Programme Notes | Edo de Waart: From the New World - 29 & 31 October 2021

Programme Notes

EDO DE WAART: FROM THE NEW WORLD FRI 29 OCTOBER 2021 • 20.15 SUN 31 OCTOBER 2021 • 14.15

PROGRAMME conductor Edo de Waart bassoon Pieter Nuytten Antonín Dvořák 1841-1904 Serenade for Wind Instruments, Cello and Double Bass in D minor, op. 44 [1878] • Moderato, quasi marcia • Minuetto. Tempo di minuetto • Andante con moto • Finale. Allegro molto Carl Maria von Weber 1786-1826 Andante e Rondo ongarese in C minor, op. 35 [1813] • Andante • Allegretto Interval Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor, op. 95 ‘From the New World’ [1892-93] • Adagio – Allegro molto • Largo • Scherzo. Molto vivace • Allegro con fuoco Concert ends at around 22.10/16.10 Most recent performances by our orchestra: Dvořák Serenade for Wind Instruments: March 1982, conductor Edo de Waart Weber Andante e Rondo ongarese: unknown Dvořák Symphony No. 9: November 2017, conductor Robert Treviño One hour before the start of the concert, musicologist Bart de Graaf will give an introduction to the programme, admission €5. Tickets are available at the hall, payment by debit card. The introduction is free for Vrienden. The introduction is in Dutch.

Cover: New York as it was when Dvořák lived there. Lithography by Charles Parsons en Lyman Atwater.

Carl Maria von Weber. Coloured woodcut by Richard Bong after a painting

by Carl Christian Vogel von Vogelstein (1823).

When

folk music shimmers through

Antonín Dvořák once told an English journalist about his early years as a composer. It all began, he said, when he went to Prague at the age of 16 to study music. ‘I went to the opera there for the first time in my life and listened to Weber’s Die Freischütz from the gallery.’ Carl Maria von Weber was by that time no longer alive, but Dvořák stands alongside him in this concert, in a programme that features their shared love of folk music – and of woodwind.

Dazzling dance Antonín Dvořák composed his Serenade for Wind Instruments after hearing Mozart’s well-known Gran Partita during a stay in Vienna. As in practically all his compositions – from the effervescent Slavonic Dances to the majestic Te Deum – this work displays that characteristic mix of scintillating energy, Slavic nostalgia and calm. And in this Serenade Dvořák took inspiration from both German folk music and French court music.

The powerful, melodious opening theme of the Serenade will stay with the listener for a long time.

After a few minutes it gives way to a charming lively passage, after which

the music gets ready for the reprise of the opening melody. The graceful Minuetto also has three sections, with hunting horn themes creating a pastoral atmosphere. The Andante has many beautiful solos and playful echoes and in the closing movement the listener is caught up in a dazzling dance by a folk dancing troupe whose members whirl around each other at breakneck speed.

Dramatic and rich in contrast Carl Maria von Weber’s Andante e Rondo ongarese is a totally different work but also displays similarities to Dvořák’s Serenade, such as its use of a folk dance to end the piece. The important role of the wind section in

both pieces gives them a similar dark, warm sound and the composers are a match for one another with respect to the catchy melodies. And Weber’s opening theme keeps going round and round in the listener’s head like an earworm. But Weber’s piece takes a different form, being composed for solo bassoon and orchestra, and the Andante is made up of a theme and three variations. Its musical idiom is more dramatic and richer in contrast.

It is Weber the opera composer at work.

Weber wrote the piece in 1809 for violin and orchestra. Four years later he composed a bassoon concerto that he dedicated to bassoonist Georg Friedrich Brandt. Brandt was so happy that he asked Weber to write another work for him. So Weber adapted his Andante e Rondo ongarese for bassoon and orchestra.

From the New World Throughout his professional life Weber travelled and performed throughout Europe but he never got as far as America. Antonín Dvořák did. In 1892 he was invited to America to help celebrate the country’s 400th anniversary with a Te Deum that he composed specially for the occasion. In addition, to enhance its status the newly established New York Conservatory urgently needed an international celebrity, which Dvořák was by that time. He was awarded a two-year contract to give composition lessons, with the aim of encouraging American music students to develop their own – American – musical style. Somewhat mockingly he wrote to his publisher Simrock that he was supposed to become ‘the saviour of American music’.

In his native Bohemia he drew his inspiration from the local folk music.

In America he went in search of

American folk music. In that regard he made no distinction between the music of the inhabitants of African origin, that of the indigenous people and the folk music of the European immigrants (mainly Scottish and Irish). During his years in America (from 1892 to 1895) Dvořák composed a number of works, the most important of which is the Ninth Symphony, which contains elements of all these types of music.

Somewhat mockingly he wrote to his publisher Simrock that he was supposed to become ‘the saviour of American music’ Romanticised stories The Ninth Symphony is Dvořák’s most popular work. The many melodious themes and felicitous harmonies have doubtless contributed to this.

Another reason for the success of this work is the familiarity evoked by the musical material.

For instance, the motto theme of the first movement can clearly be heard in all the other movements. The slow, understated introduction of the second movement evokes an almost

religious atmosphere. Donald Francis Tovey, a renowned English musician and musicologist described this passage as ‘music that strides over the world’.

The middle movements each contain song-like motifs that have both an American and a Slavic tint. The wistful melody that is introduced in the second movement by the cor anglais is initially reminiscent of a spiritual, but with the arrival of the tremolo accompaniment on the violins it sounds more like Slovak folk music. Almost all the themes return once more in the Finale.

The symphony From the New World received its premiere on 16 December 1893 in front of a frenzied, enthusiastic audience in Carnegie Hall in New York. But the American press grumbled about the lack of authentic character in the folk music Dvořák used. It reminded the reviewer at the New York Daily Tribune particularly of romanticized stories about native Americans.

