It was with his third symphony (1872) that Dvořák started to make an international reputation. He’d already established himself as an up and coming composer in his native Bohemia, but in submitting the symphony to a competition to gain an Austrian state prize, he not only won the prize but also caught the attention of an eminent member of the judging panel, Johannes Brahms, who became a supporter of the young composer.

Since we missed it last week, here’s a second appearance of the ebullient overture to Smetana’s comic opera Prodaná nevěsta [known in English as The Bartered Bride], which provides a sharp contrast to the subject matter of the third tone poem of the Má vlast cycle, Šárka -a dark piece that tells of the massacre of the knight Ctirad and his men by a group of warrior maidens.

 Šárka

Score

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Overture: Prodaná nevěsta

Score

Third Symphony inE-flat

Unusually for the time the symphony has no scherzo…

00:00 Allegro moderato
11:33 Adagio molto, tempo di marcia
28:27 Finale. Allegro vivace

Score

… and, since there’s no scherzo in the symphony, what about this…

Score

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