Repertoire: The ULTIMATE Dvořák Wind Serenade

[@johnwright7749]

I can’t think of a better piece to brighten up one’s day than the Dvorak Wind Serenade! My introduction to it was with the Marlboro players on a wonderful LP that also contained Beethoven’s early Octet with the high opus number. Since then I have loved both the Orpheus recording and my favorite, Marriner’s with the String Serenade. So, we agree! Thanks for the discussion. It helped raise my spirits after learning the devastating news of RBG’s untimely death!

[@ammcello]

You forgot to mention the cello! Winds, cello and double bass. Nothing is more fun than getting to play this as a cellist!

[@Bezart34]

Yesssss! An Orpheus box. I'll be in the queue.

[@murraylow4523]

Thank you Dave. I do love this work, and glad you’re going to do some similar Mozart. There are other great wind things as some of the couplings there suggest: Janacek, Nielsen, and Stravinsky. The latter’s Octet might be more historically important than enjoyable but Symphonies of Wind Instruments is (to my mind) such a masterpiece that it’d be great to get your takes on that sometime

[@songsmith31a]

I have the Silvestri recording on both vinyl and CD, plus the Barbirolli and Ormandy versions and my personal favourite has to be the Silvestri/BSO recording. I was privileged to know the late Cornish composer George Lloyd (see your review of his 5th Symphony) and over tea one afternoon he spoke of his own admiration for Silvestri when discussing conductors and orchestras. GL conducted the BSO in a London (Barbican) concert of his 11th Symphony to great effect. Keep up the good work on these entertaining and informative reviews.

[@jwinder2]

A little aside on the Moyse recording. Louis Moyse was the son of Marcel Moyse, and Marcel is the conductor of the Beethoven Octet on that recording. Marcel has a much greater reputation than Louis, though both of them did very great things. I attended Marcel Moyse's woodwind seminars in the late 70's and early 80's in Brattleboro, Vermont; they always preceded the Marlboro season at the beginning of the summer.

[@Arixflipar]

I love the Oslo Wind Soloist disc. It appears they only made one other recording and that is of some Mozart wind serenades including the great C minor serenade, a disc which is also worth checking out.

[@zemoderno]

Thank you David. I loved your recommendations. I only knew the version of The Nash Ensemble. It's a good recording.

[@ThreadBomb]

That was CRD and reissued by Brilliant. It's probably seen a fairly wide distribution, so I wish Dave had addressed it.

[@jimyoung9262]

Hail to the Psycho Being in Chief™ Love Dvorak videos. Warts and all! Thanks for the recommendations

[@johnhopfensperger3843]

Thanks so much for this video. Never knew about this piece. Incredible recording.

[@allthisuselessbeauty-kr7]

I'm rather partial to the Charles Mackerras version, with the ECO winds on Warner - just like the way he brings out a rather rustic, unbuttoned element in the music. Use to love budget labels like Discovery, especially for more esoteric repertoire. Another of my budget fave labels was PWK Classics - one of their discs called French Impressions, has IMHO one of the best versions of Ravel's Introduction and Allegro, and Debussy's Sonata for Flute, Viola and harp together with more than serviceable accounts of Roussel's String Trio and Caplet's rarity Conte Fantastique - Masque of the Red Death. Great stuff!

[@Mason-ze6ri]

Thanks David, my go to recording is English chamber orchestra coupled with string serenade by Sir Charles Mackerras but your recommendation seem more exciting. I've got to admit before this I did not think Marriner would be interesting at all!

[@mrktdd]

Thank you for your talk. In the early fifties there were two versions available of this work - Prague Professors (coupled with Talich conducting wind serenade) and London Baroque Ensemble (10 inch, then later also 12 inch with Gounod Wind Symphony). Both wonderful - impossible to choose between them. I think both still available, the Baroque Ensemble certainly is though now coupled with Mozart. Later joined by Barbirolli, also with Gounod I think - also good but not quite up to the first two. Do you know the Czech professors and London Baroque perfomances? - seventy years old or so but I think you would enjoy them.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thanks. I don't know them, but will look into it.

[@adrianosbrandao]

Gosh, I LOOOOOVE the Enescu Dixtuor! I do like the Dvorak Serenade... but the Enescu is something else!

[@kevinspruit5359]

Dave, I'm thinking you must do a chat about Dvorak operas. There's very little discussion out there about them, in fact they get dismissed most of the time. A massive shame.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Yes, it is a shame. I may do one or two at some point---certainly Jacobin, Kate and the Devil, and possibly Dimitri deserve as much attention as Rusalka.

[@1mctous]

Dvorak wanted his operas to succeed above all else. The Rowicki Dvorak symphony box set liner notes called him an incidental symphony composer.

[@kevinspruit5359]

@@1mctous He wasn't the only one. Haydn, Schubert and Prokofiev all thought along the same lines as Dvorak. To be successful with opera has always been an important milestone for composers.

