{ program notes
But it is far easier to detect European influences in this spirited dance movement, which summons memories of the composer’ s greatest idols, Beethoven and Schubert— Beethoven for the opening, which recalls the Ninth Symphony’ s scherzo, and Schubert for the ebullient trio section.
The finale boasts a proudly ringing theme for the brass that propels its loose sonata form. But its development section brings back the first movement“ motto” theme as well as the Largo’ s“ Goin’ Home” and a snatch of the scherzo. At the end, the home key of E Minor brightens to E Major. Dvořák’ s final magical touch in a loud, exuberant close is a surprise last chord that fades to silence.
Instrumentation: Two flutes( including piccolo), two oboes, English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings.
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B Minor, opus 104
Antonín Dvořák
Dvořák’ s two most popular orchestral works— the“ New World” Symphony and the Cello Concerto— were both“ made in America” during the three years the composer spent as director of the National Conservatory in New York City. But while the symphony partly draws its inspiration“ from the New World,” the concerto is definitely“ from the Old World.” In fact, many hear in this work an expression of Dvořák’ s homesickness for his beloved Bohemia. In a letter to his mentor and friend Johannes Brahms written from New York in December 1894, Dvořák alluded to his yearning for Bohemia:“ I left five children in Prague, and my only boy Otakar and my wife are here, and so we are often homesick. If I can write something, that is the only recovery for me.”
The composer had been lured to America by Mrs. Jeannette Thurber, a passionate arts patron and wife of a multi-millionaire grocery magnate. A visionary who had already launched an opera company producing opera in English, she now created a conservatory in New York City that was intended to establish an American school of composition and train talented musicians of all backgrounds, with special attention to African Americans. She offered Dvořák the princely sum of $ 15,000 per annum( around a quarter of a million in today’ s dollars) to head the National Conservatory and teach its advanced composition students. For three seasons from 1892 to 1895, the composer spent most of his time in New York and threw himself wholeheartedly into the task of encouraging an indigenous American musical voice.
The slow movement exploits the cello’ s ability to sing with the pathos and feeling of the human voice.
But by late 1894, Dvořák was longing to return home. The Czech cellist Hanus Wihan had been begging Dvořák for a concerto, and when the composer heard Victor Herbert— a prominent cellist before he became the toast of Broadway— play his new Second Cello Concerto with the New York Philharmonic, inspiration struck. In November 1894, he began his Cello Concerto, and by February 9, 1895, the score was largely completed. One of his masterpieces, it remains today perhaps the greatest of all cello concertos. So impressed was Brahms that he exclaimed to cellist Robert Hausmann, for whom he had written his Double Concerto for Violin and Cello:“ Why on earth didn’ t I know that one could write a cello concerto like this? Had I known, I would have written one long ago!”
The first movement opens mysteriously and with barely suppressed excitement as clarinets and other woodwinds murmur the principal theme; this quickly builds to a fortissimo declaration by the violins. The second theme, a marvelous, flowing melody with a touch of sentimentality, is introduced a few moments later by the solo horn; it will reveal its full personality a bit later when sung by the cello. After the orchestra’ s exposition, the soloist enters with a very grand statement of the principal theme in bold chords.
The development section of this sonata-form movement is striking in that, instead of being a dramatic working out of thematic fragments, it centers on a lengthy slower-tempo version of the principal theme by the cellist and solo flute in haunting duet. Here, Dvořák explores the darker, more introspective side of his hitherto extroverted theme.
The slow movement exploits the cello’ s ability to sing with the pathos and feeling of the human voice. Its heart is a poignant central section for the soloist and woodwind companions. Here, we are listening to a paraphrase of Dvořák’ s song“ Leave Me Alone” of 1887. The composer had just learned of the serious illness of his wife’ s elder sister, Josefina Kaunitzová, and this quote from a favorite song of hers pays tribute to an old love. In the 1860s, Josefina, a beautiful young actress, had come with her sister Anna for piano lessons with Dvořák. The composer fell hopelessly in love with her, but, as there was no reciprocation, he— like Mozart with his Constanze— married the younger sister.
Shortly after Dvořák returned to Bohemia in the spring of 1895, Josefina died. The composer returned to his nearly completed concerto and appended a remarkable grieving epilogue to its finale. This rondo-form movement begins merrily, though, with a vivacious rondo refrain, jingling with triangle. But there are more bittersweet moments here than one usually finds in concerto finales, including an impassioned duet for the cello with solo violin. As the movement seems to be drawing to a close, it flows instead into the epilogue in which we hear a wistful reminiscence of the first movement’ s theme and of Josefina’ s song from the second. Then, Dvořák pulls himself together and delivers a fast, electric finish.
Instrumentation: Two flutes( including piccolo), two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, and strings.
Notes by Janet E. Bedell, Copyright © 2016
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