Czech Portraits Friday, Mar. 4
10:30am Czech composer (1870-1949) Vítězslav Novák held an almost “cult status” popu- larity among his native Czech people. Like his mentor Antonín Dvořák, he used thematic mate- rial from Czech folk melodies in his music and was inspired by the landscape of his native country in South Bohemia. In 1908 he succeeded Dvořák as professor of composition at the Prague Conserva- tory and helped lead the next generation of Czech composers into the new age. e e Composed in 1907, duration is 15 minutes This piece was commissioned to open a Czech play of the same name and is taken from a 13th century story about the noble-hearted and beautiful Lady REPERTOIRE Godiva. It tells the story of the Lady’s efforts to end the suffering and oppression of the people in Coventry under her husband’s rule, Count Leofric. After multiple pleas to ask the Count to lower the • NOVÁK taxes, Leofric finally offers her a deal. Lady Godiva Overture The terms, which she ultimately ac- cepts, require her to ride through • ELGAR town naked in exchange for an end to Concerto in E Minor for the heavy taxation. The piece portrays Cello and Orchestra the characters, Count Leofric and • NOVÁK Lady Godiva through contrasting Eternal Longing Op. 33 melodies. Count Leofric has a very fierce motif in C minor while Lady • SMETANA Godiva is delicately portrayed in Eb Moldau from Má Vlast major. The music moves back in forth Coventry painted by Herbert Edward Cox, United Kingdom between the two as if in argument. e e composed in 1919, duration is 30 minutes English Composer (1857-1934) Elgar’s Cello Concerto is now one of the stan- Sir Edward Elgar grew up in a music shop—his dard concertos for this instrument and it is per- father’s—where he learned to play many in- formed worldwide. The piece has significant ties struments and began composing. Though he is to World War 1. It was composed in a cottage regarded as an English Composer, his musical where Elgar had heard the artillery fire from influences came from mainland Europe. As a across the English Channel from France. The war self-taught composer he did not fit in with the depressed him deeply and he struggled to find English academic style of music writing and he meaning in his music during this time. Through himself was an outsider to his own country’s his own feelings of agitation, contemplation, and music. This brought out his own individual lament, he was able to express these emotions style and gave him great success, both in his through his music on behalf of all people who own country and were feeling this way. He and other composers beyond. While he is most noted for his of the time felt it was their duty to help the peo- “Enigma” Variations, ple mourn, commemorate, celebrate and their his Cello Concerto raise spirits following the war. in E minor is heavily respected in the e e cello literature and was his last large scale composition. German/French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt is a versatile artist equally at home in the classical repertoire, on period instruments, and in e commissioning and performing new music. Al- composed in 1905, duration is 17 minutes staedt has received numerous awards includ- ing 2010 Credit Suisse Young Artist Award, Returning to Vítězslav Novák’s library, we hear and a BBC New Generation Artist from 2010 another one of his great works—a symphonic to 2012. Nicolas was chosen to become the poem. A symphonic poem illustrates the content new artistic director of the Lockenhaus of a short story, poem, painting or other non- Chamber Music Festival and just this year he musical artistic source in a single move- was named Artistic ment. This piece comes from a poem Director for the Aus- by Hans Christian Andersen, the fa- trian-Hungarian mous fairy tale writer ( author of The Haydn Philhar- Ugly Duckling, The Little Mermaid, monic. He plays a etc.). Novák used one of Andersen’s Giulio Cesare Gigli prose poems and added elements of cello from Rome (ca. natural phenomena such as the ‘strange 1770) and a cello by forms’ that lurk in the ocean and even Robert König (2012). the flight of swans depicted in the mu- Page 2 sic. FRIDAY, MAR. 4 Page 3
e e Czech Composer (1824-1884)
As with many composers, Smetana began his musical career at a very young age of 6. He eventually became known as the Father of Czech music. Becoming afigurehead of Czech music was no easy task as his path was filled with hardships that were very difficult to overcome, including deafness that struck him early in life. As an old fashioned “independent artist” he left his home with only twenty gulden and very luckily, found work as a music teacher for the family of Count Leopold Thun. His first real success composing was his opera the Bartered Bride. Not long afterwards he com- posed his orchestral suite Ma Vlast, which you will hear. Unfortunately, he was completely deaf by the time this piece was premiered. The rest of his music he wrote using his “mind’s ear” just as Beethoven did. His final gift to Pra- gue was the opening of a music institute within the city which taught music in Czech rather than the usual language of such institutions—German. composed in 1874, duration is 12 minutes
Má Vlast (My Homeland) contains six symphonic poems which give a musical tour of Czech history, folklore and geography. The Moldau is the second piece in the cycle and definitely the most famous. It paints scenes from the Vltava or the Moldau River, which is the long- est river in the Czech Republic. This symphonic poem portrays the beginnings of the river from two small springs, which then passes through forests and castles, dancing water sprites, and runs through Pra- gue, vanishing in the distance. The piece incorporates a Czech folk song called ‘The Cart and the Ox’ ’ which is a very old Eastern Euro- pean folk melody. Smetana’s deaf- ness was complete by the time he scored this piece and he was forced to resign his conducting post immediately, never hearing the performance of the piece. Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra As Buffalo’s cultural ambassador, the Grammy Award-winning Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, under Music Director JoAnn Falletta, presents more than 120 Classics, Pops and Youth Concerts each year and reaches more than 40,000 K-12 students per year across all eight counties of Western New York.
JoAnn Falletta, Conductor Since 1940, the orchestra’s permanent home has been Kleinhans Music Hall, a National Historic Landmark designed by Eliel and Eero Saarinen with an international reputation as BUFFALO PHILHARMONIC one of the finest concert halls in the United States. ORCHESTRA
Friday Morning Concert Series
e e Symphonic poems were a popular form of music in the late 1800’s and early 1900s. These auditory poems used non-musical stories, poems, paintings, landscapes and other artistic pieces to inspire a new work. The symphonic poem would try to capture the feeling and the narra- tive through music.
If you were to choose something to inspire your own symphonic poem what might it be? (A favorite painting, a story or poem that you like, a favorite place you like to go?) How might you depict this in music?