Dvořák the Bohemian

What does the word ‘Bohemia’ conjure up for you? Associations of wildly romantic eastern European castles? Or impoverished artists living in 19th century Paris? Or maybe ‘Bohemia’ the Raja King of Punjabi Rap?…

Triptych

The next concert from London Firebird on Tuesday 9 October features two musical masterpieces by a true Bohemian composer – Anton Dvořák. The ancient Kingdom of Bohemia became a state within the Habsburg Monarchy from 1526. But when Dvořák was born there in 1841 it was part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and the predecessor of the modern Czech Republic. 

Dvořák
Dvořák

Dvořák achieved worldwide recognition for his music. He was well known for including rhythms and note patterns derived from the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. But his reputation was to spread far wider across the world firstly with an honorary degree from the University of Cambridge, followed by a position as professor of composition at the Prague Conservatory and then to the USA as Director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City.

Dvorak’s Song to the Moon comes from the very beginning of his opera Rusalka in which the lead character – as a nymph – sings to the moon…

O moon high up in the deep, deep sky,

Your light sees far away regions,

You travel round the wide,

Wide world peering into human dwellings

This magical work will be sung by rising star Verity Wingate

Verity Wingate
Verity Wingate

Dvořák’s 8th Symphony draws its inspiration from the Bohemian folk music that Dvořák so loved. The score was composed on the occasion of his admission to Prague Academy and he dedicated the work to ‘the Bohemian Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for the Encouragement of Arts and Literature, in thanks for my election.’

Manuscript of 8th symphony
Manuscript of 8th symphony

Dvořák composed his 8th Symphony at his beautiful country residence in central Bohemia at Vysoká u Příbramě. He wanted to make his 8th Symphony stand out from the stormy romantic 7th Symphony. saying it would be ‘different from the other symphonies, with individual thoughts worked out in a new way.’

Vysoká u Příbramě
Dvořák’s signature

Its turbulent fanfare is worth waiting for opening with a glorious fanfare of trumpets. Conductor Rafael Kubelik once said in a rehearsal: ‘Gentlemen, in Bohemia the trumpets never call to battle – they always call to the dance,’ This will be the concluding work in this magnificent programme conducted by George Jackson.

George Jackson
George Jackson

Egmont in October

Tuesday 9 October 2018
St George’s Hanover Square

Beethoven Egmont Op.34
Bruch Violin Concerto No.1 Op.26
Dvorak Song to the Moon
Dvorak: Symphony No.8 in G major, Op.88, B.163

George Jackson conductor
Leonard Schreiber violin
Verity Wingate soprano

The Most Beautiful of all Violin Concertos

It may be one of the most popular – and most beautiful – of all violin concertos but the composition of Bruch’s First Violin Concerto was no easy matter…

Bruch had already had some musical successes when the 26-year-old composer began work on the concerto in the summer of 1864.

But after 18 months a letter to his former teacher revealed that ‘My violin concerto is progressing slowly – I do not feel sure of my feet on this terrain. Do you think that it is very audacious to write a violin concerto?’

Joseph Joachim

And after its first performance in 1866 the dissatisfied composer withdrew it and he sent the manuscript to the great virtuoso violinist Joseph Joachim for his comments. Joachim replied with a detailed list of proposals for the work’s improvement but Bruch responded with another list of diffident queries and suggestions. 

Still insecure about his work, Bruch sent the score to the violinist Ferdinand David who had previously advised Mendelssohn on his Violin Concerto and his conductor friend Hermann Levi. 

After rewriting the concerto ‘at least half a dozen times’ it was eventually completed to his satisfaction and given its premiere in January 1868 in Bremen with Karl Reinthaler as conductor and Joachim as soloist.

The score’s manuscript was dedicated to Joseph Joachim in ‘respect’ although this was crossed out by Joachim and substituted with ‘friendship’.

So at last the concerto was completed and it was quickly taken up by all the great violinists of the day and played so often that it overshadowed everything else Bruch wrote. As a result he was often pigeon-holed as something of a one-hit wonder – even though he was to go on to write two more violin concertos.

