Overture Magazine - 2015-2016 Season November-December 2015 | Page 29

Hilary Hahn last performed with the BSO in Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto in E minor, Op. 64 for the BSO Gala, September 2011. ABOUT THE CONCERT: Violin Concerto in A Minor Antonín Dvořák Born in Nelahozeves, Bohemia, now Czech Republic, September 8, 1841; died in Prague, May 1, 1904 Johannes Brahms’ generosity and energy in promoting the career of his younger colleague Antonín Dvořák is one of music’s heartwarming stories. From 1875 to 1878, Brahms served on a committee for the Austrian government that awarded annual stipends to the still relatively unknown Dvořák as a citizen of the Austrian dependency of Bohemia. But deeply impressed with Dvořák’s talent, Brahms also wrote his publisher, Fritz Simrock, to urge him to publish Dvořák’s Moravian Songs for soprano duet. And Brahms did still more. He introduced Dvořák to his close friend, the violin virtuoso Joseph Joachim, with whom he’d just created his monumental violin concerto. In 1879, Dvořák too wrote a violin concerto and, dedicating the work to Joachim, sent it to him for review. Although Joachim accepted the score warmly, he urged major revisions, and the Czech largely rewrote the work in 1880. Two more years elapsed before he heard again from Joachim, who again suggested significant changes. Why was Joachim both intrigued and dissatisfied with this concerto? He complained to Dvořák that the orchestral part was “rather heavily scored.” But, as a worshipper of the classical, well-built German forms at which Brahms excelled, Joachim was probably bothered more by Dvořák’s unorthodox first movement: an “unbalanced” sonata form in which Dvořák breaks off the recapitulation of his opening material— the moment of satisfying “home-coming” we wait for — after a few seconds and moves directly into a bridge to the slow movement. Despite Joachim’s pleas, the Czech refused to change this, and YOU’RE NOT IN OVERTURE? YOU’RE MISSING OUT, HON. Advertise, and reach over 150,000 patrons of the BSO five times a year in Overture, a program that’s about more than just beautiful music. TO ADVERTISE, CONTACT: Ken Iglehart: [email protected] Now also distributed at Strathmore Music Center in Bethesda Get noticed with award-winning design and print services that are within your area code and within your budget. For over 20 years, we have provided print and digital communications to businesses and nonprofits throughout the region, producing everything from 200-page training manuals to logos. (We even designed and printed the magazine you’re holding now.) 108 years of top-notch design. Our design and production staff emulate the same high standards reflected each month in Baltimore magazine, the nation’s oldest city magazine at 108 years. Competitive fees. Because we generate millions of dollars a year in printing and have a dozen design and production experts on the staff of the magazine and its ancillary products, we can offer wholesale printing and design fees that are kept low by our company’s efficiency of scale. To see samples of our work or for an estimate on your next project, call us at 443.873.3900. Proud supporter of the BSO NOVEMBER– DECEMBER 2015 | O v ertur e 27