Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 'From the New World'; Carlos Simon: Four Black American Dances

A Homesick Symphony Meets a Century of Rhythm

In 1893, Dvořák wrote his New World Symphony in New York. He said it held Native American melodies and African-American spirituals—he heard Bohemian homesickness inside America’s soil.

More than a century later, Manfred Honeck places this most classic of symphonies beside a work by a contemporary American composer.

Carlos Simon’s Four Black American Dances was premiered in 2023 by the Boston Symphony under Nelsons—and this album is its first commercial recording.

This is no random pairing. One source of the New World’s inspiration was Harry Burleigh, Dvořák’s African-American student, singing spirituals to him. Simon’s four dances grow directly from gospel music and Black American dance traditions.

Two works, over a century apart, in conversation—two ends of one bloodline.

Honeck Makes the Familiar Fresh

Gramophone praises Honeck for a rare gift: making even the most worn-out works sound engagingly fresh.

Recorded live in Pittsburgh’s Heinz Hall in February 2025, you hear that famous English horn theme of the Largo—Honeck doesn’t stretch it into saccharine nostalgia; he gives every phrase the weight of breath, like a letter written home late at night in a foreign land.

Four Dancing Voices

The four dances each have their own character:

“Ring Shout” opens jazzy, garish, syncopation-heavy; “Waltz” is lush enough to nod toward Ravel; “Tap!” is so playful you want to stamp along; and the finale, “Holy Dance,” is a brass-blaring riot—critics describe it as Gershwin laced with Stravinsky.

If you’ve never heard Carlos Simon, these four dances are the perfect introduction.

The Taiwan Connection

The Pittsburgh Symphony has real history with Taiwan.

Its first Taiwan visit came under Lorin Maazel. And Honeck’s very first international tour as music director was the 2009 Asia tour—on May 20, 2009, he conducted the opening concert of Kaohsiung’s World Games Stadium, the orchestra’s Kaohsiung debut.

After August

From late August 2026, Honeck leads the orchestra on a European tour—Lucerne, the Salzburg Festival (the only American orchestra invited), the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie, Vienna’s Konzerthaus. In the repertoire: this New World, and Simon’s four dances.

This album is a preview of that journey.

Further Listening

If you enjoy Honeck’s style, his Tchaikovsky Fifth with the PSO earned Gramophone Recording of the Month honors. And symphony lovers can explore Rattle’s Mahler Seventh.