Rathausturm Koeln – Nicolaus August Otto – Max Bruch

In the end, he could not even bear to hear it. What is worse, he had unwisely accepted a one-off payment for the work from his publishers and so missed out on a fortune in royalties.

Nevertheless, this concerto has become one of the most popular in the repertoire acting as a profound showcase for the instrument and orchestra with its dazzling, virtuosic passages, impassioned melodies and so effectively capturing the essence of pure romance.

Bruch’s famous Violin Concerto No.1 in G minor Op.26 is part of an action-packed opening concert to Firebird’s 2018/19 Season. With violinist Leonard Schreiber and conductor George Jackson, 9 October at St George’s Hanover Square should be a definite date in your diary.

Leonard Schreiber
  • Beethoven: Egmont Op. 34
  • Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1
  • Dvorak: Song to the Moon
  • Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B. 163
  • George Jackson conductor
  • Leonard Schreiber violin
  • Verity Wingate soprano

BOOK YOUR TICKETS HERE

Egmont in October

Mount Egmont

Mount Egmont – also known as Taranaki – stands in New Zealand as one of the most majestic volcanic cones in the world at 2518 metres (8261 ft).

Beethoven’s equally majestic Egmont Overture opens Firebird’s 2018/19 Season in truly monumental form on 9 October at St George’s Hanover Square.

  • Beethoven: Egmont Op. 34
  • Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 1
  • Dvorak: Song to the Moon
  • Dvorak: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B. 163
  • George Jackson conductor
  • Leonard Schreiber violin
  • Verity Wingate soprano

Beethoven’s Egmont actually has nothing to do with Mount Egmont but is a set of pieces from 1787 based on a play by Goethe. The subject is the life and heroism of 16th-century nobleman Lamoral, Count of Egmont.

33 year-old Belgian violinist Leonard Schreiber will be the star of the show with Bruch’s beautiful Violin Concerto. Dating from 1886 this is considered to be one of the most popular concertos ever composed.

Dvorak’s Song to the Moon comes from the very beginning of his opera Rusalka in which the lead character – as a nymph – sings to the moon…

O moon high up in the deep, deep sky,

Your light sees far away regions,

You travel round the wide,

Wide world peering into human dwellings

Rusalka

Dvořák’s cheery and lyrical 8th Symphony draws its inspiration more from the Bohemian folk music that Dvořák loved. 

The score was composed on the occasion of his admission to Prague Academy and dedicated To the Bohemian Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for the Encouragement of Arts and Literature, in thanks for my election.

Dates for your Diary

Opening Concert of the 2018/19 Season

Tuesday 9 October 2018
St George’s Hanover Square, London

Firebird Returns to Oxford

Sunday 10 February 2019
St John-the-Evangelist, Oxford

Generously sponsored by the Morris-Venables Charitable Foundation

Spring Concert

Thursday 14 March 2019
St George’s Hanover Square, London

Summer Concert

Tuesday 11 June 2019
St George’s Hanover Square, London

Dvorak

Dvořák’s New World

What’s the connection between Czechoslovakia, Native American Indians and the Moon?

Born in 1841, Czech composer Anton Dvořák achieved worldwide recognition for his music. He was well known for including rhythms and note patterns derived from the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia. His reputation spread far and wide across Europe with an honorary degree presented from the University of Cambridge, and the offer of a position as professor of composition and instrumentation at the Prague Conservatory

However, everything was to change in 1892 when Dvořák and his family were to head to the United States where he took up a position as director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City. Dvořák’s main goal in America was to discover “American Music” and engage in it, much as he had used Czech folk idioms within his music. 

Dvořák and his family

Dvořák and his family

The ethos of the Conservatory was rather unusual in that it took students who were both male and female, and black and white. One such African-American student was Harry T. Burleigh who sang traditional spirituals to Dvořák. 

Harry T. Burleigh

Harry T. Burleigh

Shortly after his arrival in America Dvořák wrote a series of newspaper articles encouraging people to consider African-American and Native American music as a foundation for the growth of American music. 

