Symphony No. 9 / Symphonic Variations

The Czech composer Antonin Dvorák’s Symphony from the New World was written in America, where he had been invited in the early 1980s to establish a National Conservatory. Influenced by Longfellow’s Hiawatha and perhaps by melodies heard during his stay, the symphony nevertheless remains strongly Czech in feeling. His Symphonic Variations, based on the theme from one of his own part-songs, are thoroughly Bohemian in a brilliant use of seemingly intractable and challenging material.