Dvořák’s much-loved Symphony No. 9 ‘From the New World’, with its captivating blend of Slavonic and American spirit, now joins the sequence of symphonies recorded for Warner Classics by the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and its Chief Conductor Lahav Shani.

Paired with the symphony is a rarely heard work, dating from 1905 – 12 years on from the New York premiere of Dvořák’s symphony – by the Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar (1862-1941). His concert overture, Cyrano de Bergerac portrays the eloquent hero of Edmond de Rostand’s celebrated tragi-comic play of 1897. With its impetuous opening, soaring melodies and brilliant orchestration, Wagenaar’s work is unmistakably in the vein of Richard Strauss’s sumptuous symphonic poem Don Juan. When it was performed in Rotterdam in 2025, the critic of De Nieuwe Muze hailed it as “an exciting adventure story in sound”.