The fact that your opinion on the Dohnanyi recording appears to differ from other people's should serve as a pointer to the fact that there is no absolute best. So now all you need to do is sit back and wait for a huge range of suggestions, some of them clearly contradictory. Then you make a list of all of them, shut your eyes, stick a pin in it, and hope for success.
just relistened to the problematic slow movement of this as in in general, I do admire Kubelik (esp. in Mahler) and there are some very nice things in his 8th. However here, despite the passion and some wonderful moments, it's in places mannered and erratic and the Berlin sounds simply the wrong orchestra for Dvorak. Neither Pesek nor Neumann are ideal and Belohlavek is simply an over-rated conductor, especially in Dvorak. My first recording of this was actually Monteux and I still think he gets closer to the elusive slow movement atmosphere than most others. Rowicki is worth mentioning -- he does nothing horrendously stupid here and is generally a fine and underrated Dvorak conductor.
Don't forget Monteux!!
