Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)
Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70
Robert Schumann (1810-1856)
Symphony No. 2 in C, Op. 61
London Philharmonic Orchestra/Edward Gardner
rec. live, 2022 (Dvořák), 2024 (Schumann), Royal Festival Hall, London
Reviewed as a download
London Philharmonic Orchestra LPO0133 [71] 

The LPO’s house label is celebrating its twentieth anniversary. Our chief editor reviewed one of their celebratory issues very recently and here’s another one. There are well over a hundred records in their catalogue now and some real gems can be found. Skrowaczewski’s Bruckner, legendary live concerts with Tennstedt and pretty much anything conducted by Jurowski, stand out for me. There have been more recent successes, too, though like the tremendous Adès disc from this year (review) which I heartily recommend.

This new record couples Dvořák’s fine Symphony No. 7 with Schumann’s second. The first work is now commonplace on record but that was not always so. The symphony in D minor that Dvořák mostly completed in the first few months of 1885 was first available to record buyers on five 78s from HMV recorded in London by the visiting Czech Philharmonic with their chief conductor Václav Talich in 1938. My copy of WERM (the invaluable World Encyclopaedia of Recorded Music) lists only that single version. A supplementary update in the early 1950s added another version, again on 78s, ten sides again and once more featuring the Czech PO, this time under Karel Šejna. The final supplement to WERM took us well into the LP era. By then Dvořák’s Symphony No. 2 (oh yes, remember in those pre-critical edition days, there were only five symphonies, and the numbering system was different too) had received two more recordings. Buyers could choose between HMV ALP 1075 featuring Rafael Kubelik with the Philharmonia, and Decca LXT 2807 with the Hamburg Radio Symphony Orchestra (actually NWDR) under Hans Schmidt-Isserstedt.

I shudder to think how many recordings Dvořák 7 has received as we sit here in 2025. This new one from Edward Gardner and his LPO join two recent versions since the pandemic that I have really enjoyed getting to know, namely the Czech PO/Bychkov on Pentatone (review) and Jakub Hrůša’s account with his Bamberger Symphoniker on the Tudor label. The new record from the LPO was recorded in a concert in 2022 that also featured soprano Jennifer France in two interesting song-cycles: Dutilleux’s Correspondances and George Walker’s Lilacs.

Dvořák 7 is a truly great work. By this time, the composer, always a master orchestrator and tunesmith, was writing in a more concentrated style. Any criticism of looseness or long-windedness that some of his earlier symphonies might attract cannot be levelled at this work or its two successors. He had mastered the art, and in his Seventh Symphony the form, its construction, its tight, concise grip and the clarity of his argument are all at the highest level; one may even put it on a par with Beethoven, never-mind Brahms.

Gardner’s is an impressive richly coloured reading of the work. I was most struck by his lightness of touch which allows the woodwinds to play a starring role in all four movements. The music glows with a warmth that is endearing and despite this work being rooted in the minor key (the notes state that it was Dvořák’s first symphony in the minor: this is not correct) the sheer radiance of his melodies cannot help but sing. The LPO take the lead from their soprano soloist guest, earlier in the program, and sing their hearts out. 

The pulse of the reading is quite lively. The work’s running time of 37 minutes is a minute under Bychkov’s and a couple brisker than Hrůša’s. It is true that there are some passages in the first movement where one may have wished the fire might have raged a little more fiercely. At bar 268 for example, as Dvořák reaches for his climax and urges poco a poco accelerando, one may recall more exciting readings from the past. I admire the control however and the clarity of sound the LPO can produce even at fff.

My favourite version of the work, like many readers, I imagine, is Monteux’s record with the LSO, made for Decca in Kingsway Hall in 1959. It is a classic of the gramophone and has never been surpassed for me. Monteux’s record was described by an early reviewer as being “tinged with geniality”. I think this is especially the case in his slow movement which stretches to 10:34, more luxurious than any of these three recent readings. At 9:32, Gardner is less generous in timing, but his LPO give plenty in the more important gifts. It is a beautiful account. Winds and horns will take the plaudits, but the strings are gold toned and play gorgeously. 

The cross-rhythms of the furiant-based scherzo are excitingly alive, and the trio is suitably idyllic. Gardner goes fast into the finale. I loved his approach after the ritardando in bar 65 when the theme starts up in tempo in the strings fortissimo. Here, Dvořák writes marcato for the first violins, and they really do take that on. Once again Gardner proves no slouch and drives perhaps a little too fast at times. I enjoyed it immensely, though. I would not want to be without the Czech version under Semyon Bychkov which is a great way of acquiring tremendous recent recordings of the last three symphonies, but this new Dvořák 7 is quite special and well worth a hearing.

It is coupled with Schumann 2, a much rarer bird in the concert hall but one of my favourites. Funnily enough, although much less encountered these days than the Dvořák, it did have four listings in the original WERM, including the composer conducted accounts by Enescu with the LPO and Hans Pfitzner on a dusty old Polydor (we would now call it Deutsche Grammophon) set. The provenance of this recording is again London’s Royal Festival Hall, this time a 2024 concert that had Frank Peter Zimmermann playing the Elgar in the first half. BBC Radio 3 broadcast the concert later the same month. The sound for this half of the CD is to my ears even better than the first, brighter, I think, and with a greater resonance. There is also a wider stereo separation which is fortuitous as in this piece (especially in the scherzo) split violins are a must!

Some commentators believe the illness Schumann began to suffer from 1844, which was still very much affecting him through the months he laboured on this work in 1846, can be heard writ large in the work. I think this is overstated. It is a seminal piece of the era and Schumann, like Chopin and Mendelssohn, was a trailblazer musician in a shifting time, when music transitioned from the classical style to the Romantic. If he was at his best in piano and song, his skills of orchestration good but not at the highest level, I still adore his symphonies for all their faults and idiosyncrasies.

Gardner has his strings play with starkness. His accents are strong, and the rhythms are crisp. There is little vibrato used but plenty of light and shade injected into the performance. At 36 minutes, the timing is the same as Karajan’s in his only recording of the work. Don’t be fooled by some of the movement timings, though. Gardner takes 11:43 for the first, Karajan comes in at 10:42. The new version is snappier in tempi; however, Gardner takes the repeats you see and therein lies the difference. Karajan’s account is stunning, by the way. His “one-off” performances of pieces he did only once on record always are!

The restless whiplash energy of the scherzo is well caught in the new record with the added feature of those antiphonal violins. The virtuosity of the strings in the final pages needs to be heard – it is extremely impressive. Following this, is a strongly contrapuntal adagio with long, sad, yearning lines. I must pay tribute here to principals on oboe and bassoon, Ian Hardwick and Guylaine Eckersley respectively, but once again it is a team effort really and all sections really do shine.

Schumann’s finale is the oddest part of the work. It is unarguably affirmative and triumphant in nature but peculiar in form, to say the least. Despite its strange structure, I have always had a soft spot for it. I imagine it must be a devil to conduct and bring off as coherent. As you might expect, Gardner and his LPO play it with a straight bat and no funny business. It all comes off handsomely. We hear applause at the end, slightly too prematurely I’m afraid to say, but I have experienced far worse. All done, this is a worthy memento of a fine partnership in rude health at the present time and a nice way to celebrate the label’s anniversary year. The notes, written by Andrew Mellor and Stephen Johnson are useful, and the same I think as those provided to the audience on the South Bank on the night of the concerts. 

Philip Harrison

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