Fairy Tale Mayhem

The BBC Philharmonic conducted by Gianandrea Noseda perform music by Dvorak on this BBC Music mag covermount disk from 2002. It includes Symphony No 8, which I won't say much about since I have another commercial recording that can be considered when it has its' turn off the shelf. Suffice it to say that the performance by the BBC Phil is a classy one. The disk also contains he symphonic poem The Golden Spinning Wheel which at half an hour in length is as long as many symphonies. It is in a single movement span and is a bit like wordless word setting of the fairy story in verse by Czech poet Karel Jaromir Erben. It's a pretty gruesome tale of royalty and waifs, wicked stepmothers, murder and mutilation, magical restoration and happy ever after ( apart from murderesses fed to wolves ) You don't need to know the programmatic detail to appreciate the melodies and orchestrations and with the 8th symphony it makes another excellent freebie.