But Dvořák had deliberately not used actual folk tunes. ‘I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music,’ he said, ‘and have developed them with modern rhythms, counterpoint, and orchestral colour.’ It is a major achievement that he was able to fuse the different elements to form an exciting whole.

Agnes van der Horst

Edo de Waart, Conductor Born: Amsterdam, Netherlands Education: oboe, piano and conducting at the Conservatory of Amsterdam Current position: principal guest conductor San Diego Symphony Orchestra Conductor laureate: Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra, New Zealand Symphony Orchestra Before: chief conductor Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Minnesota Orchestra, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Hong Kong Philharmonic, Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, Dutch National Opera; music director Netherlands Wind Ensemble; assistant conductor Concertgebouw Orchestra Breakthrough: 1964, after winning the Dimitri Mitropoulos Conducting Competition New York; subsequently assistant to Leonard Bernstein at the New York Philharmonic for a year Awards: Honorary Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia; Honorary Fellow of the Hong Kong Academy for Performing Arts Debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 1966

Photo Karen van Gilst

Pieter Nuytten, Bassoon Born: Ghent, Belgium Education: conservatories of Antwerp, Cologne and Basel Youth orchestras: European Union Youth Orchestra, Pacific Music Festival Orchestra (Japan), Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester Current position: 2007 principal bassoon of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra Solo debut: 2001, soloist in Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante Subsequently: soloist in concertos by Bach, Vivaldi, Haydn, Mozart, Weber, Peter Maxwell Davies Chamber music: with Igor Roma, Nicholas Daniel, Jonathan Kelly, Priya Mitchell, Vladimir Mendelssohn, Alfredo Perl, Natacha Kudritskaya, Jean-Claude Vanden Eynden; Oxalys, Focus Ensemble, Kölner Kammersolisten Solo debut Rotterdam Philharmonic: 2021

Photo Juri Hiensch

AGENDA

MUSICIANS

Thu 4 November 2021 • 20.15 Fri 5 November 2021 • 20.15 Sun 7 November 2021 • 14.15 conductor Lahav Shani cello Nicolas Altstaedt Bloch Schelomo Mahler Symphony No. 1

Chief Conductor Lahav Shani

Fri 12 November 2021 • 20.15 conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste soprano Helena Juntunen baritone Tommi Hakala choir YL Male Voice Choir Sibelius Kullervo

First violin Igor Gruppman, concertmaster Marieke Blankestijn, concertmaster Quirine Scheffers Hed Yaron Meyerson Saskia Otto Arno Bons Mireille van der Wart Shelly Greenberg Cor van der Linden Rachel Browne Maria Dingjan Marie-José Schrijner Noëmi Bodden Petra Visser Sophia Torrenga Hadewijch Hofland Annerien Stuker Alexandra van Beveren Koen Stapert

Sun 14 November 2021 • 14.15 conductor Jukka-Pekka Saraste soprano Helena Juntunen baritone Tommi Hakala Sibelius Orchestral Songs Sibelius The Bard Sibelius Lemminkäinen Suite Fri 3 December 2021 • 20.15 conductor Lahav Shani piano Yuja Wang Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 Berlioz Symphonie fantastique Wed 1 December 2021 • 14.00 and 16.00 Sint Sing-Along (3+) members of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra together with Hofplein Rotterdam Sinterklaas songs Fri 17 December 2021 • 19.30 Sat 18 December 2021 • 19.30 Sun 19 December 2021 • 13.30 conductor Jonathan Cohen soprano Emöke Baráth counter tenor Andreas Scholl tenor Andrew Staples baritone Matthew Rose choir Groot Omroepkoor Handel Messiah

Honorary Conductor Valery Gergiev Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Second violin Charlotte Potgieter Cecilia Ziano Frank de Groot Laurens van Vliet Tomoko Hara Elina Staphorsius Jun Yi Dou Bob Bruyn Letizia Sciarone Eefje Habraken Maija Reinikainen Sumire Hara Wim Ruitenbeek Babette van den Berg Melanie Broers

Viola Anne Huser Roman Spitzer Maartje van Rheeden Galahad Samson Kerstin Bonk Lex Prummel Janine Baller Francis Saunders Veronika Lénártová Rosalinde Kluck León van den Berg Cello Emanuele Silvestri Joanna Pachucka Daniel Petrovitsch Mario Rio Gé van Leeuwen Eelco Beinema Carla Schrijner Pepijn Meeuws Yi-Ting Fang Double bass Matthew Midgley Ying Lai Green Jonathan Focquaert Robert Franenberg Harke Wiersma Arjen Leendertz Ricardo Neto Flute Juliette Hurel Joséphine Olech Désirée Woudenberg Oboe Remco de Vries Karel Schoofs Hans Cartigny Anja van der Maten Oboe/cor anglais Ron Tijhuis Klarinet Julien Hervé Bruno Bonansea Jan Jansen

Clarinet/ bass clarinet Romke-Jan Wijmenga Bassoon Pieter Nuytten Marianne Prommel Bassoon/ contra bassoon Hans Wisse Horn David Fernández Alonso Wendy Leliveld Richard Speetjens Laurens Otto Pierre Buizer Trumpet Giuliano Sommerhalder Alex Elia Simon Wierenga Jos Verspagen Trombone Pierre Volders Alexander Verbeek Remko de Jager Bass Trombone/ contrabass trombone Ben van Dijk Tuba Hendrik-Jan Renes Timpani/ percussion Randy Max Danny van de Wal Ronald Ent Martijn Boom Adriaan Feyaerts Harp Charlotte Sprenkels