‘I am convinced that the future music of this country must be founded on what are called Negro melodies. These can be the foundation of a serious and original school of composition, to be developed in the United States. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil. They are the folk songs of America and your composers must turn to them.’

In 1893, Dvořák was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic to write Symphony No.9, ‘From the New World’. At its premiere at the Carnegie Hall in New York, the end of every movement was met with thunderous clapping and was one of the greatest public triumphs of Dvořák’s career.

Title Page Symphony no 9

Title Page Symphony no 9

 

In an article published in the New York Herald Dvořák explained how Native American music had been an influence on this symphony:

‘I have not actually used any of the [Native American] melodies. I have simply written original themes embodying the peculiarities of the Indian music, and, using these themes as subjects, have developed them with all the resources of modern rhythms, counterpoint, and orchestral colour.’

Dvořák wrote that he would not have composed his American pieces as he had, if he had not seen America being inspired by the “wide open spaces” of the prairies he may have seen on his travels across the country.

Moonwalk one

Moonwalk one

And as for the Moon, on July 20, 1969 the whole world stopped when a man who grew up on a farm without electricity announced: ‘One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.’ It was Astronaut Neil Armstrong – the first man on the moon – who took with him a tape recording of the New World Symphony during the Apollo 11 mission.

The New World Symphony has been described as one of Dvořák’s greatest triumphs. It is by far his most popular symphony, and one of the most popular symphonies of all time. So it is only fitting that it should be included in the exciting programme of music Firebird Flies to the States.

All That Jazz

Marsha Hammel’s oil painting Rehearsing the Gershwin Songbook captures the spirit of the jazz age as this new wave of music swept through the early 20th century United States and which will be brought to life as part of Firebird’s all American evening on 12 June…

A highlight of the concert will be the music of George Gershwin and his evergreen favourite Summertime from his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess.

This song soon became a popular and much recorded jazz standard in its own right and was described as ‘without doubt … one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote…’

George Gershwin

American composer and pianist George Gershwin was born in 1898 and his compositions span both popular and classical genres. However, when Gershwin moved to Paris with the intention of studying with the great teacher Nadia Boulanger she refused to work with him. As a result he wrote one of his most famous works An American in Paris.

Returning to New York he embarked on his contemporary opera Porgy and Bess, his piano concerto inspired Rhapsody in Blue and many Broadway theatre works with his brother Ira Gershwin. After moving to Hollywood his career took him in to the world of the movies with numerous film scores to his credit.

Later in the programme Firebird’s Artistic Director Marc Corbett-Weaver will be the solo pianist in Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue. Australian conductor Michael Thrift will direct the London Firebird Orchestra in a performance of this thrilling work which effortlessly bridges the worlds of classical and jazz music.

Rhapsody in Blue received its premiere as part of a 1924 New York concert entitled An Experiment in Modern Music performed by Paul Whiteman and his band with Gershwin playing the piano. It has since become one of the most popular of all American concert works.

Maurice Ravel

Maurice Ravel

Gershwin was also influenced by the music by the French composers of the early twentieth century including Maurice Ravel. He, in turn was so impressed with Gershwin’s music he commented:

“Personally I find jazz most interesting: the rhythms, the way the melodies are handled, the melodies themselves. I have heard of George Gershwin’s works and I find them intriguing.”

But when Gershwin approached Ravel as a prospective teacher, Ravel replied “You should give me lessons.”

Schoenberg

Gershwin is also reputed to have approached the modernist Arnold Schoenberg for composition lessons only to be met with: “I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you’re such a good Gershwin already.”

Gershwin is also reputed to have approached the modernist Arnold Schoenberg for composition lessons only to be met with: “I would only make you a bad Schoenberg, and you’re such a good Gershwin already.”

So George Gershwin was forced to create his own unique and distinctive voice in the early 20th century. We can only guess what his early death at the age of just 38 deprived us of.

