The Slovak musician Alexander Moyzes was born in 1906 and was a significant figure in the development of Slovak music and the creation of a national musical identity. His musical style is both conservative and at the same time distinctive. To the orchestra of the great late romantics such as Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler Moyzes added astringent harmonies and rhythms drawn from the folk music of his native country, to create an individual but highly approachable musical voice. Dedicated to the composer’s daughter Martha, who died tragically young, the sorrowful Symphony No. 7 is the largest and most impressive orchestral work of Moyzes. Symphony No. 8 was written in response to the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968. It was banned for twenty years and still awaits its first public performance.