I recall the last time I heard Jakub Hrusa conduct the Hong Kong Philharmonic and, six years on, the fresh brushstrokes he applied to Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition remain a vivid memory. To have him back directing music by two fellow Czech composers promised to be a significant meeting of minds, and the now music director and chief conductor of the Prague Philharmonia didn't disappoint with his account of Dvorak's Symphony No 8.
Hrusa kept our ears on continuous alert during his transformation of the work's familiar melodies and swathes of blunt contrasts.
The orchestra maintained a superbly crafted momentum throughout, marrying a care for fine detail with uninhibited surges in sound. The pervading sense of elasticity was evident from the opening bars, while the second movement's swings between lyricism and grand heroics melted into each other with a rarely heard ease, helped by an astute exploitation of dynamic extremes. The third movement's long phrases were beautifully arched and, in the finale, Hrusa and the players stitched everything together with an intensity that ebbed and flowed, but never evaporated.