As a child, Antonín Dvořák did not reveal

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1 NOTES ON THE PROGRAM By James M. Keller, Program Annotator The Leni and Peter May Chair Piano Concerto in G minor, Op. 33 Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, From the New World Antonín Dvořák As a child, Antonín Dvořák did not reveal precocious musical talent. Although his family was poor (his father was an innkeeper and butcher), his parents arranged for him to study music with the local schoolmaster, and later with an organist in a nearby town. He gained enough competence on violin, viola, and keyboard instruments to suggest that serious musical training might be worth pursuing. In 1857 he entered the Prague Organ School, where he received training in music theory and performance and graduated second in a class of 12 students. He soon secured a spot as violist in a dance orchestra. The group prospered, and in 1862 its members formed the founding core of the Provisional Theatre orchestra in Prague. Dvořák would play principal viola in that orchestra for nine years, under the baton of such musicians as Bedřich Smetana and Richard Wagner. During those early years, Dvořák also honed his skills as a composer, and by 1871 he felt compelled to leave the orchestra to devote himself to composing full time. He eked out an income by giving piano lessons and (for four years beginning in 1873) playing the organ at St. Adalbert s Church in Prague. In 1874 he was awarded the Austrian State Stipendium, a grant newly created by the Ministry of Education to assist young, poor, gifted musicians which defined his status at the time. Dvořák received the award twice again, in 1876 and 1877, underscoring how his financial situation was improving slowly, if at all, in the mid-1870s. Fortunately, the powerful music critic Eduard Hanslick encouraged him to send some scores to Johannes Brahms in That eminent composer was so delighted with what he received IN SHORT Born: September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves, near Kralupy, Bohemia Died: May 1, 1904, in Prague Works composed and premiered: Piano Concerto, composed 1876, apparently begun that August, completed November 14; premiered March 24, 1878, in Prague, Slavonic Concert orchestra, Alfred Čech, conductor, Karel Slavkovský (a.k.a. Karel ze Slavkovských), soloist. Symphony No. 9, composed December 1892 spring 1893; premiered December 15, 1893, with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic in a public rehearsal; the official premiere took place the following evening at Carnegie Hall. New York Philharmonic premieres and most recent performances: Piano Concerto premiered January 19, 1952, Guido Cantelli, conductor, Rudolf Firkušný, soloist; most recently performed April 22, 1986, Martin Turnovsky, conductor, Rudolf Firkušný, soloist. Symphony No. 9; most recently played, December 10, 2013, Manfred Honeck, conductor Estimated durations: Piano Concerto, ca. 38 minutes; Symphony No. 9, ca. 41 minutes DECEMBER

2 Listen for Exotic Influences Many of Dvořák s most famous compositions display a nationalistic element, incorporating melodies and rhythms born of Bohemian dances. While there is not much Czech nationalism in the Piano Concerto, the rondo finale does incorporate some high-kicking rhythms. The most exotic part, however, comes in that movement s second theme. Here the melody s wide intervals and unanticipated chromaticism suggest that Dvořák was influenced by the orientalism popular among the Russian nationalists; perhaps more likely, it may reflect the modal pungency encountered in some of Chopin s mazurkas. that he recommended Dvořák to his own publisher, Fritz Simrock, who immediately issued Dvořák s Moravian Duets, commissioned a collection of Slavonic Dances, and contracted a first option on all of the composer s new works. Dvořák s Piano Concerto dates from this make-or-break juncture in his career. It was the second of four concertos he would produce in a 30-year span. The first, completed in 1865, was a Cello Concerto in A major; a curiosity of his early years, it seems not to have been played until long after his death in 1927 with piano accompaniment and not until 1977 in an orchestrated version. The concertos published in his lifetime spotlight the three principal solo concerto instruments: the relati vely obscure Piano Concerto (1876) and Violin Concerto (1879), and his much performed Cello Concerto in B minor ( ). He wrote the Piano Concerto for the pianist Karel Slavkovský, who had performed in the premiere of Dvořák s Piano Quintet of 1872 (not to be confused with his very famous Piano Quintet of 15 years later). Dvořák was an accomplished keyboard player he played the organ professionally and appeared as a pianist in his own chamber works but the difficult solo in this concerto nonetheless fell somewhat awkwardly under the hands. He may have retouched it just prior to its publication in 1883, and his son-in-law, the composer Josef Suk, maintained that Dvořák hoped to rework it thoroughly at some point which he never did. Eventually, the solo part was revised extensively by Vilém Kurz ( ), a professor at the Prague Conservatory, and further changes were effected by the pianist Rudolf Firkušný ( ), who was for years the work s most enthusiastic champion. However, as the 20th century proceeded, and preferences increasingly favored authenticity in scores, attention turned to what Dvořák had actually written. Sviatoslav Richter began performing the original version, and even Firkušný sometimes played it late in his career. That original version, published in 1956 in the critical edition of Dvořák s works (where it is presented alongside Kurz s revision), is used in this concert. The large-scale Piano Concerto reflects its composer s deep-seated appreciation of Beethoven and Brahms (with occasional bows to Liszt and Chopin), but it also offers glimpses of the distinctive voice he would develop, nowhere more than in the bucolic charm of its middle movement. In June 1891 the American philanthropist Jeannette Thurber asked Dvořák to consider directing the National Conservatory of Music in New York, which she had been nurturing into existence over several preceding years. Dvořák was persuaded. He served as the conservatory s director from 1892 through 1895 (spending the summer of 1893 in the Czech community of Spillville, Iowa), building the school s curriculum and faculty, appearing as a guest conductor, and composing such masterworks as his String Quartet in F major (Op. 96, American), String Quintet in E-flat major (Op. 97), and Symphony No. 9, From the New World, which occupied him during the winter and spring of Its premiere that December, with Anton Seidl conducting the New York Philharmonic, was a huge success, a peak of the composer s career; the critic for the New York Evening Post proclaimed it the greatest symphonic work ever composed in this country. The title came to Dvořák as an afterthought. He added it just before delivering the score to 30 NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

