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Home , Aldo Ceccato, Antonio Pedrotti, Emmanuel Villaume, Krzysztof Penderecki, Miltiades Caridis, Peter Feranec

Gala Concert Programme Gala concert of the Slovak Philharmonic

May 4, 2018 8 p.m.

Konzerthaus Berlin (Großer Saal) Gendarmenmarkt 5 – 6, 10117 Berlin

Slovak Philharmonic Rastislav Štúr, conductor Dalibor Karvay,

Ján Levoslav Bella: Concert Piece in Hungarian Style Jana Kmit´ová: Secondary Thoughts for Large Orchestra Antonín Dvorˇák: Violin in A Minor, Op. 53 Allegro ma non troppo – Adagio ma non troppo – Finale: Allegro giocoso ma non troppo Dear friends,

It is with great pleasure that I welcome you to this concert of the Slo- vak Philharmonic Orchestra, which is being held to mark the twenty- fifth anniversary of the establishment of the Slovak Republic.

The independent Slovak Republic was born a quarter of a century ago – the first democratic state of the , of which we can be rightly proud. ’s story has been anything but straightfor- ward, yet we have come a long way in the past twenty-five years. I can gladly say that Slovakia has been able to make good use of the unique potential of European integration. Over the course of twenty- five years of hard work, we have become a democratic and prosperous country – and a constituent of the safest, freest, most prosperous and best-governed part of the world.

On 1st May, Slovakia celebrated 14 years of EU membership. This membership has been a natural homecoming to the family of democratic countries of Europe, from which we, together with other countries in the region, had been ripped out as a result of decisi- ons made by others. Our membership in the North Atlantic Treaty Organization is also crucial, providing a prerequisite for our prosperity by sharing responsibility for common security.

Today, the European Union is going through a period of difficulties, such as the exit of one of its members, the growth of nationalist and populist tendencies, as well as ne- gotiating the global security challenges we currently face. It is therefore of the utmost importance for the European Union to find a new shared vision, and the Slovak Republic is and continues to be willing to be at the core of the process of shaping EU’s future.

A strong EU is based on first-rate bilateral relations. The relations between Slovakia and have both bilateral and European dimensions. During the 14 years of our membership in the EU, Germany has become our most significant political and cultural partner, and our cooperation in political, commercial and cultural areas has been gro- wing intensely. I am delighted that this cooperation has found a fresh manifestation in this concert of an outstanding Slovak musical body, the Slovak Philharmonic.

Yours sincerely, Peter Lizák, Ambassador of the Slovak Republic in the Federal Republic of Germany Ján Levoslav Bella (1843 Liptovský Sv. Mikuláš – 1936 )

1853 – 1859 Attended secondary school in Levoča: , organ, general bass, several stringed and wind instruments, composition and 1859 – 1863 Completed secondary school studies in Banská Bystrica, attended a theological seminary, started music event organization: conducting, composing, and publishing activities 1863 – 1865 Theological studies at the University of ; alumnus of Pasmane- um College; simultaneous music studies under Simon Sechter and court conductor Gottfried Preyer 1865 – 1869 Returned to Slovakia and worked in Banská Bystrica 1866 – 1866 Ordained as a priest and honorary canon of the cathedral; taught sin- ging and music theory at the theological seminary 1869 – 1881 Worked as municipal music director in Kremnica, organizer of music events 1871 & 1873 Visits to Bohemia and Germany 1881 – 1921 Cantor in Sibiu, Transylvania; converted to evangelical faith, got married and worked in Sibiu as a choirmaster of the evangelical church there until 1921; taught music at the secondary school; conducted the local music society and Hermania 1921 – 1928; moved to Vienna after the end of WWI 1928 – 1936 Returned to Slovakia and lived in Bratislava (Hudobné centrum)

After World War One, quitting his pedagogical and organizational activities, J. L. Bella took shelter with his daughter in Vienna (1921 – 1928), where he was contacted by Slovak cultural luminaries of the time in an effort to revive musical life at home and elevate it to a professional level. Bella spent the last years of his long and fruitful life in Slovakia, making his final achievements in compositions based on original Slovak lyrics (such as Svadba Jánošíkova and Divný Janko, among others).

