The place to start is In Nature’s Realm, a wonderful piece, Dvořák at his most mellifluous, here gloriously spacious from the Czechs and Semyon Bychkov, who doesn’t push Carnival beyond itself, instead relishing rhythm, detail (including piccolo and tambourine), moonlit song (lovely violin solo) and festive dance. If Othello isn’t among the composer’s greatest gifts, this performance goes some way to persuading otherwise, character and drama entwined. As for the Symphonies, that ‘From the New World’ is fresh and folksy, the first-movement exposition (repeated) taken in one breath, without demarcating its three subjects, and with affection, followed by a touching Largo, quite intimate, featuring a poetic cor anglais, then a playful Scherzo (crisp timpani, leaving me to now question whether I really need Stutzmann’s recent release) and cooing Trio, with a coursing Finale, properly jazzy at the close – prophetic of swing – to wrap things up. A top recommendation, then, for this oft-recorded work (Bychkov finding no need to do something for the sake of it), so too for Symphonies Seven and Eight, the latter with attractive buoyancy, a heartfelt second movement, gracious third (lovingly shaped, glowing, and also dulcet) and exuberant fourth (if not as electrifying as Karajan’s Vienna/Decca version). The great Seventh once again displays Bychkov’s care for line and particulars in a rather pastoral view of the opening movement, although the emotional screw tightens across the whole, with the slow movement then darkly lyrical. The Scherzo whirls with a troubled undercurrent that is inside the music rather than imposed upon it, and resolved by a Finale that builds organically to a powerful peroration. Pentatone PTC5187216 (2 CDs) is warmly recorded without any obfuscation.