3 the New York Philharmonic, later explaining that it signified nothing more than impressions and greetings from the New World. But for that subtitle, a listener encountering the piece for the first time might not consider it less demonstrative of the Czech spirit than any of the composer s other symphonies. Syncopated rhythms and modal melodies are emblematic of many folk and popular musical traditions, those of Bohemia and the United States included. Nonetheless, the work s title invites an examination of Dvořák s interest in African American and Native American music, and musicologists have found in its melodies echoes of such undeniably American tunes as Swing Low, Sweet Chariot and Massa Dear. The African American presence on the musical scene was immense during Dvořák s American years. Ragtime left him cold, but he was fascinated by the repertoire of Negro spirituals. So far as Native American music is concerned, Dvořák attended one of Buffalo Bill Cody s Wild West shows in New York in the spring of 1893, which would have included more or less authentic singing and dancing from a group of Oglala Sioux who belonged to Cody s troupe. Since Dvořák was just then completing this symphony, it is impossible that the music he heard on that occasion could have inspired the work s material in any direct way; the same must be said of the Iroquois performers Dvořák encountered a few months later at a performance given by the Kickapoo Medicine Company during his summer in Spillville. The ethnic influences on the Symphony From the New World become interesting in Listen for a Familiar Melody The principal theme of the Largo movement of Dvořák s New World Symphony is immensely famous: a melody, sung by the English horn, that combines tenderness, nostalgia, and a sense of resolute hopefulness. It sounds for all the world like a folk song, and that is what generations of listeners have taken it to be, especially once the title Goin Home was attached to it. However, this melody is an original creation of Dvořák s, as are all of the melodies in the New World Symphony. In fact, the song Goin Home followed the symphony by three decades when, in 1922, William Arms Fisher ( ), who had studied with Dvořák at the National Conservatory and eventually became his teaching assistant there, crafted dialect words to fit Dvořák s tune: Goin home, goin home I m a-goin home Quiet-like, some still day I m a-goin home It s not far, just close by Through an open door Work all done, care laid by Goin ta fear no more Mother s there, spectin me Father s waitin, too Lots of folks gathered there All the friends I knew DECEMBER