Koncertná skladba v uhorskom štýle (Concert Piece in Hungarian Style) was written in Sibiu, Romania, probably before 1893. That year, Bella requested the conductor Arthur Nikisch, then musical director of the Budapest House, to stage the overture. This was turned down, due to the allegedly already full concert season that year. Nevertheless, the renowned conductor showed interest in the piece, asking for its score to be sent to him. Nikisch left Budapest two years later, and the contact between the conductor and the composer was never resumed. While both the score and the parts show that there have been several performances and, in fact, a recording for the Radiojournal of the Radio in the interbellum years, no musical recording has been preserved. A manuscript of Koncertná skladba was left in the archive of the Musical Department of Slovak National Museum. It was only decades later that the piece resurfaced, owing to the composer Vladimír Godár – under the baton of Alexander Rahbari – and the Slovak Philharmonic at the opening concert of Bratislava Music Festival (BHS) in November 2007. “Bella's long, stormy and productive life, of which almost 70 years were spent composing, saw the onset of in Europe, the emergence of national compositional schools, followed by Neo-Romanticism and the early foundations of modern of 20th century music. The mindset of Bella was formed under the influence of revivalist efforts of Slovak nationalists in the 1860s and propelled by the Cecilian revival of church music. Bella's Sibiu work represents a particular stage of his personal development, seeking to modernize the language of music in terms of the ideals of Neo-Romanticism. Bella also devoted a decade (1880 – 1890) to composing the opera Smith Wieland, which marks a true culmination of his compositional efforts, and created dozens of sacred compositions, in which he synthesized his artistic ideas in the field of ecclesiastical composition. Bella's return to Slovakia anticipated the premiere of Smith Wieland in the Slovak National Theatre on 28 April 1926. Bella's work stayed in the vein of the ever-expanding ideal of universalism. The sharp contrast between his designated personal goals and the then local artistic and social environment resulted in several conflicts and crises, but these always created a new synthetic quality. Since Bella's work affected all of the musical genres of his time, it can be considered foundational for Slovak national music itself.” (From GODÁR, Vladimír: Ján Levoslav Bella, in „100 slovenských skladateľov“, Národné hudobné centrum, 1998) Jana Kmit´ová (1976) studied composition at the conservatory in Košice, at the Aca- demy of Performing Arts in Bratislava (with Dušan Martinček) and with Michael Jarrell at Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst in Vienna. A participant at various in- ternational courses and musical composition projects in France, Germany, Austria, Swit- zerland and Japan, among others, she was recipient of a government scholarship of Austria’s Federal Ministry of Education, Arts and Culture in 2014. She lives in Vienna, and her works are presented at festivals in Slovakia and abroad. The most recent presen- tation in Slovakia was in 2014, of Tri žalmové fragmenty (Three Fragments of Psalms) for a large orchestra, a piece presented at the 2013 ISCM World Music Days. She describes her newest orchestral piece as follows: “I started writing Postranné myšlienky (Second Thoughts) over the year’s course of the government scholar- ship I was awarded by Austria’s Ministry of Culture in 2014, and finished it at the behest of Slovak Philharmonics in 2015. It is a three-piece, posing a considerable degree of difficulty for the musicians and the conductor. The idea to write this has been on my mind for years, very much like a “second thought“ itself, constantly present while I was busy writing other works, which is ultimately reflected in the name of the piece. The ideas and their renditions in the piece are experimental to such an extent that I had been long hesitant to put them down on paper, keeping them unrevealed as second thoughts on my mind. But then, here you are … Part one, called Sóla (Solos) brings out the aspect of a musical solo performance, which is, within an orches- tra, reduced to absurdity – there are exclusive solo parts of various instruments without a single instrumental accompaniment or percussive support. Part two, Tiene (Shadows) could be called a “harmonic survey” and is an elaboration of the idea that originates in my Fragment for accordion, a piece I wrote in 1997. It involves a play on tonality and by combining tonal chords that are rendered minus several of their tones, to have atonal chords as a result, and vice versa. By carrying this idea from a solo instrument on to the orchestra, these possibilities have assumed enormous potential. Part three, Vrstvy (Strata), is a tone-by-tone repetition of part one except each solo motive remains “hanging” in space, creating, at least for a particular moment, an independent layer, regardless of the resulting harmonic vertical line. It became suddenly clear to me when I finished the piece in 2015 that its musical language was an accurate reflection of additional second thoughts that had kept haunting me over the long years of its conception: Are we indeed isolated islands, with everybody living on their own? Is reclusion into one’s own world the only option for survival? What is the chance of survival for a society in which everybody does whatever they do no matter what consequences this may have for the surrounding “strata”? Questions which everybody – both musicians and listeners – must have had second thoughts about …” Nebengedanken für grosses Orchester (2014 – 2015), First performance at Festival Epoché / New Slovak Music, Slovak Philharmonic 10. November 2016, Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Szymon Bywalec conductor

