An absolutely stel­lar live record­ing. Sir Charles Mack­er­ras was a mas­ter in this reper­toire (as he was with Janacek, and Mozart operas and sym­phonies, and so many other music). The con­duc­tor died in 2010, after a career that spanned record­ings from the 78 to CD era, and this posthu­mous release came out last year. Curi­ously, there is no infor­ma­tion printed in the book­let or on the case that spec­i­fies the con­cert date(s) from which this was drawn. Cer­tainly, it’s from the lat­ter part of his life, though the energy and pointed clar­ity and drive of the per­for­mances make ques­tions of age irrel­e­vant. Although not age that earns experience.

The Sym­phony No. 8 is one of Dvorak’s fine later works, like Beethoven’s it’s a more Clas­si­cally fla­vored work that falls between two mon­u­men­tal Roman­tic pieces. The per­for­mance can­not be bet­tered, every moment shows com­plete under­stand­ing of the music, com­plete con­fi­dence and clar­ity. The rev­e­la­tion is the Sym­phonic Vari­a­tions, which has never sounded like such a finely-crafted, excit­ing mas­ter­piece as it does under the hands of the con­duc­tor and this orches­tra, out of which he has brought the best. Highly recommended.