CCMusic.com

Following on from his critically acclaimed Lutoslawski programme, the conductor Krzysztof Urbanski pursues his collaboration with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester on Alpha. The New World Symphony is a work that has always fascinated Krzysztof Urbanski: "It was only when I studied Dvorák's other symphonies that I came to understand the principal characteristic and strength of the Ninth: simplicity. I wanted to dig deeper, and so I examined the manuscript and parts used for the New York premiere. There I discovered things that changed my view of it, like the fact that the first four bars of the third movement shouldn't be played on the repeat. That gives them a completely different meaning when they recur at the da capo... The coupling, the rare Hero's Song, shows an entirely different side of Dvorák. The way he transforms the initial four-note motif to evoke so many varied feelings, from joy to tragedy, shows his immense compositional mastery."