STRING SERENADES VOLUME � JOSEF SUK • ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK ANIMA MUSICÆ CHAMBER ORCHESTRA STRING SERENADES, VOL. 2 SUK – DVOŘÁK Josef Suk (1874–1935): Serenade for String Orchestra in E flat major, Op. 6 26:17 1 I. Andante con moto 4:56 2 II. Allegro ma non troppo e grazioso 5:19 3 III. Adagio 8:37 4 IV. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo presto 7:17 Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904): Serenade for String Orchestra in E major, Op. 22 26:18 5 I. Moderato 3:57 6 II. Menuetto. Allegro con moto 6:26 7 III. Scherzo. Vivace 5:31 8 IV. Larghetto 4:35 9 V. Finale. Allegro vivace 5:40 Total time: 52:45 ANIMA MUSICÆ CHAMBER ORCHESTRA László G. Horváth 1st violin, Tamás Bartók viola, principal concertmaster József Sándor viola Csilla Kovács 1st violin Fülöp Görbicz viola (5–9) Anna Rovó 1st violin (1–4) Péter Hamar viola (1–4) Gábor Szabó 1st violin Péter Váray cello, principal Tamás Szabó 1st violin Péter Stoll cello (1–4) Barnabás Vajda 1st violin (5–9) Attila Kónya cello Kata Borsos 2nd violin, principal Balázs Pintér cello (5–9) Zsófia Baráti 2nd violin Gábor Gyetvai double bass Enikő Kiss 2nd violin Ottília Revóczky 2nd violin LÁSZLÓ G. HORVÁTH artistic director Recording producer & editor: Zsuzsa Dvorák • Balance engineer: Domonkos Timár Assistant of the balance engineer: Máté Timár Recorded on 10–11 October, 2018 (1–4) and 29–31 January, 2019 (5–9) at Hungaroton Studio. Werkphoto: Dávid Tóth • Design and prepress: Béla Ujváry Liner notes & booklet editor: Enikő Gyenge • English translation: Kata Ittzés, Richard Robinson ℗ 2020 Fotexnet Kft. • Catalogue No.: HCD 32824 • Made in EU About the Genre the symphony by its lighter character and more superficial elaboration, and the variable number of The word ‘serenade’ has carried several different movements. Because of the open-air performance meanings throughout music history. The term the ensemble consisted of portable instruments, originates with the Latin serenus (meaning soft, and the frequent marching featured in the opening serene but also bright and light), and was used to and closing movement were not accidental either, designate night music offered under the windows since the musicians had to enter and exit the scene of one’s lady – by good luck it may have meant of music-making. Regular movement-types were singing love songs in bright weather – where a serene slow movement, corresponding to the the singer customarily accompanied himself. accompanied song (and often titled Romance) and This medieval courting practice is the general a movement in variation form. The finale often interpretation of a serenade which has persisted rounded off the serenade with the partial or full through ages and fashions in common practice repeat of the first march. The wonderful Mozart and in musical compositions. The best known serenades belong to the immortal works of the and most beautiful adaptation to art music is the genre both for variety of instrumental ensemble serenade in Mozart’s Don Giovanni (Deh! vieni alla and lyrical content. finestra), sung with mandolin accompaniment by the nobleman to Elvira’s maid. In the 19th century, with the spread of public concert life, new forms of the serenade developed An interesting digression in the genre is the Italian to meet the demands of the acoustics of large Baroque Serenata, which was simply a cantata of concert halls and the audience. Open-air several movements for singers and instrumental performance ceased to be a primary consideration, forces performed occasionally (in the open air or as so multi-movement compositions of lighter quality, the highlight of an evening of entertainment) with termed serenade, were composed for a variety of simple stage props. Its poetic ideas encompassed ensembles from chamber groups to full symphony the night, the world of dreams, and unrequited orchestras. These works often employed strings love, its greatest masters were Alessandro Stradella only (Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, Hugo Wolf, Elgar), but and Alessandro Scarlatti. there were also special combinations of string and In the late Baroque and during Viennese Classicism, wind instruments (R. Strauss, Dvořák, Max Reger); the serenade has lost its confessional night-music the mixed chamber orchestra score of Serenade character and, embraced into the fashionable No. 2 of Brahms, for example, lacks violins. Due to occasional greeting and entertainment music of their character and themes the Hungarian Dances the age (cassatione, divertimento, notturno), it was of Brahms and the Slavonic Dances of Dvořák may transformed into an instrumental genre of several rightly be included among Romantic serenades, movements. It was often only distinguishable from even if they are not titled as such. In the 20th century Schönberg, Britten, composition of Los Angeles Olympic Games Stravinsky and Bernstein had a preference for (between 1912 and 1948 the