DVORAK, THEN & NOW (IN CONCERT 18.07.24
Here is a review from a roving reporter from Manchester. It is 1896 and first British performance of new works by Dvorak has been programmed by the Philharmonic Society in a mammoth concert.
"Next came [at 10.15pm] Dvorak’s new ‘cello concerto, with Leo Stern. It is a long and elegant work. Difficult, it is not. Though the solo part is very difficult it not in the first movement.merely a vehicle for display. The second movement is massive and passionate, full of melody: a slow movement of extraordinary charm, and the last [movement] is varied in subject mattter and treatment, and explores almost every emotion. it seemed long and it explored every possibie phase of emotion. The length was probably due to the hours solid music one had listened to*: it had extended to nearly three hours. Again, the solo was extremely well-played, and there were some difficult and complex accompaniments though they were frequently too loud. Composer and soloist were again and again recalled.
• The provramme:
• Dvorak 8th Symphony cond. by its composer
• Bibical songs world premiere of a new orchestration
• Beethoven Emperor Concerto [Phew!]
- [Sauer's encore was a Beethoven Rondo ]
• Interval
• 1st London performance of the Cello Concerto with Antonin Dvorak conducting."
Well, that's how we responded to Dvorak's beloved romantic Cello Concerto in late Victorian England.
How did the Royal Northern Sinfonia under its Conductor, Dinis Sousa, and soloist fare in Gateshead 128 years later?
Again its soloist, Steven Isserlis, was wonderful and replete with subtle use of rubati which momentarily wrong- footed the orchestra once or twice in the first and third movements. Dvorak tosses many melodies at the orchestra and I was delighted by the aplomb shown by oboe, clarinet trumpet and horns , etc
Looking at the 1896 programme, I was intrigued how the cello concerto picks up and develops ideas from Dvorak's English (8th) Symphony.
Oh how I loved the playing and sensitivity bestowed on the recapitulation & coda of the Concerto's finale. Arnold Bax would have called it an epilogue, Schubert would have smiled at its major/ minor variants. Its positivity and calm acceptance brought the end of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs into my mind.
All in all a job well done despite the long work being the first half of the Concert. Unusual, c.f. the 1896 evening where sleepheads like me would have snored through the concerto's finest pages whilst others would have fretted over missing that vital last train.
Steven's reflective and sad encore was Sally Beamish's restrained arrangement of 'Song of the Birds' : a Catalan folksong.
"Next came [at 10.15pm] Dvorak’s new ‘cello concerto, with Leo Stern. It is a long and elegant work. Difficult, it is not. Though the solo part is very difficult it not in the first movement.merely a vehicle for display. The second movement is massive and passionate, full of melody: a slow movement of extraordinary charm, and the last [movement] is varied in subject mattter and treatment, and explores almost every emotion. it seemed long and it explored every possibie phase of emotion. The length was probably due to the hours solid music one had listened to*: it had extended to nearly three hours. Again, the solo was extremely well-played, and there were some difficult and complex accompaniments though they were frequently too loud. Composer and soloist were again and again recalled.
• The provramme:
• Dvorak 8th Symphony cond. by its composer
• Bibical songs world premiere of a new orchestration
• Beethoven Emperor Concerto [Phew!]
- [Sauer's encore was a Beethoven Rondo ]
• Interval
• 1st London performance of the Cello Concerto with Antonin Dvorak conducting."
Well, that's how we responded to Dvorak's beloved romantic Cello Concerto in late Victorian England.
How did the Royal Northern Sinfonia under its Conductor, Dinis Sousa, and soloist fare in Gateshead 128 years later?
Again its soloist, Steven Isserlis, was wonderful and replete with subtle use of rubati which momentarily wrong- footed the orchestra once or twice in the first and third movements. Dvorak tosses many melodies at the orchestra and I was delighted by the aplomb shown by oboe, clarinet trumpet and horns , etc
Looking at the 1896 programme, I was intrigued how the cello concerto picks up and develops ideas from Dvorak's English (8th) Symphony.
Oh how I loved the playing and sensitivity bestowed on the recapitulation & coda of the Concerto's finale. Arnold Bax would have called it an epilogue, Schubert would have smiled at its major/ minor variants. Its positivity and calm acceptance brought the end of Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs into my mind.
All in all a job well done despite the long work being the first half of the Concert. Unusual, c.f. the 1896 evening where sleepheads like me would have snored through the concerto's finest pages whilst others would have fretted over missing that vital last train.
Steven's reflective and sad encore was Sally Beamish's restrained arrangement of 'Song of the Birds' : a Catalan folksong.
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