Dvořák: Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 3, B 9 "The Bells of Zlonice" (with Score)

Antonín Dvořák:
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 3, B 9 "The Bells of Zlonice" (with Score)
Composed: 14 February - 24 March 1865
Conductor: István Kertész
Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra

00:00 1. Maestoso – Allegro (C minor)
19:01 2. Adagio molto (A-flat major)
32:43 3. Allegretto (C minor)
41:26 4. Finale: Allegro animato (C major)

While, in terms of its instrumentation, Dvořák’s first symphony looks more to what was then the modern Neo-Romantic trend, from a formal point of view it betrays the influence of Schubert and Beethoven. The composer observes the classical arrangement of the four-movement scheme, with the first movement in sonata form; the second, lyrical movement is written in a slow tempo, the third has the character of a scherzo, and the fourth movement combines sonata and rondo principles. The sequence of keys chosen for the individual movements, C minor – A flat major – C minor – C major, is even a reference to Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 (C minor as a principal key does not figure in any of Dvořák’s other cyclical works hereafter). Despite the undisputed influence of the Viennese classics, the composer’s distinctive compositional style is already in evidence. We will recognise it particularly in the pastoral lyricism of the slow movement, whose main theme in the solo oboe rising above a soft string accompaniment is one of the strongest inspirations in the work, in Dvořák’s sense of the full orchestral sound, and in the rhythmic vitality of the music.

Dvořák’s Symphony No. 1 is typical for its youthful flights of fancy and the rousing expression of the work as a whole, although the individual movements still demonstrate a tendency to ramble. The work’s subtitle “The Bells of Zlonice” is reflected directly in the score – the sound of the bells of the church in Zlonice is heard in a stylised form in the very introduction of the symphony as a succession of striking chords from the entire orchestra playing at full strength. Dvořák introduces an idiosyncratic rhythmical figure which first accompanies the main subject in the first movement, and later appears in the following three movements; it then opens out fully in the coda of the final movement. This principle of reminiscence, which the composer applied here for the first time, was later used in a number of works, to greatest effect in Symphony No. 9. Also noteworthy is the frequent exposure of the brass instruments which, particularly in the first movement, lend the work a ceremonial, almost flamboyant sheen. The composer later used some of the themes from the symphony for his piano cycle Silhouettes, Op. 8; the above-mentioned rhythmical motif even occurs twenty-five years later in the Dies irae from Dvořák’s Requiem.

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