Symphony No.8 in G major, Op. 88
Allegro con brio
Adagio
Allegretto grazioso
Allegro ma non troppo
The story goes that, towards the end of his life, Antonin Dvorák was returning to his home village, Vysoka in southern Bohemia. The musicians of the village band, over-awed by this visit from their country’s greatest and most celebrated musician, a man famous across Europe and America, had for weeks beforehand practised highlights from his most recent operas in honour of his visit. The train pulled in, the great man stepped onto the platform, and the band struck up. Dvorák shook his head, waved his hands, and cried "No...please! play me some village music. That’s what I like".
In a way, this story epitomises the spirit of Dvorák’s later music - and no work more so than in his Eighth Symphony. In the summer of 1889, at the age of 48, the struggles of Dvorák’s early career were finally over. His music had been performed across Europe, he had an assured income, numerous offers of honours and engagements, the friendship and esteem of his idol Brahms, and perhaps most importantly, he had proven himself artistically. In his two most recent symphonies, the Sixth (1880) and Seventh (1885) Dvorák had finally achieved the summit of a 19th-century composer’s ambition, with two inspired, powerful symphonies, as perfectly structured as any since Beethoven. Now at last he could relax - spending the summer in the peace of his beloved Vysoka, indulging his twin hobbies of train-spotting and pigeon-keeping, and writing music in which his happiness and inspiration could pour out unfettered. And so he wrote his Eighth Symphony, more freely and imaginatively structured than the previous two, more abundant in melody and colour, more song-and-dance like - in short, more truly his own.
The symphony opens with a broad, hymn-like melody for ‘cellos and violas - almost an opening "prayer" or invocation before the sun comes out, birdsong is heard from the flute, and a dancing rhythm builds to a huge climax that really launches the symphony on its way. A string of melodies pours out, by turns tender, dance-like and grandiose; and again and again woodwind birdsong brightens the texture and lightens the heart. The development section is at times stormy, but the energy unleashed is life-affirming rather than menacing, and as the movement ends Dvorák’s exuberance seems to have burst its banks in a joyful torrent of G-major. The lovely Adagio comes as a calm contrast, beginning in a subdued C-minor. But once again, birdsong and folk-dance begin to creep in, lightening the mood - and a sweetly lyrical violin solo ushers in the unmistakeable strains of the "village music" Dvorák loved so much. Once again, there are rumbles of summer thunder and a torrential outburst at the centre of the movement, but all is radiant C-major calm as the Adagio ends. The Allegretto grazioso is too measured and graceful to be a scherzo - it more closely resembles one of Brahms’ intermezzi complete with metre- and tempo - change in the coda. Its lilting, slavonic strain of melody and wistful, limpid Trio section need no elaboration. The Finale begins with a stirring fanfare, and proceeds through a colourful, increasingly lively set of variations on a theme announced by the ‘cellos. As in the "Eroica" this gives way to a bustling minor-key development section, and then a recapitulation of the variations, with a brief, reflective interlude before the symphony speeds to a brilliant, exuberant finish in sunlit G-major.
The Eighth Symphony was premièred in February 1890 in Prague, and then given in London shortly before Dvorák travelled to Cambridge to receive an honorary doctorate. For this reason, it has sometimes been called the "English" symphony - a strange twist of fate, for, although Dvorák had another great symphony in him yet, no other work of his would ever so embody the truth of what he once said about himself - "In spite of the fact that I have moved about in the great world of music, I shall remain what I have always been - a simple Czech musician".
R.G.Bratby, 1998
Copyright Classical Notes.co.uk 2000
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