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Opening Night October 1, 2016 Antonín Dvořák composed his Opus 46 set of Eight Slavonic Dances in 1878 and his Opus 72 set of Eight Slavonic Dances in 1886-1887; all were originally composed for piano duet, but Dvořák also created orchestral versions of each set within a few weeks of composition. A selection from Op. 46 was first performed in 1878 in Prague under the direction of Adolf Čech, while the second set was first heard in Praugue in 1887 under the direction of the composer. The scores call for 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, timpani, percussion, and strings. Brahms discovered Dvořák when the younger composer applied to the Austrian Commission for the State Music Prize in 1872. Brahms, one of the commissioners, was delighted with Dvořák’s submission, and eager to help the young Bohemian. (Dvořák won the prize—and the sorely-needed stipend—that year and for several years afterward.) Brahms became both a friend and a mentor to Dvořák for the rest of his life. The most important thing Brahms did for Dvořák was introduce his works to Fritz Simrock, his own publisher. Simrock knew talent when he saw it, and asked Dvořák to write something in the manner of Brahms’ Hungarian Dances, but drawn from his Bohemian folk heritage. That was a stroke of genius. The music was in Dvořák’s blood, and ideas came to him so quickly he could barely set them down on paper fast enough. In a few months he had completed his Slavonic Dances Op. 46, and a few months after that, Dvořák’s name was known the world over. The set of eight dances made a fortune for Simrock, and the days of struggling in near-poverty were over for Dvořák. The First Dance from Opus 46 is a furiant, a rapid-tempo dance in triple meter from Dvořák’s native Bohemia. A feature of any furiant—and especially Dvořák’s—is the constant shifting of rhythmic accents between 3/4 time and 6/8 time. (Since they both add up to six eighth notes, they are interchangeable.) This keeps things delightfully off-balance, and Dvořák uses his own rhythmic sleight-of-hand to enliven things further. The Second Dance from Op. 46 is a dumka, a dance that traditionally alternates its tempos and moods: slow and fast, melancholy and gay. A solo clarinet leads off this one, its mournful melody carried on by the strings. The fast music is almost circus-like, with a jolting good cheer, and Dvořák yanks us from one mood to the other in the blink of an eye. The Dance No. 7 from Opus 46 is a skočná, a fast folk dance in duple meter that is sometimes called a jumping dance. It comes to us in episodes. The jaunty theme of the dance is first given very simply (and rather sedately) by a solo oboe, with a counter melody supplied by the bassoon. As the dance unfolds, Dvořák gradually increases the tempo and the temperature, expanding the orchestration and counterpoint until the entire orchestra is jumping together. Towards the end, the music and the tempo wind down, almost to a stop, whereupon Dvořák tops it off with a furious finish. As with all the dances, it is fairly dripping with Bohemian color and exquisitely orchestrated.quieter, and Smetana evokes a “dance of water nymphs.” After the river crashes mightily over the “Rapids of Saint John” it broadens, flows past the city of Prague, and disappears from view. continued next page Selections from Slavonic Dances, Op. 46 Antonín Dvořák Born 1841 in Mühlhausen, Bohemia Died 1904 in Prague Program Notes 51


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