Olympic Games also special combinations of voices and instruments awarded prizes for the arts). in their compositions with serenade features. Suk composed his Serenade for Strings in E flat Neoclassicism, however, had a different taste, and major (Op. 6) at Dvořák’s prompting; his master it brought back the fashion of pieces for string felt that his eighteen-year-old pupil was bringing ensemble (we may think of Bartók’s Divertimento mostly melancholic works, and composing or Lajtha’s two Sinfoniettas), and innumerable a breezy serenade would help to restore the serenades were conceived for small chamber balance. Some scholars see the four movements groups of two, three or four. as musical portraits of Otylie Dvořák, his future Josef Suk: Serenade for String Orchestra wife, whom Suk met that same year. The piece in E flat major, Op. 6 made the composer instantly famous, and Brahms considered it especially good, enthusing “Ist Czech composer Josef Suk was born in 1874 in das aber nett!” (“Now that’s good!”) and urging the village of Křečovice, where his father (and the prestigious Simrock to publish it. The first first teacher) was organist and cantor. In 1885 movement, in a moderate tempo, is darkly lyrical, he started studying violin and composition in with an A-B-A form conceived in the classical the Prague Conservatory, where his teachers spirit. It is followed by a graceful, playful waltz. included Antonín Dvořák, with whom he later The Adagio is a gem of the string repertoire, and became friends and relatives, marrying Dvořák’s its emotional temperature reaches a climax in the daughter Otylie. In 1892, he founded the Czech closing dialogue between two violins (the voices Quartet with fellow students Karel Hoffmann, of two kindred spirits?). The furious energy Oskar Nedbal, and Otto Berger, and by 1933 they of the closing movement is a nod to Dvořák’s had given more than 4,000 concerts worldwide. In E major Serenade for Strings and also to Brahms, 1922 Suk became the professor of the composition the esteemed model. The world premiere of the master class in the Prague Conservatory, where he entire work took place in 1897 in the Prague was rector several times, and a prolific composer. Conservatory. His earlier works show mainly the influence of Dvořák and Brahms. Unlike his contemporaries, Antonín Dvořák: Serenade for String Orchestra he had little interest in Czech folk music; his œuvre in E major, Op. 22 comprises a varied range of the genres of the time, Serenades for strings, apparently, are written in from orchestral compositions and concertos to significant years: if the year 1892 was for Suk a piano pieces and chamber works, choral works year of good fortune and happiness, for Dvořák, and stage works. Interestingly, 1932 his orchestral the year 1875, when he wrote the Serenade in march Into a New Life won him the prize for E major for Strings, Op. 22, was a turning point from the Scherzo and the trio. After a gentle in his career. He produced many works as a Larghetto that tapers away to nothing (though it composer (the Symphony No. 5, the String Quartet contains a reference to one of the striking themes No. 2, the Piano Trio No. 1, the Moravian Duets), of the Scherzo), in the Allegro vivace finale we once his financial problems seemed to be over thanks more find the refined stylization of the rhythms to a generous state stipend, and having recently of Czech folk dances. Here Dvořák recalls the married, he had his first son. The Serenade for opening themes of the slow movement and the first Strings in E major was written in only eleven days, movement, thus rounding off the work in the spirit and its world premiere was given in December of the genre’s eighteenth-century traditions. 1876 in a performance by Adolf Čech and the Enikő Gyenge united orchestras of the Prague theatres, to an enthusiastic reception. The composer himself About the Orchestra liked it, and in his first documented appearance The Anima Musicæ Chamber Orchestra, named as as a conductor (1877, Leipnik/Lipnik nad Becvou) “the soul of music”, has gained the title National he was keen to include it in the programme. The Youth Orchestra 2018–2020. It is one of the most piece shows the composer to be in full mastery dynamically developing youth ensembles in of his compositional ammunition, not least Hungary. They have received prizes and awards in because his years of experience playing viola in an several Hungarian and international competitions orchestra can be felt in the instrumentation. The and are in demand at major concert and festival five-movement structure appears to follow the events in Budapest and Europe. The ensemble tradition of the classical divertimento genre: apart has performed with several renowned artists from the sonata-form Finale, all of the movements partnering Kristóf Baráti, Barnabás Kelemen, are in a simple A-B-A form, filled out with a Katalin Kokas, Kirill Troussov, Giovanni Guzzo, good sense of proportion.