Czech Philharmonic Orchestra – Violin Concert + Romance For Violin (Antonín Dvořák) (1962)

Antonín Leopold Dvořák (8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904) was a Czech composer. Dvořák frequently employed rhythms and other aspects of the folk music of Moravia and his native Bohemia, following the Romantic-era nationalist example of his predecessor Bedřich Smetana. Dvořák’s style has been described as “the fullest recreation of a national idiom with that of the symphonic tradition, absorbing folk influences and finding effective ways of using them,” and Dvořák has been described as “arguably the most versatile… composer of his time”.

Dvořák displayed his musical gifts at an early age, being an apt violin student. The first public performances of his works were in Prague in 1872 and, with special success, in 1873, when he was 31 years old. Seeking recognition beyond the Prague area, he submitted scores of symphonies and other works to German and Austrian competitions. He did not win a prize until 1874, with Johannes Brahms on the jury of the Austrian State Competition.[a] In 1877, after his third win, Brahms recommended Dvořák to his publisher, Simrock, who commissioned what became the Slavonic Dances, Op. 46. The sheet music’s high sales and critical reception led to his international success. A London performance of Dvořák’s Stabat Mater in 1883 led to many other performances in the United Kingdom, the United States, and eventually Russia in March 1890. The Seventh Symphony was written for London in 1885.

In 1892, Dvořák became the director of the National Conservatory of Music of America in New York City. While in the United States, Dvořák wrote his two most successful orchestral works: the Symphony From the New World, which spread his reputation worldwide,[4] and his Cello Concerto, one of the most highly regarded of all cello concerti. On a summer vacation in Spillville, Iowa in 1893, Dvořák also wrote his most famous piece of chamber music, his twelfth String Quartet in F major, Op. 96, the American. While he remained at the Conservatory for a few more years, pay cuts and an onset of homesickness led him to return to Bohemia in 1895.

All of Dvořák’s ten operas, except his first, have librettos in Czech and were intended to convey the Czech national spirit, as were some of his choral works. By far the most successful of the operas is Rusalka, premiered in 1901. Among his smaller works, the seventh Humoresque and the song “Songs My Mother Taught Me” are also widely performed and recorded. The Dvořák Prague International Music Festival is a major series of concerts held annually to celebrate Dvořák’s life and works. (wikipedia)

The Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 53 (B. 96 / B. 108), is a concerto for violin and orchestra composed by Antonín Dvořák in 1879. It was premiered in Prague on October 14, 1883. by František Ondříček, who also gave the Vienna and London premieres. Today it remains an important work in the violin repertoire.

The concerto is scored for solo violin and an orchestra consisting of 2 flutes, 2 oboes, 2 clarinets (in A), 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, timpani, and strings.

The structure of the concerto is the classical three movements, fast–slow–fast.

The first movement and the second movement are interconnected (attacca subito).

Dvořák was inspired to write the concerto after meeting Joseph Joachim in 1878, and composed the work with the intention of dedicating it to him. However, when he finished the concerto in 1879, Joachim became skeptical about it. Joachim was a strict classicist and objected, inter alia, to Dvořák’s abrupt truncation of the first movement’s orchestral tutti. Joachim also didn’t like the fact that the recapitulation was cut short and that it led directly to the slow second movement. It is also assumed that he was upset with the persistent repetition found in the third movement. However, Joachim never said anything outright and instead claimed to be editing the solo part. He never actually performed the piece in public.

The concerto was first performed in the United States on October 30, 1891, at the Auditorium Theatre in Chicago. Max Bendix was soloist with the Chicago Orchestra led by Theodore Thomas. (wikipedia)

First page of autograph manuscript:

And here´s a version witjh the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra: conducted by Karel Ančerl:

Karel Ančerl (11 April 1908 – 3 July 1973) was a Czechoslovak conductor and composer, renowned especially for his performances of contemporary music and for his interpretations of music by Czech composers.

Ančerl was born into a prosperous Jewish family in the village of Tučapy in southern Bohemia. After graduating from the Prague Conservatory, he pursued his conducting studies under Hermann Scherchen and Václav Talich. He was the assistant conductor at the Munich premiere of Alois Hába’s quarter-tone opera Mother (1931) and conducted the orchestra of the avant-garde theatre Osvobozené divadlo in Prague (1931–1933). Conducting work for Czechoslovak radio was interrupted by World War II which resulted in his being imprisoned with his family in the Theresienstadt concentration camp in 1942 and then sent to Auschwitz in 1944. Unlike his wife and young son, Ančerl survived Auschwitz.

After the war, Ančerl conducted for Radio Prague until 1950, when he became artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic, a post he held successfully for eighteen years. Following the 1968 invasion of Czechoslovakia, Ančerl emigrated to Toronto, Canada, where he worked as music director of the Toronto Symphony Orchestra until his death in 1973.

As a conductor, Ančerl helped foster a distinctly Czech orchestral sound, both within the Czech Philharmonic and elsewhere. Highly regarded also as a studio artist, Ančerl made a wide range of recordings on the Supraphon label, including repertoire by various Czech composers (remastered in the Karel Ančerl Gold Edition). (wikipedia)

A real masterpiece !

