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Taipei Symphony Orchestra
Felix Chiu-Sen Chen, conductor
David Finckel, cello
Da-Hong Seetoo, Recording Engineer and Producer

NOTES ON THE MUSIC
by Anton Angelo

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904)
Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 (1894-95)

Widely considered to be the greatest Czech composer, Antonín Dvořák is famous mostly for his orchestral compositions, combining fresh and memorable melodic lines, colorful and effective instrumentation, and well-balanced structure.  Son of a butcher, Dvořák has struggled early in his career to gain recognition as a composer.  Working for decades as a café violist and church organist, he continued to write vigorously, until with the help of his friend and mentor Johannes Brahms he gained recognition and financial stability.

By the early 1890’s, Dvořák became a well-known and respected composer whose fame has reached far beyond his native land.  In 1892, he received an offer to come to the United States from Mrs. Jeanette Thurber, the founder of the National Conservatory of Music in New York.  Dvořák turned down Mrs. Thurber’s offer several times, but she was very persistent and offered him $30,000 – an enormous amount of money at the time – to come teach, perform and compose.  After many more letters, Dvořák decided to take the offer, and from 1892 to 1895 he held the position of the director of the National Conservatory in New York City.  During his stay in America, Dvořák has composed several major works, including the “New World” Symphony and “American” String Quartet.  The B minor Cello Concerto, composed between November of 1894 and February of 1895, was the last work he completed in the United States.

The Concerto is dedicated to Dvořák’s friend Hanus Wihan, the founder and cellist of the Czech String Quartet, who asked the composer to write a cello concerto numerous times.  The inspiration, however, came to Dvořák from another musician –Victor Herbert, principal cellist of the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra.  When Dvořák heard Herbert perform his own Second Cello Concerto with the New York Philharmonic in Brooklyn in 1894, he was so impressed with the way that the composer balanced large orchestral forces and mellow sounds of solo cello that he decided to start writing the Cello Concert right away. 

Unlike other works written in the United States, this Concerto is deeply Slavic in nature, with expansive melodic lines, colorful orchestration, and open emotionality.  It is linked to Dvořák’s native Bohemia not only spiritually, but personally as well.  While working on the Concerto, Dvořák has learned about the sudden death of his sister-in-law Josefina Kaunitzova, an object of his secret and unanswered passion.  To commemorate his dear friend, Dvořák included in the score a quote from his own song “Leave Me Alone”, which was Josefina’s favorite.  This melody is heard in the second movement and then again in the third movement’s coda.

 After two years of writing and numerous changes to the solo part and orchestration, the Concerto was finished and became not only one of Dvořák’s most popular works, but perhaps the greatest concerto ever written for the instrument.  Johannes Brahms wrote to Fritz Simrock, Dvořák’s publisher, that “the cellists can be grateful to your Dvořák for bestowing on them such a great and skillful work.”

The Concerto is written in a traditional three-part structure.  The first movement, Allegro, opens with a fiery orchestral introduction stating the Concerto’s principal theme.  The second theme, a melancholic melody sung by the French horn, is one of the Dvořák’s most tender and moving tunes.  The solo cello enters in the improvisational manner with a restating of the main theme, which becomes a backbone of the masterful development section.  In recapitulation, the two themes are reversed in order, so the second theme returns first, and the main melody follows in a brilliant conclusion marked grandioso.  The second movement, Adagio ma non troppo, opens in the serene lyric mood, which is suddenly interrupted by the full orchestral tutti.  In the heart of the middle section is a melody of the Dvořák’s song, “Leave Me Alone,” sung by the solo cello.  The Finale, allegro moderato, is a rondo featuring several alternating themes, rhythmic or lyrical.  The dance-like fast sections sparkle with finger-breaking virtuosity while the slower episodes are filled with some of the work’s most heartfelt singing lines.  But perhaps the most amazing part of the whole Concerto is the final coda.  Dvořák described is this way: “The Finale closes gradually diminuendo, like a sigh, with reminiscences of the first and second movements—the solo dies down to pianissimo, then swells again, and the last bars are taken up by the orchestra and the whole concludes in a stormy mood”

Augusta Read Thomas
Ritual Incantation (1999)

Augusta Read Thomas is known as a passionate and highly original voice among American composers.  Her influences come not only from the world of music (Bach, Berio, Boulez, Byrd, Debussy, Knussen, Mahler, Messiaen, Varèse, and Webern among them), but also from literature, especially poetry.  In a November 2001 essay, musicologist Seth Brodsky argues that the poetic idea of image offers insight into Thomas’ compositional art.  Various images – the sun, light, the voice, song, bells, stars – run through Thomas’ works.  In the case of RITUAL INCANTATIONS, for example, the score gives directions to the orchestra, the soloist, and the conductor such as “Majestic; driving and persistent; cantabile- Mysterious and expansive; longing; yearning- Spirited; passionate, bold and lyrical” all of which reflect the images that define the spiritual world that Thomas seeks to convey in her music.

Thomas’ music is championed by leading conductors and orchestras both in the U.S. and in Europe.  Her list of premieres over the last year provides a good indication of her prolific level of activity.  December 2002 saw the premier of In My Sky at Twilight for soprano and chamber orchestra with the Chicago Symphony under Pierre Boulez; Chanting to Paradise for soprano, Trainwork for orchestra was first performed by the Chicago Symphony, also conducted by Eschenbach, at the Ravinia Festival in June 2002; also that month, Light the First Light of Evening was first performed by the London Sinfonietta and Oliver Knussen; and Sunlight Echoes was premiered by the Chicago Youth Symphony and Children’s Choir at Carnegie Hall in February 2002.

Other commissions have come from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Aspen Music Festival, the Cleveland Orchestra, and the Pittsburgh Symphony, among others, and other conductors who have programmed her work include Daniel Barenboim, Mstislav Rostropovich, Seiji Ozawa, David Robertson, Gerard Schwarz, Dennis Russell Davies, Hugh Wolff, Jahja Ling, Keith Lockhart, and Lawrence Leighton Smith.

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