Staatskapelle Berlin

Béla Bartók inscribed the heading “My Confession” on the manuscript title page of his Violin Concerto No. 1 which had been composed “as if in a narcotic dream” for his early love, the Hungarian violinist Stefi Geyer. The yearning, expansive melodies laden with Late Romantic outpourings are however followed by a disconcerting fugato – Bartók’s love remained unrequited. The composer still however possessed a sense of humour and a capability for self-irony: shortly after the beginning of the second movement which follows attacca, the solo violin soars up to the highest note of an arching phrase which is answered by the orchestra in an intimation of Wagner’s ‘Tristan’ chord. 

In contrast, no trace of Wagner can be found in Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 8. This composition was created for a Russian tour planned for the spring of 1890, explaining why the composer replaced the customary scherzo with a melancholy waltz whose intensely sinuous melodies are evocative of Peter Tschaikovsky’s popular ballet scores. The symphony is rounded off with a buoyantly rhythmic finale in which Dvořák once more shows his reverence for his native folk music, intensely illuminating the broad palette of orchestral colouring.