Personnel:
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karel Ančerl
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Josef Suk (violin)

Tracklist:

Concerto In A Minor For Violin And Orchestra, Op. 53 :
01.Allegro Ma Non Troppo + Adagio Ma Non Troppo 20.46
02. Allegro Giocoso, Ma Non Troppo 10.08

03. Romance, Op. 11 12.31

Music: Antonín Dvořák

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The US Edition:

Josef Suk (8 August 1929 – 7 July 2011) was a Czech violinist, violist, chamber musician and conductor. In his home country he carried the title of National Artist.

Suk’s recordings of Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, especially those with the Czech Philharmonic and conductors Karel Ančerl and Václav Neumann, are taken as references. (wikipedia)

Antonín Dvořák (8 September 1841 – 1 May 1904):

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (Kurt Mazur) – Beethoven Triple Concerto (1974)

Ludwig van Beethoven’s Concerto for Violin, Cello, and Piano in C major, Op. 56, commonly known as the Triple Concerto, was composed in 1803 and published in 1804 by Breitkopf & Härtel. The choice of the three solo instruments effectively makes this a concerto for piano trio, and it is the only concerto Beethoven ever completed for more than one solo instrument. A typical performance takes approximately thirty-seven minutes.

Beethoven’s early biographer Anton Schindler claimed that the Triple Concerto was written for Beethoven’s royal pupil, the Archduke Rudolf of Austria. The Archduke, who became an accomplished pianist and composer under Beethoven’s tutelage, was only in his mid-teens at this time, and it seems plausible that Beethoven’s strategy was to create a showy but relatively easy piano part that would be backed up by two more mature and skilled soloists. However, there is no record of Rudolf ever performing the work.

The Triple Concerto was publicly premiered in 1808, at the summer Augarten concerts in Vienna. The violinist in the premiere was Carl August Seidler,and the cellist was Nikolaus Kraft,[3] who was known for “technical mastery” and a “clear, rich tone”.: 162  The concerto was Beethoven’s first work to use advanced cello techniques.

In the published version, the concerto bore a dedication to a different patron: Prince Lobkowitz.

Portrait of Ludwig van Beethoven (1803):

The first movement is broadly scaled and cast in a moderate march tempo, and includes decorative solo passage-work and leisurely repetitions, variations, and extensions of assorted themes. A common feature is a dotted rhythm (short-long, short-long) that lends an air of graciousness and pomp that is not exactly “heroic,” but would have conveyed a character of fashionable dignity to contemporary listeners—and perhaps a hint of the noble “chivalric” manner that was becoming a popular element of novels, plays, operas, and pictures. The jogging triplets that figure in much of the accompaniment also contribute to this effect. In this movement, as in the other two, the cello enters solo with the first subject. Unusual for a concerto of this scale, the first movement begins quietly, with a gradual crescendo into the exposition, with the main theme later introduced by the soloists. Also unusually, the exposition modulates to A minor instead of the expected G major. (Beethoven’s friend Ferdinand Ries later did the same mediant transition in his sixth concerto.) This movement takes sixteen to nineteen minutes.

The slow movement, in A-flat major, is a large-scale introduction to the finale, which follows it without pause. The cello and violin share the melodic material of the movement between them while the piano provides a discreet accompaniment. This movement takes about five to six minutes.

There is no break between then second and third movements. Dramatic repeated notes launch into the third movement, a polonaise (also called “polacca”), an emblem of aristocratic fashion during the Napoleonic era, which is, thus, in keeping with the character of “polite entertainment” that characterizes this concerto as a whole. The bolero-like rhythm, also characteristic of the polonaise, can be heard in the central minor theme of the final movement. This movement takes about thirteen to fourteen minutes.

In addition to the violin, cello, and piano soloists, the concerto is scored for one flute, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, two horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. The flute, oboes, trumpets, and timpani are tacet during the second movement. (wikipedia)

Czech symphony orchestra. Established in 1894 as the orchestra of The National Theatre (Orchestr Národního Divadla) in Prague. First performed under its name on January 4, 1896, conducted by Antonín Dvořák. Independent orchestra since 1901.

The orchestra is ranked among the best in the world for its particular sound. The orchestra’s principal concert venue is the Rudolfinum.

Their conducor for these recordings was Kurt Masur:

Kurt Masur (18 July 1927 – 19 December 2015) was a German conductor. Called “one of the last old-style maestros” he directed many of the principal orchestras of his era. He had a long career as the Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, and also served as music director of the New York Philharmonic. He left many recordings of classical music played by major orchestras. Masur is also remembered for his actions to support peaceful demonstrations in the 1989 anti-government demonstrations in Leipzig; the protests were part of the events leading up to the fall of the Berlin wall. (wikipedia)

Enjoy these historic recordings of another masterpiece by Ludwig van Beethoven !

Personnel:
The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Kurt Masur
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Josef Chuchro (cello)
Jan Panenka (piano)
Josef Suk (violin)

Tracklist:

Concerto For Violin, Cello, Piano And Orchestra In C Major, Op. 56
01. Allegro 16.30
02. Largo / Rondo Alla Polacca 18.04

Music: Ludwig van Beethoven

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