Tone Poem Tuesday

This week we have the second part of Dvorak’s trilogy of tone poems that he called “Nature, Life, and Love”: the “Carnival” overture. This overture launches into a dance-like rhythm from the very opening bars, and its energy almost never abates throughout, and by the time the work ends nine minutes or so later,you can almost hear the wild dancers in a village square exhaling with relief as they are finally allowed to fall, gasping, to the ground as the orchestra’s work ends. As a representation of the sheer energy and joy of life that often inhabits Dvorak’s music, the “Carnival” overture is unusually potent.