Review: Dvořák’s 7th Symphony – Semyon Bychkov
This week we review Dvořák’s 7th Symphony as performed by the Czech Philharmonic under the direction of Semyon Bychkov.
This recording can be found on the album Dvořák Symphonies Nos. 7, 8, 9 Mo. Bychkov’s latest under the Pentatone label.
Dvořák’s 7th Symphony occupies a fascinating place both in music history and within the composer’s career. During its composition, the Czech lands—known as Bohemia within the Austro-Hungarian Empire—were a cultural and industrial hub, yet politically subordinated. Unlike Hungarians, the Czech people had not achieved political independence, and their identity was often overshadowed by the broader Germanic cultural dominance within the empire. This struggle for cultural independence weighed heavily on Dvořák, who was deeply aware of the towering influence of Brahms and Wagner, two German composers who dominated the musical landscape of the day.1
In the latest recording of the 7th Symphony, conductor Semyon Bychkov frames this political and personal tension—the yearning to define Czech music and simultaneously escape the immense shadows of Brahms and Wagner—as the driving force behind the symphony.2 This claim is supported by Dvořák’s own words in letters from the time: “The first subject of my new symphony flashed into my mind on the arrival of the festive train bringing our countrymen from Pest [Hungary],” he wrote. “I am now busy with this symphony for London, and wherever I go I can think of nothing else. God grant that this Czech music will move the world!!”3
This struggle for identity—both personal and national—lies at the heart of the 7th Symphony and, in conjunction with its D minor key, lends the piece its famously somber, even gloomy, reputation.4 Yet to label the 7th Symphony as simply subdued misses the complexity of its emotional landscape. The symphony is anything but restrained; it is marked by triumphant, soaring strings and regal horns that burst through the darker, introspective undertones. This push and pull—the dialogue between the high and low aspects of Dvořák’s inner conflict—forms the symphony’s core, making it a rich and dynamic work ripe for interpretation.
Every conductor has a unique approach to this symphony’s duality. Take, for example, Nikolaus Harnoncourt’s recording with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra. Harnoncourt emphasizes the symphony’s explosive moments, particularly in the first and third movements. When the tentative oboes and clarinets of the first movement retreat, the orchestra erupts into a triumphant wall of sound, overpowering the uncertainty that had preceded it. Meanwhile, Rafael Kubelík, conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker, draws warmth from the strings and brass, recasting the symphony’s moments of tension as creative and optimistic rather than conflicted.
What sets Bychkov’s interpretation apart is his focus not on the contrast and tumult within the 7th Symphony, but on the synthesis of these elements which Dvořák is uniquely able to achieve. Under Bychkov’s baton, the middle section of the third movement, which can feel like a moment of confusion against the backdrop of the surrounding dance, is rendered entirely natural and integrated into the overall flow. Additionally, Bychkov refuses to succumb to the urge, common among conductors, to lean into the orchestra’s power. Instead, he maintains dynamic control, drawing out the uncertainty of ascendant moments and lending power to those areas of the score that feel most shadowed.
Bychkov’s tight dynamic control does more than unify the ebb and flow of Dvořák’s 7th Symphony; it also unveils an often overlooked aspect of the work: its deeply natural posture. By maintaining the orchestra’s dynamic range in a middle band, Bychkov allows the individual elements of the score to shine through with greater clarity. The horns, flutes, and other instruments no longer crash forth in the sweeping, thunderous waves typical of Romantic symphonies. Instead, they emerge distinctly, like voices or sculptures that we encounter as we journey through the symphonic landscape.
The result is a recording of Dvořák’s 7th that feels unusually unified. Rather than portraying a composer torn between competing forces—be it German versus Bohemian influence, or tradition versus innovation—Bychkov’s Dvořák emerges as a figure in full command of his artistic vision. This latest recording presents not the image of a man at war with his surroundings, but of an artist who has transcended such struggles and synthesized them into a mature, harmonious whole.
In Bychkov’s hands, Dvořák’s 7th is less about the conflicting forces of its composer’s world and more about resolution. It offers us a glimpse of Dvořák as an ascendant genius, capable of integrating the competing cultural and personal forces of his time into a coherent, visionary landscape. This interpretation shifts the narrative from struggle to triumph, giving us a new way to hear Dvořák’s masterful symphony as the product of an artist who has come into his own.
-Matthew Young
For those interested in hearing Dvořák’s 7th Symphony as conducted by Semyon Bychkov, tune in this evening (9/24) at 8pm to 89.7 WCPE, TheClassicalStation.org or via our app where we’ll be playing the symphony in its entirety!