It's a belter. 3, 5, 7, 8 and 9 are my fave Dvorak symphonies. 7 and 8 are the apex for me.

 

The 8th is my favorite symphony from Dvořák. Other favorites would be the 1st and 4th, which seem to always get dumped on for no good reason. The 7th, while quite good, doesn’t quite hit me like the 8th.

 

It's more Brahmsian than just about anything else Dvorak composed -- dark and dramatic, not exactly Dvorak's countenance. I especially enjoy Davis and Concertgebouw Orchestra.

 

Great symphony. From a formal perspective probably Dvorak's finest. And it's a lot of fun to play, also. No favorite recording - like his 8th and 9th, the 7th has a cornucopia of excellent versions.

 

The 8th is perhaps my favourite symphony by any composer, but it was the 7th that made me really fall in love with the old czech master.

 

Off and on, down the years, the seventh has been my favourite Dvorak symphony. It's the symphony that made me fall In love with Dvorak. I suppose the 7th 8th and 9th are all different but equivalently excellent.

Earlier this year, 26 January, I attended a concert performance by The London Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kazushi Ono that blew me away and caused this symphony to go top of my list again. I also had a very interesting chat with the principal percussionist after the gig.

Lately I've got high on the 9th. A BBC Building a Library broadcast a little while ago brought it all flooding back!

I'd give a shout to for symphony no. 3, especially in the Myung-Whun Chung BPO DG performance. It is c/w a very good performance of the 7th too.

1 & 2 do not move me at all (my bad, I'm sure) nor do 4. 5 & 6 a very good but not up to the standard of 3, 7, 8 & 9, IMVHO.

Back to symphony no. 7, there are many excellent recordings that I enjoy hugely. But aim a pea-shooter (remember them? 😁) at me and force me too name a recording, I'd say Dohnanyi, Cleveland Decca.

 

#7 is my favorite too. It was Neumann's 1981 recording, on the Supraphon postage stamp release, that won me over. There are better #8s than that coupling offers, but that disc, like a few others from that series, is a keeper for the long run.

I also think Harnoncourt did quite well on #7-9.

 

#7 is my favorite too. It was Neumann's 1981 recording, on the Supraphone postage stamp release, that won me over. There are better #8s than that coupling offers, but that disc, like a few others from that series, is a keeper for the long run.

I also think Harnoncourt did quite well on #7-9.

Neumann's 1981 was the recording that did it for me circa 1990 - found a Japanese super-duper CD at a knock down price and never I looked back!

 

One of my favourite symphonies by any composer. David/RCO is my favourite recording but both Neumann’s, Haitink and Dohnanyi are really good as well

 

I have a few recordings by Szell, Neumann, and Giulini. Playing the Giulini / London Philharmonic on EMI at the moment. I've loved the 8th for over 30 years but I'm still trying to warm up to the 7th.

 

I would say this is certainly Dvorak's greatest symphony and the equal of anything of Brahms but I have enormous problems with the interpretations -- virtually all of them. Because it is a deeply serious and to some extent classically proportioned work, the open-air folksiness of Kertesz which works so well in most of the symphonies just feel wrong here in the first two movements at any rate which need a smoother yet still Czech feeling about them -- no brash or stodgy Germanic or American interpretations here, please. The wonderful slow movement seems to attract the most illogical and wrong headed tempi relationships and in addition the brooding, glowing atmosphere seems particularly hard to capture. Monteux did his best and gets quite close here. Possibly the best, Talich is in absolutely ancient sound.

Despite the greatness of this symphony, I would say that perhaps, because of interpretation issues, that no. 3 remains my favourite (under Kertesz) -- its passionate opening movement was never surpassed by the composer.

 

I have always thought this D's finest symphony, perhaps because, unlike its successors, it has such a strong Finale. But I still have a soft spot for 8.

 

I low the 7th. The Dohnányi/ Cleveland is my favorite recording. I nearly equally love the Mackerras/ Philharmonia. Dorati and London & Giulini and the RCO also make me happy.

 

The Dohnányi/ Cleveland is my favorite recording

the Dohnani is a certain Hurwitz'a favourite and has been widely praised elsewhere. I do like how committed it is but it seems a bit too brash and perhaps opulent for my taste. But there are certainly far worse out there.

 

The 7th is my favorite but like the 6th it might be almost too "Brahmsian" with Dvorak avoiding most of the "Bohemian" melodies and moods. The 8th is IMO the more original, more "Dvorakian" piece.

 

In one sense I agree. The 8th was my introduction to the composer and the one which made me fall in love with him. Nevertheless, I like both the "Brahmsian" symphonies and indeed no. 6 at least as much as no.7 which does not seem to be the case with others from the replies so far. But then I have a perverse love of the first two symphonies which I find just as stirring as the last two, though very different in character. Unfortunately they are virtually never performed in concert (and the first in particular is often subject to hideous cuts which completely destroy the character)

 

I don’t think Dvorak sounds like Brahms at all. I hear some influences, sure, but the material in itself is not Brahmsian. If you think otherwise could you please specify what elements you have in mind?