In April 1879 in Berlin, Antonín Dvorˇák met Josef Joachim, an outstanding violinist, a professor at a musical academy, and friend of Brahms. His name, Joachim, appears in dedications of Dvořák’s loveliest romantic . At the time, Joachim was pri- vately rehearsing Dvořák‘s String in A major and String Quintet in E-flat major with his colleagues. Excited by the interest in his work, Dvořák decided to dedicate his violin concerto to Joachim. The work on this new piece began on 5 July 1879 as Dvořák was staying with his friend Alois Göbl in Sychrov, and the initial sketch was finished in several days. The concerto was completed over the course of the following two months. Dvořák sent the full score in November of the same year to Joachim in Berlin, expecting the addressee to look at it „con amore“. Yet, the renowned violinist had reservations, and recommended several changes in the stylization of the violin part and the inflated orchestration. Following his advice, the concerto underwent multiple revisions and was thoroughly reworked by Dvořák, who, in a letter to his publisher, says: “I have, at the request of Mr. Joachim, revised the entire concerto and left not a single bar untouched. I have dedicated my supreme efforts to this. The entire concerto will now have a new form. The themes have been left, and several others added. The work has a different concept now … Harmonization, instrumentation, rhythm and the entire resolution are all new.” Thus, while the earliest revision is dated May 1880, the concerto’s final version did not appear before the summer of 1882. The early version has survived in a small number of pages of initial sketches. Dvořák probably burnt the rest, including the early score. Joseph Joachim, to whom Dvořák dedicated his piece, rehearsed the concerto with the orchestra of the Berliner Musik- hochschule in November 1882, recommending some minor additional changes. Dvořák, complied with these alterations once more, but did not live to see Joachim publicly perform the work. Instead, the Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 53 was ultimately premiered by František Ondříček with the National Theater Orchestra under Mořic Anger on 14 October 1883 in Prague. The concerto showcases rare melodic song- like qualities, particularly in the slow movement of Adagio ma non troppo, which has proven to be the core of the piece, combining depth of content with a great diversity of expression. Clear characterization of its different movements, a unique conception of form with the second Allegro ma non troppo immediately following the first without disturbing the three-movement structure, and the instrumentally well-stylized solo part – these are the major strengths of the concerto, which suggests its author’s painstaking effort to achieve perfection of form. Its invention, which is close to the lyricism and buoyancy of Slavonic Dances as witnessed by the heart-felt slow movement and the furiant rhythm of the closing Finale. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo, in addition to the rich sound of the orchestral palette, make this a genuinely and thoroughly authentic piece of music.

