GRAMOPHONE Review: Dvořák Legends, Czech Suite – WDR Sinfonieorchester/Mascelaru
Like the Slavonic Dances before them Dvořák’s Legends sound and feel like they were born into an orchestra. Piano, four hands, seems like a distant memory though clearly the homespun ‘salon’ ethos will always be redolent of home, sweet home. We don’t hear them in their entirety nearly often enough and perhaps the biggest compliment I can pay to Cristian Macelaru and his WDR Sinfonieorchester is that they sound authentic enough to have sprung from Bohemia’s woods and fields.
Of course, much of the charm is written into this music and with even a modicum of TLC it slips from the page and into our affections. Dvorak’s lyricism is so effortless, generous, and guileless whether it’s singing or dancing (small wonder Brahms was so enamoured). The quality and abundance of the melodies and everything they exude (just listen to the opening Allegretto non troppo alone) is completely disproportionate to their bite-sized format here – but better yet they belong to a larger whole and the way that they are ordered and juxtaposed makes for a grand accumulative effect.
As I say, Macelaru and his orchestra have the lilt and charm of them with nothing forced or over-exerted and yet with an openness to be excitable where it counts – like the Molto maestoso of the fourth with its suggestion of ‘Land of Hope and Glory’ (always makes me smile). In the B section of the Allegro con moto the homely portamento aches with nostalgia while the final Andante is rosy with it.
The accompanying Czech Suite spirits us between country and courtly dancing invoking the classical, the Baroque, in ways that somehow make the earthy elegant. The opening Preludium is very lovely – a pastoral scene elevated to another level – and in the Romance Macelaru makes you notice things like the endearing exchange between flute and cor anglais (unlikely lovers) and, typical of Dvořák, the gorgeous modulation into the horn solo.
These are great examples of the art concealing art which characterise this composer’s work. I’ve never met anyone who didn’t readily yield to Dvořák’s music on its journey to the New World and back again and who end up like me being flabbergasted by a late masterpiece like Rusalka. Performing this music is really all about wrapping yourself around it but most of all it’s about exuding – as here – the sheer pleasure of just playing it.
