Dvorak: Symphonies 5 & 6 (CD review)

Also, Scherzo capriccioso; The Hero's Song. Jiri Belohlavek, BBC Symphony Orchestra. Warner Classics 2564 63235-2 (2-disc set).

I've read that Czech composer Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904) was particularly fond of his Fifth Symphony. Well he should have been; while Nos. 7, 8, and especially 9 get all the attention, No. 5 tends to get overshadowed and sometimes even forgotten. But it's a splendid piece of music, as is its companion piece, the Symphony No. 6, the two of them forming a kind of pastoral duo. You can hear them both to good effect in this Warner Classics two-disc set with Jiri Belohlavek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Belohlavek, the longtime conductor of various Czech orchestras, like the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Symphony, and the Prague Philharmonia, knows the music inside and out and plays up the lyrical elements in both works. The Fifth begins delightfully, full of bounce and high spirits, and ends with appropriate excitement and good tidings. The Sixth, if anything even lighter and more cheerful than the Fifth, also comes off with an elegant poetry and grace. Dvorak and Belohlavek have the ability to make us feel the bucolic atmosphere of the music, and, if you close your eyes, actually to visualize the Czech countryside. They are lovely interpretations, nicely complemented by two of Dvorak's shorter works, the Scherzo capriccioso and The Hero's Song.

I wish I could be more glowing about the audio, too, but here I came away with mixed feelings. The engineers recorded the Symphony No. 5 in the studio in 2006, and it sounds a bit flat, not dynamic enough overall, and not full enough in the bass to be entirely realistic. They recorded the Symphony No. 6 live at the Royal Festival Hall in 1999, and while it is much warmer, richer, and fuller, it does not sound as detailed. So neither recording is quite up to par sonically, although neither recording will entirely disappoint most listeners. In both cases, the performances overcome any minor shortcomings in the sound.

JJP