My name's John, and I'm new to the list.  I must confess that I've always
felt Dvorak to be a little weak in the gravitas department; but it doesn't
keep me from loving his music.  The works of his that earn my greatest
respect continue to be the 7th sym.  (and yes I do hear a lot of Brahms in
it) and a couple of chamber works, particularly the op.81 quintet; with the
8th & 9th symphonies striking me as lesser, though still admirable, works.
Of his concertos the one for cello is obviously the leader of the pack,
though I feel the violin concerto to be as good if not as appealing a work.
The cello concerto held my attention for my earlier years, but lost its
position of top cello concerto to Schumann whose shorter cto deserves more
hearings than it gets perhaps in part because the spotlight is so much on
the Dvorak.  But I'll never lose my excitement about works like the Scherzo
Capriccioso, Roman Carnival ovt, 1st mvmnt of the 8th sym., some of the
Slavonic Dances, etc.  when conducted with care and vitality.  But the
issue of weightiness I mentioned at the top of my post is as much a matter
of outward style than of any lack of depth in the creative artist himself,
by which I mean I have no hesitation calling Dvorak a genius.  I've not
read a Dvorak bio, but I remain curious why there was such a huge leap
in his creative skills between the 6th and 7th sym's? I'm interested in
hearing about what recorded version of the 7th people on this chatlist have
heard, particularly among recently released versions, they they especially
like; I can't find a definitive recording.  The first 7th that really got
my attention came, in the 70s I think, from a conductor whose recordings
I like about a third of the time, Zubin Mehta on a beautifully recorded
London LP.

John Polifronio
Los Angeles