Dvorak’s Sixth Has Its Day

The rigidity of the standard symphonic repertory, that is, the difficulties encountered by any work written after Brahms in breaking into this exclusive club, is exemplified by the case of Dvorak’s Sixth Symphony, in D, Opus 60.

The Sixth possesses every quality one might think necessary for inclusion among the symphonic favorites: big, luscious, memorably distinctive tunes, colorful orchestration, rhythmic energy and harmonic surprises that please rather than disturb listeners. Yet it remains a rarity outside its native (Czech) precincts. The Los Angeles Philharmonic has done better by it than most American orchestras, having performed it on several occasions--for the very first time as recently as 1978, under the late Calvin Simmons, but never under one of its music directors.

Two recorded arrivals of the last month are the best possible arguments for the wider dissemination of this gorgeous score. Both are from Czechoslovakia, and each is from a conductor, alas deceased, to the manner born.

Previously unavailable commercially is the version conducted by the non-stellar Vaclav Smetacek, with the Prague Symphony, a Prague Radio taping of a 1975 concert (Praga/Chant du Monde 254 045).

It’s a warmhearted beauty, played with a kind a native flavorfulness--woody, bucolic clarinets and oboes, big, vibrant brass--that has virtually disappeared even from East European orchestras.

Smetacek allows the great rolling melodies of the rich opening movement to unfold with utmost naturalness and neatly propels the cross rhythms of the Scherzo-Furiant third movement. But the heart of the symphony, and of Smetacek’s interpretation, is the moonstruck slow movement, whose principal theme is as haunting as anything Dvorak, or perhaps any Romantic symphonist, ever created.

The recorded sound is on the strident side but more than adequate, and the unfamiliar accompanying material, also by Dvorak and from the same forces, is welcome: the early, nationalistic cantata, “Heirs of the White Mountain,” gutsily sung by the Prague Radio Chorus, and the terse “Armida” Overture.

The other Dvorak Sixth is a reissue of the celebrated 1966 edition by the Czech Philharmonic under Karel Ancerl (Supraphon 111 926, mid-price).

The ensemble is a more glamorous one than Smetacek’s, and its execution more taut, if hardly less pungently idiomatic in tone color. Ancerl’s view of the score is hard-edged beside Smetacek’s, with Ancerl favoring sharply inflected climaxes in the corner movements and a propulsive Scherzo, flicked-out like so many lashes of a whip.

As an entity, it may be less temperate--nervous and modern beside Smetacek’s expansive, Old World beauty--but ultimately no less appealing.

The additional material here consists of three splendid Dvorak concert overtures, “The Hussites,” “Carnival” and “My Home,” delivered with fiery splendor by Ancerl and his orchestra.

It may be late in the day to ask Carlo Maria Giulini to expand his repertory with the addition of Dvorak’s Sixth. Still, one might have expected the inclusion of Dvorak’s Eighth Symphony, another longtime Giulini specialty, in the artistically rewarding but temporally skimpy, full-priced two-CD set (Sony 58946) presenting the conductor’s latest thoughts on the Seventh and Ninth (“New World”) Symphonies.

With Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra responding to the octogenarian’s urgings with all the individual skill and ensemble richness of tone of which it us capable, Giulini produces performances of irresistible affection.

Tempos may be on the slow side--or slower than in his previous recorded encounters with these scores--but he never allows the rhythmic pulse to go slack, and Giulini, whether today or 20 years ago, wrings every drop of sentiment from the slow movement of the D-minor Symphony without making it sound mawkish.

Although its high points are less lofty, there is much to admire as well in a reissue of Colin Davis’ dashing 1975 Dvorak Seventh, also with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, part of a budget-priced set (Philips Duo 438 347, two CDs) from these artists comprising the last three symphonies and the Symphonic Variations.

Davis and the Dutch orchestra have always been a highly compatible team, and these performances sizzle with virtuosity and vitality.