4 light of the composer s own assertions about the subject. On the day of his new symphony s premiere, the New York Herald ran an article in which Dvořák emphasized the work s purported Native American connections, specifically citing parallels to Longfellow s interminable poem, The Song of Hiawatha (which was, in any case, a Romantic effusion rather than an authentic expression of any Native culture). The Scherzo, he said, related to the section of Longfellow s poem that describes the dance of Pau-Puk-Keewis: It was he who in his frenzy Whirled these drifting sands together, On the dunes of Nagow Wudjoo, When, among the guests assembled, He so merrily and madly Danced at Hiawatha s wedding. The dance is introduced, most curiously, by a motif Dvořák borrowed from Beethoven s Ninth Symphony. The final movement (Allegro con fuoco) evolves out of a march theme that seems perfectly appropriate to a mitteleuropäische, or FROM THE DIGITAL ARCHIVES: The Philharmonic Connection In mid-november of 1893, composer Antonín Dvořák, Director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City, took a meeting with New York Philharmonic Music Director Anton Seidl. According to Dvořák s assistant, Josef Kovařik, Seidl had heard that the eminent composer had recently completed a new symphony, and he asked if the Philharmonic might perform the work. Dvořák did not immediately reply, but as the meeting was breaking up, he promised Seidl the first performance. The next day Seidl informed Dvořák that he planned to conduct the work in about four weeks, on December 15, and that he would need the score immediately in order to prepare. Kovařik was asked to deliver Dvořák s manuscript to Seidl and his own copy to the Philharmonic librarian for the creation of orchestra parts. Kovařik wrote in his diary: The same evening, at the very moment that I was about to leave with the score, [Dvořák] inscribed the words From the New World on the title page. What exactly the composer meant by this has been in dispute ever since. The Philharmonic hired four copyists to create all the parts for the musicians. One of those was reportedly Harry Burleigh, a descendent of slaves and a student at the National Conservatory, who had introduced Dvořák to slave songs and spirituals that he had learned from his grandfather. Many of these parts created for the premiere of Symphony No. 9, From the New World, are preserved in the Philharmonic s Archives. A few have been lost or, more likely, simply were worn out, given the immediate popularity of the work and the fact that the Philharmonic used the same parts for years, before they were replaced with a published version. This past November, the Czech National Museum brought Dvořák s manuscript score to New York City for exhibition, the first time it had been back in the United States since the premiere. Displayed alongside Original horn part for Symphony No. 9 it were the manuscript parts, the first time they had been reunited since In honor of Dohnanyi / Dvořák: A Philharmonic Festival, the Orchestra s first festival dedicated to the Czech composer, manuscript parts have been made available online in the New York Philharmonic Leon Levy Digital Archives. To view the parts, scan here, or visit archives.nyphil.org. 32 NEW YORK PHILHARMONIC

5 Central European, symphony. Dvořák tends to be thought of as broadly resembling Brahms in his musical inclinations, and although there is plenty here that is Brahms-like, Dvořák s finale is also a reminder of the composer s early infatuation with Wagner. The musical world of Dvořák s day had become polarized between what was viewed as Brahmsian conservatism and Wagnerian experimentalism. One of the great achievements of Dvořák s late music, and certainly of the Symphony From the New World, is the extent to which it bridges even that politically charged divide. Instrumentation: the Piano Concerto calls for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings, in addition to the solo piano. Symphony No. 9 employs two flutes (one doubling piccolo), two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, triangle, cymbals, and strings. Dvořák in New York Dvořák s activities during his years in New York were largely centered in the Stuyvesant Park neighborhood. The National Conserva - tory was located at East 17th Street, on a site now occupied by Washington Irving High School. The Dvořáks took up residence at a nearby townhouse, at 327 East 17th Street, between First and Second Avenues. That s where he wrote the Cello Con certo and the Symphony From the New World, among other works, and in 1941 Mayor Fiorello LaGuardia had a historical plaque installed on the façade in a bow to the composer s centennial. The building s façade was granted landmark status in February 1991, but within months Beth Israel Hospital, which owned the property, prevailed on the City Council to overturn that desig nation. In August 1991 the house was accordingly razed to make way for an AIDS hospice, and, as consolation, the block was renamed Dvořák Place (bottom right). Nonetheless, a bit of Dvořák iana does proclaim the neigh bor hood s importance in music his tory. In 1963 the Czech o slovak National Council of Amer ica presented the New York Philhar monic with a statue of the composer (top right) by the sculptor Ivan Mes trovic. As it did not fit in with the décor of the Orch estra s new abode at Lincoln Center, the statue was stored for 32 years on the roof of Avery Fisher Hall, visible only to resi - dents of the high floors of sur rounding buildings. In 1994 the Philharmonic donated it to the Dvořák American Heritage Asso - ciation, and in 1997 that group installed it in Stuyvesant Square Park, just across the street from where the composer had lived. DECEMBER