[@colinwrubleski7627]

The all-too-rarely-performed Dvorak late symphonic poems after the rather morbid Erben folk tales (plus the late opus 111 A Heroic Life) surely deserve, in addition to more performances, a thorough examination by Mr. David Hurwitz... There is very likely little that is quite as purely beautiful as the recurring violin solo motif in The Golden Spinning Wheel, even if some critics disparage the work for its rather generous length (often c. 27 minutes or so)... Incidental orchestral music from the Dvorak operas, and further both the Czech and American Suites, also deserve further scrutiny as well. IMHO, of course...

[@tortuedelanuit2299]

Have you heard the three Maslanka wind quintets? I've been listening a lot to a disc of the Bergen Wind Quintet playing these fascinating pieces. You should hear what he does with the part for clarinet mouthpiece and barrel in the second movement of the first quintet.

[@UlfilasNZ]

I also love the late Strauss "sonatinas"! And YES the Orpheus Box! Best ever Copland disc. I can't leave you alone on Moyse sorry, as I live with a flutist. Mo-ease.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Oh, when will you people stop with the pronunciation business?? I know what it is. I was making a point. Just give it up, will you please?

[@tortuedelanuit2299]

Though the Marriner is a wonderful rendition, I have to plug my personal favorite, which has a little less polish, but more character: the ensemble "Collegium musicum Pragense" on Supraphon. For example, the "eternal march," as I like to call the first movement melody that emerges as if Dvorak just happened to unearth it, has that perfect little pause in the downward scale leading to the recapitulation. Marriner takes the opposite approach, speeding up on the way down, which sort of works, but doesn't have the same heft.

[@kend.6797]

Just finished listening to a new rerelease on Eloquence of the Dvorak wind serenade conducted by Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt with the NDR Symphony from 1963. You will probably review this one. The 1st movement is really zippy! Very vivid recorded sound and the playing has a lot of character. I've never heard any of these performances before, and I enjoyed this wind serenade performance a lot. It's coupled with the Dvorak string serenade and 7th symphony, which I will be listening to shortly.

[@nicolasadler8671]

I have always loved the top two recordings you showed!! They are fantastic! I wanted to see if you’ve listed to Gerald Schwarz’s recording of this? It’s really quite amazing to me!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Schwarz is also terrific, but I didn't have it in the "overflow room," and that was my source for this talk, as I explained. With such a popular work, there will always be versions I didn't mention--I can think immediately too of the Netherlands Wind Ensemble, but they have a big box coming hopefully next year, so we'll get to that.

[@nicolasadler8671]

David Hurwitz I’ll have to give that a listen!

[@kevinspruit5359]

Please try Raff's Sinfonietta for winds op.188, David. It's almost good as the Dvorak, I kid you not.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thanks for mentioning this. Yes, it's a lovely piece, but the problem is sourcing it--I only know that Tudor recording with Symphony No. 11. Do you know any others?

[@kevinspruit5359]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Sadly, that seems to be the only recording available. :(

[@mickeytheviewmoo]

@@kevinspruit5359 I agree. A real hidden gem

[@ralphbruce1174]

I have Mackerras in this, and I like it as usual

[@ThreadBomb]

Oh my God, while I was searching for the Marriner disc I discovered that he recorded Dvorak's symphonies 7-9 for Capriccio. This must be even more obscure than his Beethoven cycle!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

And almost as dull. He did them for Philips in Minnesota too.

[@frederickdsmarshall]

I've been enjoying these recordings ever since I found this video and was thereby introduced to Dvořák's wind serenade for the first time. Since then, whenever I want to spend more time with is (which is often) I bounce around randomly between your recommendations, so I can hear from all the different perspectives of these great performers. Today for the first time I'm listening to the 1968 London/Kertész performance, looking at photos of the 1968 Decca album, and imagining what it might have been like for you back then, hearing this work for the first time via this recording, maybe reading the liner notes on the back of the sleeve. How old were you when you first heard it? Was it your Mom's album, or had you bought this one yourself? Was this the first wind serenade you'd heard before, or had you heard similar works by other composers?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Actually it was my album, and I heard it when I was in high school at the home of one of my English teachers who lived on campus. He also introduced me to The Noonday Witch.

[@frederickdsmarshall]

@@DavesClassicalGuide About what year was that? I'm interested in your formative experiences with classical music, because they are leading directly to so many of my formative experiences with classical music. After all, it was because of you making this video on 2020-09-19 that I was introduced to this work on 2024-03-20. The first version I listened to was the 1981 performance by the Academy of St. Martin-in-the-fields under Neville Marriner, because in this video that's the your "however" selection. And I'm sure I'm not alone among your viewers in getting to first hear this work through this recording specifically because you made this video. So for many of us, that high school experience you had at the home of your English teacher was not only a formative experience for you, but also for us secondhand. Increasingly, you're like family to us, and we're interested in your peak experiences, such as that day when you listened to the Wind Serenade and The Noonday Witch. Thanks again for making these videos and sharing your love of classical music with us.