Gershwin’s great music is only part of what is on offer in this magnificent concert at St Paul’s Covent Garden which concludes Firebird’s 2017/18 Season. Join us for a feast of delights from the Land of Opportunity performed by this sensational orchestra under the baton of Australian conductor Michael Thrift – a perfect way to spend a summer’s evening.

Vancouver Olympics

Music from the New World

We have a great opportunity to hear masterworks from the United States with Firebird’s all American evening as the concluding concert in the 2017/18 Season. We investigate more about this exciting music from the other side of the pond…

We might often associate the music of the United States with genres such as Blues, Jazz and Bluegrass. But the Classical world is full of of some of the music exciting music ever written with music by Dvorak, Copland, Barber, Bernstein and Gershwin.

Extract - Dvorak

Extract – Dvorak

Anton Dvorak wrote his ninth symphony in 1893 while he was the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America. His symphony has become so popular that astronaut Neil Armstrong took a recording of the work to the moon on the 1969 Apollo 11 moon mission.

The second movement has also become famous as the theme tune for the 1973 ‘Hovis’ ad. The nostalgic amongst you can click on this image to watch it again:

Aaron Copland’s dramatic Fanfare, performed by brass and crashing percussion was written in 1942 for the Cincinatti Symphony Orchestra. It was inspired in part by a famous speech made earlier that year by the vice president of the USA, Hanry A Wallace proclaimed ‘the dawning of the Century of the Common Man.’

Since then the music has been adapted and appeared in a diverse range of occasions including HM Queen Elizabeth II’s 2004 procession during the opening of the Scottish Parliament, Emerson Lake & Palmer’s 1977 ‘Montreal’ version and as the main leitmotif in John William’s theme from Superman in 1978:

Samuel Barber’s soul-searching Adagio for Strings is an arrangement of the second movement of his String Quartet, op11. It was performed for the first time in 1938 as part of a radio broadcast with Arturo Toscanini conducting the NBC Symphony Orchestra. Alexander J. Morin wrote that that it ‘rarely leaves a dry eye.’

Extract - Barber Adagio

Extract – Barber Adagio

It is played today at many important funerals and memorial occasions but was also performed in Vancouver in 2010 for the opening ceremony of the Winter Olympics (pictured above).

Leonard Bernstein’s 1956 operetta Candide is based on Voltaire’s 1759 satirical novella telling of the misadventures of Candide, a naive, simple, and pure-hearted young man, and his sweetheart, Cunégonde.

Candide

The Overture has became a very popular curtain-raiser and orchestral piece independantly of the operetta. Brilliantly scored with tremendous vitality with a level of energy similar to John Adam’s Short Ride in a Fast Machine.

Two works by George Gershwin complete the programme with his evergreen favourite Summertime from his 1935 opera Porgy and Bess. The song soon became a popular and much recorded jazz standard, described as ‘without doubt … one of the finest songs the composer ever wrote…’ The song is also recognized as among the most covered songs in the history of recorded music with over 33,000 covers by groups and solo performers.

George Gershwin

George Gershwin

The major item in the programme will be Gerswin’s Rhapsody in Blue with Firebird’s Artistic Director Marc Corbett-Weaver at the piano. The piece received its premiere as part of a 1924 New York concert entitled An Experiment in Modern Music performed by Paul Whiteman and his band with Gershwin playing the piano. It has since become one of the most popular of all American concert works.

Rhapsody in Blue cover

Firebird Flies to the States

Tuesday 12 June 2018 7.30pm
St Paul’s, Covent Garden
Conductor: Michael Thrift

Copland Fanfare for the Common Man
Barber Adagio for Strings
Bernstein Overture to Candide
Gershwin Summertime
Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue
World Première Winner Firebird Composer of the Year
Dvorak Symphony no.9 ‘From the New World’

We’ll be packing the audience in as usual at the delightful venue of St Paul’s Covent Garden so make sure you book your tickets now to be sure of the best seats.

