Dvorak: Serenades.(Serenades)(Sound Recording Review)

Myung-Whun Chung, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra. DG 471 613-2.

Dvorak wrote his Serenade for String Orchestra in 1875, for the composer a most productive year that also saw the completion of various chamber works, a grand opera, and his Fifth Symphony. It is the Serenade, however, that has proven of most lasting value, a particularly graceful piece that has come down to us as one of the 19th century's two most famous Serenades, the other being Tchaikovsky's.

Dvorak's Serenade most closely matches the Random House Dictionary's definition of serenade: "... a complimentary performance of vocal or instrumental music in the open air at night, as by a lover under the window of his lady." The music has all the qualities of romance on a warm, still evening, and Myung-Whun Chung's performance is warm and gracious to suit the mood. His manner with long, gentle, flowing lines is evident from the very beginning, and his lilting approach to the several waltz interludes in the second and fifth movements provides the work an uncommon elegance and tranquility. It is lovely music interpreted most felicitously by Chung and members of the Vienna Philharmonic's string section.

Most often, Dvorak's String ...