Friday September 4, 2009

National Repertory Orchestra,
Robert Moody, conductor; Tallie Brunfeld, violin
Arturo Márquez: Danzón No. 2 10:21
Antonín Dvořák: Violin Concerto in A minor, Opus 53 30:59 (7/27/08)
Also, Charley anticipates the weekend concerts at the Moab Music Festival
Francis Poulenc: Divertissement from Piano Sextet
Steven Mayer, piano; Tim Day, flute; Marilyn Coyne, oboe; Eric Thomas, clarinet; John Steinmetz, bassoon; Neil DeLand, horn
Toru Takemitsu: “Moby Dick” (2nd movement) from Toward the Sea II
Tim Day, alto flute; Lysa Rytting, harp; Festival Strings/ Michael Barrett (9/7/01)
Moab Music Festival



Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904): Violin Concerto in A minor, Opus 53
I. Allegro ma non troppo
II. Adagio ma non troppo
III. Allegro giocoso, ma non troppo
Two people prompted Dvořák to compose his only violin concerto. One was his publisher, Fritz August Simrock, who was so excited about the sales of the first set of Slavonic Dances that he suggested that the composer write a violin concerto.
The other factor in Dvořák’s decision to write the Concerto was a direct commission. Joseph Joachim had introduced the Brahms Violin Concerto on New Year’s Day in 1879. Later in the year he asked Dvořák to write a concerto for him.
Settling in at a friend’s country estate, Dvořák began the Violin Concerto on July 5, 1879. By fall, he sent the score off to Joachim, who suggested some changes.
Dvořák made the changes. By 1882 he could report: “I have played over the Violin Concerto twice with Joachim. It pleased him….As for me, I am glad that at last the whole business is finished. The revision had been in Joachim’s hands for at least two years. He was so kind as to make over the solo part, and only in the Finale have I to make a few alterations and in some places to lighten the instrumentation.” The final revision was made in October, 1882.
Despite Joachim’s involvement in the Concerto’s composition and the inscription “composed and dedicated to the great Master Joseph Joachim with deepest respect” in the published score, Joachim never performed the work in public.
Instead, the first performance was entrusted to Franz Ondřicek, who played it in Prague on October 14, 1883. Moric Anger conducted the Orchestra of the Czech National Theater. In December, Ondřicek was again the soloist when the Vienna Philharmonic performed the work under Hans Richter’s direction. Critics called the piece “violinistic,” praising its “skillful workmanship and admirable style.”
Biographer John Clapham writes: “Having composed a piano concerto on orthodox lines a few years before, Dvořák was determined to break fresh ground in his A minor Violin Concerto. There were strong precedents for dispensing with an initial orchestral statement, but none, it would seem, for proceeding towards a slow movement without a quasi sonata-type first movement being permitted to run its course. Dvořák’s movement, enriched by ideas that are ideally suited for a solo violin, is to a large extent rhapsodic and improvisatory, and so attempts to analyze it on the basis of sonata form are unhelpful. The justification for the composer’s experiment lies in the beauty of what he wrote. The Adagio is the first of Dvořák’s symphonic slow movements to follow Haydn’s example of introducing a stormy episode in a minor key. The principal theme of the finale is in furiant rhythm, and a dumka is introduced later in this movement.”
The score calls for solo violin, 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani and strings.