Vítezslav Novák, a composition student of Dvorák, rose to prominence with a series of increasingly ambitious orchestral works that reflect his very personal amalgam of folk music elements, impressionism and late Romanticism. The far-ranging harmonies heard in Toman and the Wood Nymph earned Novák some notoriety – his evocation of supernatural magic and human passion results in music of heady intensity. The evocative aura of the later South Bohemian Suite is notable for the subtlety with which folk songs are embedded into its textures. © Naxos