Dvorak - Symphonic Variations [Kosler-Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra]Zdenek Kosler is Czechoslovakian, he's a new name to me, he actually died 15 years ago, and he made this recording in the early eighties, i bought these discs on Ebay, i really like the booklet cover, a lovely shot of the sun through the leaves on a tree, that's why i put a bid on and won.
Of course i love the music too, basically it's Dvorak's Symphonic Poems, but it also has room at the end for the lovely Symphonic Variations, the magic of this composition is that there are 27 variations in only roughly 20-25 minutes, this makes each one quite short, sometimes as short as 20 seconds, other times almost 2 minutes long, but gives a wide range of variety, and quantity too.
So most of all i enjoyed variations 9, 11, 14-15 & 18, and i especially love variation 14 [8:23-9:41], it actually starts off as if it's going to break forth into the Largo from his Ninth Symphony, it's a soft ambling gait on the strings [8:23-8:34], the flute joins in on this amble, with what sounds like a very soft echo on a horn in the background [8:34-9:16], and then the bassoon plays a short melody to finish things off, with the flute playing in the background [9:16-9:41], wonderfully serene, this is just one of the many flavours to taste in Dvorak's ever changing Symphonic Variations, a bit like a 27 course meal, where you only get a small spoonful of something, then it's off to the next variation where you get something else!, the next time i play it i'm sure to notice and fall in love with another variation.
Here's the Symphonic Variations played on YouTube.
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