 

Stars of the Show

Stars of the Show

As well as some fabulous music, Firebird’s next concert on 25 March will include some of the brightest stars of the classical music circuit…

Firebird’s Little Surprise at Kings Place on Sunday 25 March is being staged in collaboration with the London Chamber Music Society and will feature three fantastic stars of the music scene in four of the most exciting works from the classical repertoire:

Haydn Symphony No. 94 in G, Hob.I:94 Surprise
Strauss Oboe Concerto, TrV 292
Mozart Opera arias (selection)
Schubert Symphony No. 3 in D, D.200

George Jackson

George Jackson

Winner of the 2015 Aspen Conducting Prize, London-born conductor George Jackson came to international attention after stepping in at short notice with the ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra. 2018 highlights include engagements with Opera Holland Park and Orchestre de Paris, and a new position as Music Director of Kammeroper Frankfurt.

George has conducted orchestras including the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, Haydn Orchestra di Bolzano e Trento, RTÉ Concert Orchestra, Vienna Chamber Orchestra, Pro Arte Orchestra Vienna and the Transylvania State Philharmonic Orchestra.

George participated in international master classes, where his teachers included Bernard Haitink, Michael Tilson Thomas, Kurt Masur and David Robertson. In 2010, George founded the Vienna-based Speculum Musicae Opera Company, conducting new productions of Pergolesi and Charpentier.

Chinese-born soprano He Wu started her career as a child star. Arriving in London she was supported by the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden and studied at the Royal Academy of Music, Guildhall School of Music & Drama, and Royal College of Music International Opera School.

Following success in international music competitions He Wu’s career has included solo roles with the Wiener Symphoniker, BBC Symphony Orchestra and at St John’s Smith Square and the Royal Albert Hall. During President Xi’s 2015 UK visit, He Wu sang for the First Lady of China Madam Peng at the Royal College of Music.

John Anderson Performing

By the age of 20 John Anderson had already joined the Suisse Romande Orchestra and was subsequently to hold principal oboe posts with the BBC Symphony, Philharmonia and Royal Philharmonic orchestras. He is currently principal oboe with the English Chamber Orchestra.

A much recorded artist, John Anderson’s playing has also featured on scores for television and film for over 35 years. Recent projects have included Alien Covenant and Victoria and Abdul. He is currently professor of oboe at the Royal College of Music and the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama.

MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS

Surprising Music

There are some surprises in store at Firebird’s next concert on 25 March including one of the most extraordinary moments in the musical repertoire in a symphony by the Austrian Composer Joseph Haydn.

Many of Haydn’s 106 symphonies were given titles including ‘The Paris’, ‘The Farewell’, ‘The Drumroll’ and ‘The Hen’. But Symphony No. 94 is popularly known as the Surprise Symphony. Why? Well the reason is something rather unexpected which happens during the otherwise gentle opening of the second movement.

Haydn was well known for being a bit of a musical prankster. For example, in his String Quartet in E flat (subtitled ‘The Joke’) there are false endings to try and catch the audience out!

And as for his Symphony No. 94 Haydn made a significant last minute alteration to the score on a whim for its London premiere on March 23, 1792. He altered the dynamics in bar 16 of the Andante giving an immense fortissimo chord which invariably jolts the audience out of any possible dozy moments! The music then returns to its original quiet dynamic as if nothing has happened. The episode ultimately earned for the work its everlasting nickname, Surprise Symphony.

Haydn had been in London just over a year and Londoners turned out by the thousands to watch him conduct premieres of his new works. Critics and audiences alike were generous with their praise. The critic from Woodfall’s Register wrote:

‘The third piece of HAYDN was a new Overture [i.e. symphony], of very extraordinary merit. It was simple, profound, and sublime. The andante movement was particularly admired.’

In Haydn’s old age, his biographer George August Griesinger asked him whether he wrote this surprise to awaken the audience. Haydn replied:

‘No, but I was interested in surprising the public with something new, and in making a brilliant debut, so that my student Pleyel, who was at that time engaged by an orchestra in London and whose concerts had opened a week before mine, should not outdo me…’

Towards the end of his career, Haydn actually reused the theme of the second movement into an aria of his oratorio The Seasons. The bass soloist depicts a ploughman whistling this tune as he works as if Haydn is poking fun at himself.
Pic: Haydn Joke

Since then other composers have reworked the joke in their own way. The American composer Charles Ives wrote a parody of the second movement in 1909, penning the words Nice little easy sugar-plum sounds under the opening notes. Donald Swann created a version of the Surprise Symphony with a few extra surprises thrown in for the humorous Hoffnung Music Festival.

