Sibelius & Shostakovich

Written in 1891, the year before Dvorak began his sojourn in America, Carnival was second of a three-overture set and was originally titled “Life.” It was played at Carnegie Hall at Dvorak’s introductory concert in America. The peasant nature of Karelia was deliberate – Sibelius’ intention was to capture the quality of naive, folk-based authenticity. The nationalistic character of the music is evident in each of the four movements extracted whic...