Gala Concert Programme GALA CONCERT OF THE SLOVAK PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA May 4, 2018 8 p.m. Konzerthaus Berlin (Großer Saal) Gendarmenmarkt 5 – 6, 10117 Berlin Slovak Philharmonic Rastislav Štúr, conductor Dalibor Karvay, violin Ján Levoslav Bella: Concert Piece in Hungarian Style Jana Kmit´ová: Secondary Thoughts for Large Orchestra Antonín Dvorˇák: Violin Concerto 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 Slovaks, of which we can be rightly proud. Slovakia’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 Germany 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 Bratislava) 1853 – 1859 Attended secondary school in Levoča: piano, organ, general bass, several stringed and wind instruments, composition and conducting 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 Vienna; 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 choir 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 cantatas 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 Opera 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 Czechoslovakia 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 Romanticism 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 atonality 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