. The dramatic highpoint of the movement, an astonishing transformation, but first, back to
52. 4th mvt. The same chords again, this time blasted out by the entire wind and brass sections
53. 4th mvt. Now we are into the finishing stretch, but the surprises continue to the very end of the v
54. 4th mvt. Summary, context, and cue into the whole movement
55. 4th mvt. Fourth movement (complete)

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