So if you like surprises, join us on Sunday 25 March at Kings Place with Firebird’s Little Surprise in collaboration with the London Chamber Music Society

Haydn Symphony No. 94 in G, Hob.I:94 Surprise
Strauss Oboe Concerto, TrV 292
Mozart Opera arias (selection)
Schubert Symphony No. 3 in D, D.200

George Jackson conductor
John Anderson oboe
He Wu soprano

MORE INFORMATION AND TICKETS

Coming up from Firebird

 

Our concert season is in full flow as we look forward to three exciting concerts in February, March and June this year. Our online Box Office is always open and tickets are on sale now!

 

Please install the The Events Calendar or The Events Calendar Pro Plugin to display a list of upcoming Events

 

 

Venice

Vivaldi’s Four Seasons

The highlight of Firebird’s next concert on 8 February will be Vivaldi’s masterwork Le quattro stagioni ‘The Four Seasons’. We discover the journey that led the 25-year-old Red Priest, or il Prete Rosso as he was nicknamed after his ordination in 1703, to write one of the most enduring works in the classical repertoire…

When Antonio Lucio Vivaldi was born in Venice in 1678 it was the capital of the Most Serene Republic of Venice. The day of his birth was also marked by a severe earthquake that shook the city so that his mother dedicated him to the priesthood. By the age of 24 he had developed prodigious musical skills and had started working at an orphanage called the Ospedale della Pietà as a maestro di violino (master of violin).

Antonio Vivaldi

Antonio Vivaldi

The German architect Johann Friedrich von Uffenbach described Vivaldi’s playing as:

‘that famous composer and violinist … played a solo accompaniment excellently, and at the conclusion he added a free fantasy [an improvised cadenza] which absolutely astounded me, for it is hardly possible that anyone has ever played, or ever will play, in such a fashion.’

Vivaldi’s real breakthrough as a composer came with his first collection of 12 concerti L’estro armonico. Published in 1711 and dedicated to Grand Prince Ferdinand of Tuscany, they became a resounding success all over Europe and he was soon travelling and performing for the Governor of Mantua, in Milan, and then in Rome before returning to Venice in 1725.

It was during this period of travel that he wrote The Four Seasons, his collection of four violin concertos which were a revolution in musical conception in their day.

Il Cimento dell’armonico

Il Cimento dell’armonico

Depicting flowing creeks, singing birds, buzzing mosquitoes, crying shepherds, drunken dancers, frozen landscapes and warming winter fires, these concerti stand as one of the earliest and most detailed examples of what would come to be called programme music.

Vivaldi relates his music to the texts of sonnets. Possibly written by himself, these are written directly into the manuscript giving specific descriptions to the musical narrative.

Since Vivaldi’s day The Four Seasons has been used in arrangements, transcriptions, covers, remixes, samples, and parodies in all manner of genres from film soundtracks to rhythmic gymnastics and synchronised swimming – all broadened the awareness and appeal of this amazing music far beyond the classical spectrum.

In 1970 the Argentina composer Ástor Piazzolla published Estaciones Porteñas – The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. Inspired by Vivaldi’s masterpiece this work will also performed in the 8 February Firebird concert. More on that extraordinary work in the next newsletter…

Firebird Well Seasoned

FIREBIRD WELL SEASONED

St George’s, Hanover Square, London
Thursday 8 February | 7.30pm

Antonio Vivaldi
Le Quattro Stagioni (The Four Seasons)

Astor Piazzolla
Estaciones Porteñas (The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires)

Directed from the violin by Thomas Gould

Internationally seasoned violinist Thomas Gould performs Vivaldi’s dazzling ‘Four Seasons’ and Piazzolla’s ‘Four Seasons of Buenos Aires’.