PROGRAM NOTES

favorites. Josefina did not return his feelings and Dvořák ultimately married her younger sister Anna. In time, Dvořák grew to love Anna deeply, but his youthful feelings for Josefina never completely dissipated. While Dvořák was writing the Cello Concerto in the fall and winter of 1894-95, he received word that Josefina had fallen gravely ill, and his concern for her took musical shape in the form of this personal quote. The Finale continues Dvořák’s tribute to Josefina, who died in May 1895. Having returned home to Prague by that time, Dvořák revised the ending to include the most famous part of this great work, the coda. Dvořák’s son Otakar, in his book of reminiscences Antonín Dvořák, My Father, wrote, “This impressive ending to the concerto was my father’s tribute to and final departure from his last love.”

Dvořák dedicated the Cello Concerto to his friend, cellist Hanuš Wihan, who provided technical expertise. Wihan, not content with his advisory role, suggested and apparently insisted on so many revisions that Dvořák finally rebelled. In a letter to his publisher, Simrock, Dvořák wrote: “… I will give you my work only if you promise not to allow anybody to make changes – friend Wihan not excepted.”

Critics and audiences received the Cello Concerto enthusiastically. The London Times wrote, “In wealth and beauty of thematic material, as well as in the unusual interest of the development of its first movement, the new Concerto yields to none of the composer’s recent works; all three movements are richly melodious.” Johannes Brahms was also a fan; from his deathbed, Brahms exclaimed rhetorically: “Why on earth didn’t I know one could write a cello concerto like this? If I’d only known, I’d have written one long ago!”

CARL NIELSEN Symphony No. 4, Op. 29 “The Inextinguishable”

Composer: born June 9, 1865, Sortelung, nr Nørre Lyndelse, Funen; died October 3, 1931, Copenhagen

Work composed: 1914-16

World premiere: The Fourth Symphony premiered in Copenhagen on February 1, 1916

“I have an idea for a new composition, which has no program but will express what we understand by the spirit of life or manifestations of life, that is: everything that moves, that wants to live … life and motion, though varied – very varied – yet connected, and as if constantly on the move, in one big movement or stream. I must have a word or a short title to express this ... I cannot quite explain what I want, but what I want is good.” – Carl Nielsen writing to his wife Ann Marie, 1914

Danish composer Carl Nielsen’s music continues to gain new admirers more than 90 years after his death. Although Nielsen’s music was known in Europe during his lifetime, it was rarely heard elsewhere until after World War II; since then, thanks to the efforts of conductors like Leonard Bernstein and others, today Nielsen’s music is widely performed in concert halls around the world. Nielsen composed in a variety of genres, but it is his six symphonies that have made the biggest impact internationally.

The seventh of 12 children, Nielsen grew up in a small village on the island of Funen. His father, an amateur musician, gave young Carl, who showed strong musical aptitude at an early age, lessons on violin, piano, and cornet. Along with music, Nielsen also grew up with an abiding love of nature, which manifests in much of his own work, most particularly in his Symphony No. 4.

In May 1914, Nielsen described the initial ideas for what became his fourth symphony in the letter quoted above. Over the next two years, as World War I ravaged Europe and Denmark maintained a careful but fragile neutrality, Nielsen wrestled to combine these concepts with a newer, more musically innovative approach to symphonic writing.

Symphony No. 4 has one large movement with four distinct sections played without pause. Although the music is tonal, Nielsen strove to, as he put it, “once and for all see about getting away from keys but still remain diatonically convincing.” The addition of a second set of timpani provides dramatic power, particularly in the final section.

Nielsen’s writing is episodic but not aimless. The music encompasses a wide spectrum of moods, which Nielsen expresses through his masterful use of timbres in the winds, brasses, and strings. We hear phrases and moments that anticipate the sound of 1930s and 40s Hollywood films scored by Erich Wolfgang Korngold.

As the music evolved, Nielsen found his “short title:” “The Inextinguishable.” It is tempting to hear this music as a commentary on Word War I, because of the timing of its composition, but Nielsen intended it to express something more eternal: “the elemental will to live” that animates all living things.

© Elizabeth Schwartz