[@ralphbruce1174]

I hope that you will write a book for the posterity: The honestman cd classical discography.

[@raycatellier2079]

What a marvelous work the Wind Serenade is! Do you have an opinion on the Nash Ensemble recording?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Quite good.

[@AlexMadorsky]

The Serenade is a true masterpiece, and in terms of best entries in genre, it’s up there with The New World in the symphony category. By contrast, I don’t care for the snoozy, pedestrian string serenade (which does sound like Dvorak but which could have been written by anyone) and wouldn’t purchase any combo discs pairing both serenades. I plan on picking up this Oslo Winds disc because I have always loved the Enescu Decet/Dectet/Dixtour. Thanks for the tip Dave!

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Well, I wouldn't say that the string serenade could have been written by "anyone," especially when you say in the same sentence that it sounds like Dvorak!

[@AlexMadorsky]

David Hurwitz let me clarify: I think the work is less characteristically “Dvorakian” than the Serenade for Winds, and thus could be mistaken for someone else’s work in the way the winds work could not be. That’s what I mean when I say it could have been written by anyone, not that it could have been written by any university composition student from a level of technical craftsmanship. I think the Serenade for Strings is therefore of less interest. It sounds like Dvorak, just not enough for my taste.

[@maudia27]

Funny. I only have the Marriner's version and I am not expecting it would be the final choice. Lucky me :) Perhaps I will compare it with the Orpheus C. just for fun

[@martinhaub2602]

Great music. Fun to play, to listen to, and to conduct! Too bad that people who only go to orchestra concerts are unaware of op. 44. And that contrabassoon part - it's labeled ad lib, but boy, it adds so much.

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

Considering that you've mostly been a print guy all your life, it's pretty interesting how well you've taken to this medium. You have a good natural style for the camera. Did you do other audio/visual/broadcast stuff before or is this kinda the entry point?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Thanks for your kind words. I've always been a comfortable public speaker--I was a pretty successful competitive debater in high school and college, so I guess it followed from that.

[@OuterGalaxyLounge]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Thanks for the explanation. Comfort with public speaking is always a plus.

[@fred6904]

Hello Mr Hurwitz ! I would like to ask you a question. Is Dvorak your favourite composer? It seems to me that in your opinion he could not compose a dull work. Please do a chat about Dvorak's greatness as a composer. Best wishes Fredrik

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

I really have no "favorite composer," and Dvorak, like any of them, had his ups and downs, but once he got his legs under him he was pretty damn reliable.

[@fred6904]

Ok. Thank you för answering.😊

[@olegroslak852]

Dave, I saw that the Dvorak Serenades by Marriner also featured in the ASMF anniversary box, recently reviewed. HOWEVER, when you held up the little cd sleeve from the big box, I thought I saw an Argo symbol in the top left hand corner of the cover. Does that mean they combined the Argo string serenade recording with the digital Philips wind serenade? I ask because I appear to have misplaced my original Philips cd (it may still be back in Edmonton, I hope). It would suck if they combined these two in the box rather than preserving the original digital cd coupling. Can you confirm?

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

No, it's not an Argo logo, it's clearly says Philips--that was the original "Digital" trademark on early Philiips digital recordings.

[@olegroslak852]

@@DavesClassicalGuide Thanks Dave. The resolution on your youtube videos wasn't good enough for me to make iit out. I later found a better cover photo online. Somewhat surprisingly, the cover art comes from the vinyl release of this particular coupling, not the Philips cd, which has the red ("burgundy"?) Philips banner all the way across the top. Anyway, thankfully I was able to acquire the Marriner big box, so whether I can still find this elusive item when I finally go West again, should become moot shortly. Love this work, but hadn't heard it in a long time. Always assumed that I *must* have taken it to Toronto as it was one of my most prized disks, which is probably why I didn't bother to have a look until recently (so prized that I rarely listened to it, it seems, but there is so little time and so much to listen to).

[@alanmcginn4796]

Dave. You mentioned a Marriner contemporary disc. What is it? Hope all is well and great talk.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

Hi Alan. It was a whole box of his Argo stuff, probably long OP, sadly.

[@ThreadBomb]

He did a disc of Barber, Ives and Copland, but I don't suppose they're recent enough to be "contemporary".

[@richardsauer7494]

Off-topic, but have any of you been doing serious listening on a home-theater system? Don't want to start an audiophile war.....

[@UlfilasNZ]

I'm interested too...although audiophilia gets boring quite quickly

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

You must have an awful lot of coasters.

[@DavesClassicalGuide]

And I don’t drink.

[@LyleFrancisDelp]

@@DavesClassicalGuide LOL!!!