DVORAK: Symphony No 7 in D minor Op 70

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra/Luke Dollman

Christchurch Symphony Orchestra at the Christchurch Town Hall Photo: Duncan Shaw-Brown

Dvořák 's was inspired to write this symphony after hearing Brahms' monumental Third Symphony. Dvořák and Brahms admired each other greatly, and not long after hearing the German's new symphony, a theme came to Dvořák while watching a train filled with festive Czech nationalists arrive in Prague. They were there for a musical evening supporting the political struggles of the Czech nation, and within days of that event, the first movement was sketched out, and Dvořák wrote to a friend: "I am now busy with the symphony for London, and wherever I go I can think of nothing else. God grant this Czech music will move the world!"

While this symphony is overshadowed by Dvořák's New World Symphony and the Eighth, critics and musicians are often big fans. The famous musicologist Donald Tovey said that "along with the...Brahms symphonies, and Schubert's ninth, it is among the greatest and purest examples in this art-form since Beethoven."