The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra (SPh) was established in 1949. Two internationally acclaimed persona- lities were instrumental in the establishment of the orchestra – Václav Talich (Principal Conductor 1949 – 1952) and Ľudovít Rajter (1949 – 1976, and the orchestra’s Artistic Director until 1961). Other chief conductors who have played a significant role in the orchestra’s musical evolution include Tibor Frešo, Ladislav Slovák, Libor Pešek, Vladimir Verbitsky, Bystrík Režucha and . Between 1991 and 2001, the role of Chief Conduc- tor and Music Director was held by Ondrej Lenárd. Jiří Bělohlávek was Artistic Director in the 2003 / 04 season. In 2004, Vladimír Válek became Chief Conductor, before being succeeded by in September 2007. From 2009 – 2016 was the orchestra’s Chief Conductor, and was succeeded in the 2017/18 season by James Judd. Leoš Svárovský has been the orchestra’s Permanent Guest Conductor since 2007, with Rastislav Štúr joining him from the 2011 / 12 season. The many guest conductors who have worked with the Slovak Philharmonic over the years include interna- tional personalities such as , Hermann Abendroth, , Karel Ančerl, Serge Baudo, Roberto Benzi, Miltiades Caridis, , James Conlon, Oskar Danon, Christoph von Dohnányi, Vladimir Fedoseyev, János Ferencsik, , Neeme Järvi, James Judd, Peter Keuschnig, Dmitri Kitayen- ko, Ken Ichiro Kobayashi, Kirill Kondrashin, Franz Konwitschny, Alain Lombard, , Jean Martinon, Kurt Masur, Sir , , Václav Neumann, Antonio Pedrotti, Alexander Rahbari, Karl Richter, Mario Rossi, Witold Rowicki, Kurt Sanderling, Sir Malcolm Sargent, Peter Schreier, Václav Smetáček, Pinchas Steinberg, Otmar Suitner, Yevgeny Svetlanov, Ralf Weikert and Carlo Zecchi, among others, as well as composers and artists such Krzysztof Penderecki and Aram Khachaturian. Zdeněk Košler was awarded the honorary title of ‘Chief Conductor in memoriam’ in 1996 due to his long-standing fruitful collaboration with the orchestra. The Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra has made numerous recordings for radio, television and music publishers such as Opus, Supraphon, Panton, Hungaroton, JVC Victor, RCA, Pacifi c Music, Naxos, and Marco Polo. It re- gularly gives guest performances on leading European stages and at festivals. In the course of its numerous tours abroad, the Slovak Philharmonic has performed in nearly every European country, as well as in Turkey, Japan, South Korea and the United States. During the 2016/2017 season the orchestra performed an abundance of high-quality concerts in Slovakia and abroad. At the beginning of the season, the orchestra performed for the fifth time in Oman, this time in a production of Richard Wagner’sLohengrin conducted by Ralf Weikert. It performed other important concerts in , Austria, and Germany. The 2017 / 18 season was opened by the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra at the Murten Classics Festival in Switzerland under the leadership of Kaspar Zehnder and Rastislav Štúr. In March 2018, they performed at the Prague Spring International Music Festival with the new Chief Conductor, James Judd. The season will be closed by a tour of Japan with the conductors Daniel Raiskin and Leoš Svárovský.

Rastislav Štúr is the Principal Conductor of the Opera of the Slovak National Theatre (SND; 1998 – 2012, and from 2016 onwards) and the Permanent Guest Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra. He studied conducting at the Janáček Academy of Music and Performing Arts in Brno. Štúr made his conducting debut at the SND opera house with Mephistopheles (Boito) in 1996, which opened up further opportunities for him. He then studied the opera productions of The Daughter of the Regiment, A Masked Ball, Il trovatore and La traviata, which he conducted on tour in Japan in 2004 along with the Barber of Seville, The Magic Flute, The Bartered Bride, Nabucco, Andrea Chénier, The Maid of Orleans, and others. Since 1999 he has regularly worked with Opera Singers, including Peter Dvorský, Montserrat Caballé, Gabriela Beňačková, Ilona Tokody, and Anatolij Kotscherga. Štúr often conducts performances of important Czech works with foreign – these include the Orchestre Philharmonique de at the Opera National du Rhin, the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, and the Chinese orchestra NCPA (Nati- onal Centre for the Performing Arts). Štúr has a breadth of experience with foreign orchestras, opera houses and lea- ding soloists. He toured Spain with the orchestras of the Czech Virtuosi and the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava. He conducted at the opera houses in , Giessen and Essen, and performed with the Südwestdeutsche Phil- harmonie and the soloist Heinrich Schiff, and with the Moscow Philharmonic. He regularly cooperates with the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK) with which he performed in Nuremberg, Wrocłav and Merseburg, toured the USA, and performed in the Ema Destinová Festival in České Budějovice and Shanghai. He conducted the Czech National Orchestra with Ute Lemper at the Prague Proms Festival in 2008, with Gabriela Beňačková and Eva Urbanová at the Berlin Konzerthaus (2008), and with Lawrence Brownlee and Mojca Erdmann in Prague. He has conducted concerts with Joseph Calleja in Prostějov and the Tchaikovsky Hall in Moscow, and with Si- mon Keenlyside and Štefan Kocán as soloists with the at the Smetana Hall in Prague. He has also performed with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in Cairo and the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia “Evgeny Svetlanov” in the Large Hall of the . Štúr regularly cooperates with the Slovak Philharmonic in different concert cycles, and has conducted the orchestra in (2003 and 2005), Interlaken (2005), Ingolstadt (2010) with the soloist Mischa Maisky, on a concert tour of Spain (2010 and 2016), in a concert in the Tonhalle in Zürich with Edita Gruberova, Pavol Breslik and Jozef Benci, in Brussels (2016) with Jolana Fogašová and Štefan Kocán, and in (2016) with Dalibor Karvay. He has recorded several CDs with the orchestra.

