This afternoon’s live Â鶹¹ÙÍøÊ×Ò³Èë¿Ú Radio 3 broadcast takes in a selection of Dvořák’s Legends from his 1881 cycle of lyrical pieces. Light-hearted and often reflective, they revisit a sense of movement felt in the composer's successful Slavonic Dances of 1878. In fact, in his review of Legends, Viennese music critic Eduard Hanslick wrote that upon hearing the cycle, one felt a “sense of pleasure" that "feels undoubtedly good in our pessimistic times."
We also hear Dvořák’s Czech Suite, so evocative of the Bohemian countryside which often served to inspire the composer.