 

You may be right, just that parts of this monster symphony always reminds me of Brahms

 

do you know the finale of no.6? It's so similar to the finale of Brahms 2 (which was almost certainly the model as the key is also the same) that I sometimes get them mixed up. Taken as a whole, though, I find them to be quite different composers and that becomes even more the case in the later Dvorak works -- say from the 8th symphony onwards.

 

The beginning of Dvorak's 6th sounds even more like Brahms's 2nd, I think. The 7th doesn't really sound like Brahms although it shares the not very common 6/8 in a dramatic minor movement with Brahms 1st. But to me the 7th seems to intentionally? avoid the "Bohemian" moods and melodies that usually pop up all over Dvorak.
I.e. the point is not that it uses Brahmsian material but avoids/minimizes folksy material and is a serious dark Germanic symphony, and there Brahms is the obvious contemporary parallel.

 

The beginning of Dvorak's 6th sounds even more like Brahms's 2nd, I think. The 7th doesn't really sound like Brahms although it shares the not very common 6/8 in a dramatic minor movement with Brahms 1st. But to me the 7th seems to intentionally? avoid the "Bohemian" moods and melodies that usually pop up all over Dvorak.
I.e. the point is not that it uses Brahmsian material but avoids/minimizes folksy material and is a serious dark Germanic symphony, and there Brahms is the obvious contemporary parallel.

With that I can agree!

 

I generally like all of his symphonies, but I think the 8th is probably still my favorite.

 

I think there's a misunderstanding of what people mean when they say Dvorak's 7th is Brahmsian. There were a LOT of composers who were Brahmsian but that doesn't mean they sound exactly like him, but more that they followed his lead in some ways. Dvorak in particular was a classicist as was Brahms. No program symphonies for them which were almost expected in the 19th c. Like Raff and his followers - everything had a program or narrative or at least a suggestive title. With the idea of classicism comes the clear, logical formal layout and the 7th exhibits that more clearly than 8 or 9 which tend to be more rhapsodic - like Mahler and company. Brahmsian also refers to orchestration: neither Dvorak or Brahms resorted to using heavy percussion for effect; they were not of the Bass Drum and Cymbals Finale school. The Tchaikovsky 4th was loaded up with exciting percussion writing, but then in the 5th he retreated to a more classical view. On a much more complicated level, Brahmsian refers to certain harmonic and modulation techniques the most people are totally oblivious to; it's quite sophisticated compared to Mahler, Tchaikovsky, and even Bruckner where key changes are often in-your-face obvious.

What has bothered me for a long time is that Brahms somehow gets all the credit for restoring the classical symphony in the 19th c conveniently ignoring the fact that Dvorak had written five symphonies before Brahms had even written one!

Also - regarding the Dvorak 1st. Many conductors don't like it, didn't want to record it and some made cuts without regret. Dvorak himself didn't like it, didn't think it was any good and he considered what is now Symphony no. 2 to be his first. That's why on the manuscript score of the New World (old no. 5, new no. 9) the composer wrote Symphony no. 8.

I play with one orchestra that is slowly and steadily getting through the Dvorak symphonies...in reverse order it seems. We've now done 9, 8, 7, and 6 with 5 on the schedule for next year. I hope we keep it up - I'm waiting for no. 3.

 

Dvorak himself didn't like it, didn't think it was any good

If that was the case, then why did he submit it to a competition in Germany after which the score was never seen again until it turned up in 1923? Of course he would regard no.2 as his first as the real first was assumed lost without trace. I myself find the first a uniquely haunting work which doesn't seem a bar too long, despite certain obvious awkwardnesses.

 

I agree with pretty much everything mbh has said above. And I'll add - Dvorak is not easy to play. Years ago my orchestra started rehearsing Dvorak 7 immediately after performing a concert including Mahler 1, and I can tell you in the 1st violins Dvorak was much harder to get right (and less 'fakeable'!) than Mahler.

 

fair enough - I can relate to that. Except fortunately I didn't start writing until my mid-30's.

 

I have the same box, it was from the 70's, I believe.

fair enough - I can relate to that. Except fortunately I didn't start writing until my mid-30's.

For everybody and their comments on No.1 individual movements, here is a YT link to his 1st that Serebrier conducted. He altered some of his early mistakes in the finale. For those fans of Kubelik, if you have not heard any of his work with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, he was the conductor before Reiner in the early'50s, you're missing a treat.

Symphony No. 1 in C Minor, B. 9 "The Bells of Zlonice": I. Allegro (youtube.com)

 

Well, the 9th STILL has great, musical points; I'm sure none of you would deny that. Maybe the old phrase "familiarity breeds contempt" might enter into certain opinions of the New World, also. In other words, it's been PLAYED and RECORDED, so often, that we virtually know it by heart, and maybe tend to dismiss it. The 7th AND the 8th, though, have different, and great, expositions, developments, etc.! ... As for recordings of the 7th, don't forget Monteux/LSO. As for the 8th, Szell & Amsterdam Concertgebouw is comparable to any other, including "Papa George" and his beloved Cleveland Orchestra.

 

Not a big fan of Dvorak's 7th. Too Brahmsian for my taste 😆