Symphony No. 8 in G major, B.163, Op. 88

I. Allegro con brio: A dark, songful cello theme opens the symphony, but it soon gives way to a bright flute tune that many listeners remember as the movement's real subject; the two ideas trade places throughout.

II. Adagio: A slow movement that shifts between shadow and light, with sudden storms of strings interrupting a gentle, almost pastoral melody.

III. Allegretto grazioso: A graceful, waltz-like dance with a wistful sway, followed by a quicker, brighter trio section before the opening dance returns.

IV. Allegro ma non troppo: A solo trumpet fanfare announces the finale, which is a set of variations on a simple, folk-like theme; listen for the theme changing character each time it returns, from stately to stormy to triumphant, before a headlong final dash to the close. Throughout the symphony, Dvořák favors open, singing melodies over tight motivic argument, giving the whole work an outdoor, folk-inflected warmth that separates it from his more turbulent Seventh Symphony.

Dvořák composed the Eighth Symphony in the summer and fall of 1889 at his country home in Vysoká, Bohemia, working quickly and with evident pleasure after a run of successes had eased earlier career pressures. He conducted the premiere himself in Prague in 1890. The publisher Simrock, who had issued Dvořák's earlier symphonies, offered terms Dvořák considered too low, so he sold the work instead to the English firm Novello, which is why the symphony is sometimes called the "English" symphony despite having no real connection to England. It quickly became one of his most performed orchestral works and remains a staple of the international symphonic repertoire.