DVORAK: SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS; SERENADE FOR STRINGS - COLIN DAVIS, LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

Dvořák: Symphonic Variations; Serenade For StringsLondon Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis An original Philips album of two light-orchestral masterpieces by Dvořák, with the Serenade for Strings receiving a first international reissue on CD. While best known as a conductor of the central symphonic repertoire, and the operas of Berlioz and Tippett, Colin Davis always showed special affection for the music of Dvořák. He made this album in March 1968, conducting the orchestra with whom he enjoyed the longest and most fruitful relationship of his career, the London Symphony Orchestra. After some troubled times in the early 1960s, when Davis suffered a breakdown and the orchestra passed him over in favour of Istvan Kertesz as music director, they hit a sweet spot together in this album and several others such as the early volumes of their Berlioz and Tippett series together. The Symphonic Variations remains a comparatively neglected work - astonishingly so, given it's tremendous charm. W