Dalibor Karvay was born in Vrútky, Slovakia on 24 July 1985. He showed remarkable musical talent from childhood. At the age of three and a half, he began to play the violin under the supervision of his father. His progress was influenced by the musical milieu of his home. For a long time he was known as a “child prodigy” due to his advanced technique and unusually rounded expression. Giving his first concert at the age of 7, he made recordings for Slovak Radio while still a pupil at the Elementary Art School in Vrútky. In 1993, at the age of 8, he won the International Kocian Violin Competition in Ustí nad Orlicí (Czech Republic), and in 1994 at the age of 9, he won the first prize at the Ján Cikker Festival in Banská Bystrica, Slovakia. In 1995, at the age of 10, he participated in the violin interpretation course in Piešťany under the leadership of Professor Eduard Grach. Issuing his first CD recording in 1996 at the age of 11, he won the Gold prize at the 8th International Meeting of Young Musicians in Cordoba (Argentina) and at the Talentarium in Zlín (Czech Republic). Karvay is indebted to the famous Slovak violinist Bohdan Warchal, whose help played a large part in the recording of his protégé’s first CD. With great diligence and hard work, Karvay has expanded on the skills that gave him concert success at such a young age. He undertook systematic study at the Žilina Conservatory with Professor Bohumil Urban, and has been a student at the Vienna Conservatory in Austria since 2000. Studying at Vienna’s Konservatorium der Stadt Wien in the class of the well-known violin pedagogue Professor Boris Kuschnir, he took part in a Master Course with Professor Herman Krebbes in 2002. In 2002, he won the first prize at the Vienna Conservatory Competition. He would win two further awards that year at the 11th Eurovision International Competition: the Grand Prix Young Musician of the Year and the first prize. Among his most notable successes is the first place award at the Tibor Varga International Competiti- on in Switzerland (2003). During his studies at the Vienna Conservatory, he accepted offers to perform at Slovak festivals in his home country – Vrútocká hudobná jar 2001 (Vrútky Musical Spring), Trnavská hudobná jar 2003 (Trnava Musical Spring), Summer of Culture Festival Bratislava 2003 – as well as at international events: the Bratislava Music Festival in 1994, a concert in the Vatican in honor of Pope John Paul II in 1995, a benefit concert for the , and during the Week of Slovak Culture in Spain. He also performed at the Talentinum International Festival of Young Concert Artists in Zlín (1996, Czech Republic), at the 37th International Moravian Autumn Festival in Brno (2003, Czech Republic), and at the Central European Festival in Žilina (2003, Slovakia). He has performed further concerts in Europe, South America, North Africa and Asia. Karvay has worked with conductors such as Ernest Theis, Leoš Svárovsky, Oliver Dohnányi, Herman Engels, Petr Vronsky, Karol Kevický and Ondrej Lenárd, among others. He has performed with many orchestras: the Rundfunk Symfonieorchester Berlin, the Solistes Européens Luxembourg, the Radio Symphonieorchester Vienna, the English Chamber Orchestra, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra in Zlín, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Košice State Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Žilina State Chamber Orchestra. He also plays chamber music as a member of a piano trio: Dalibor Karvay (violin), Karanovič (violoncello), Stefan Stroissnig (piano). “His life and search for a fitting Stradivari-violin were committed to film in the inter- national documentary Stradivari – Love at first sound, released in 2004. Alongside his career as a performer, Dalibor Karvay is a Professor at the Music and Arts University of the City of Vienna. He plays on a violin made by the Viennese luthier Julia Maria Pasch.”

Mitglied in

Texts: Slovak Philharmonic, Translation: Ľuben Urbánek

Photos: Peter Lizák © Embassy of the SR | Slovak Philharmonic © Peter Brenkus | Rastislav Štúr © Alexander Trizuljak Dalibor Karvay © Vladimir Yurkovic | Jana Kmiťová © Georg Winter | Ján Levoslav Bella © From the collection of the Slovak National Museum | Antonín Dvořák © Wikimedia Commons