November 5, 2004
7:30 p.m.
St. Mary's Episcopal
Cathedral
692 Poplar Ave.
Memphis, TN
Commemorating 2004 as the centennial year of the Dvořák's death, this concert features his works.
Antonín Dvořák, Slavonic Dance, Op. 46, No. 8 (trans. Patrick Clemens)
The Slavonic Dances remain some of Dvořák's most-loved works. This is one of the more popular ones. Their strong Czech flavor helped establish Dvořák's personal style. (See Joseph Way's notes to the Serenade, below.)
Dmitri Shostakovich, Quartet No. 8, Op. 110 (1960) for Wind Ensemble (trans. Dmitri Smirnov)
This is perhaps the most famous string quartet by Shostakovich, constructed entirely around his signature motive "DSCH". This arrangment was commissioned by the Netherlands Wind Ensemble from the contemporary Russian composer, Dmitri Smirnov. Smirnov has reinvented the piece, addings doublings on the English horn and bass clarinet, and deploying a full range of instrumental effects. One reviewer described it as follows.
Think of a brand new work from Shostakovich, perhaps written after coffee with Schnittke, and this is what Russian composer Dmitri Smirnov offers us. This 1999 arrangement of the quartet for an ensemble of two oboes, clarinets, bassoons and horns with a double bass takes us to a world beyond what the original composer may have envisioned when he penned his anguished suicide note.
Not content to substitute a wind equivalent for various string timbres, Smirnov takes the score afresh and works out a startling composition for the ensemble. The work takes on strong, bitter colours that hit you from the outset. Through the highly individual colours of the wind instruments in their various registers and combinations, the complex interplay of voices within the quartet is fleshed out in new light, offering new perspectives to this familiar opus.
Antonín Dvořák, Serenade in D Minor, Op. 44
In May 1879, Johannes Brahms wrote to his friend, the reknowned violinist Joseph Joachim: "Take a look at Dvořák’s Serenade for Wind Instruments; I hope you will enjoy it as much as I do...It would be difficult to discover a finer, more refreshing impression of really abundant and charming creative talent. Have it played to you; I feel sure the players will enjoy doing it!"
Only one year earlier, Brahms had recommended the music of Dvořák to his publisher in Berlin, Simrock, who accepted Dvořák for publication and suggested that he compose a set of Slavonic Dances as Brahms had composed Hungarian Dances. Dvořák obliged, and the result, the Slavonic Dances Op. 46 brought the hitherto unknown composer immediate international success.
It was in 1878 that Dvořák first incorporated the rhythms of Czech folk dances into his music. Along with the Slavonic Dances, he composed the Slavonic Rhapsodies, Bagatelles, Furianty for Piano, the String Sextet which received its premiere performance by Joseph Joachim and friends in Berlin - the first of Dvořák’s works to receive its premiere outside his native land, and the Serenade Op. 44. All of these works are amply endowed with the spirit of Czech folk music.
The opening march pays tongue-in-cheek homage to the serenades of Mozart and central European wind-band music, "Harmoniemusik." The second movement is actually comprised of two Czech folk dances, the sousedska (neighbor’s dance) and a furiant as the "Trio" section. In the third movement, Dvořák unfolds a typically lovely melody while the finale rolls along with high-spirited folk dances and a reminiscence of the opening march theme to end the work jubilantly in the key of D major.
—Notes by Joseph Way, Sierra Chamber Music Society
Riverside
Wind Consort • 1794 Carr Avenue • Memphis, TN 38104 • 901-278-2699
• a 501(c)(3) organization