St Petersburg, Concert Hall

Brahms. Dvořák


PERFORMERS:
Soloist: Roman Simović (violin)
The Mariinsky Orchestra
Conductor: Nikolaj Znaider


PROGRAMME:
Johannes Brahms
Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 77

Antonín Dvořák
Symphony No 9 in E Minor, The New World Symphony, Op. 95


1878 went down in the history of music as the year of two great violin concerti – those of Brahms and Tchaikovsky. Johannes Brahms composed his Violin Concerto for his old friend Joseph Joachim and with his active involvement. The manuscript bears witness to the fact that Joachim not only reworked certain strokes of the violin but also essentially rewrote all the quick and virtuoso passages, especially in the finale. The violin concerto is frequently compared with the Second Symphony. What they share is their abundance of bright colours, celebratory finales and illusory simplicity. In the concerto, Brahms slightly lightens the orchestral fabric in order that greater attention may be devoted to the melodic ornamentation of the soloist, though in the first section there is intense development, a heroic return of the main theme in the reprise and a slow and ecstatic coda.
Anna Bulycheva

For three years (1892 – 1895) Antonín Dvořák lived in America, where he had been invited to lead the New York Conservatory. These years proved a fruitful period in the composer’s life. They brought such momentous works as the Ninth Symphony in E Minor, Op. 95 (From the New World), the Cello Concerto, the Biblical Songs, instrumental chamber ensembles (String Quartet in F Major, Quintet in C flat Major)... Dvořák was deeply affected by the beauty of American folklore. “The most impressive of American songs are the ‘plantation melodies’ and songs of slaves,” Dvořák remarked in an interview, “It is of no great significance from where the creators of America’s songs of the future will draw their inspiration – Negro or Creole roots, redskin chants or from the plaintive songs of a German or Norwegian pining for his native land. The shoots of the best music are hidden in all tribes, mixed together in this vast country...”
The Ninth Symphony was destined to be the composer’s last symphony and one of his greatest works in the genre. The symphony absorbed the complexity of elements of Indian melodies and Negro spirituals, although there are also clear echoes of Czech refrains. The work was first performed in New York on 16 December 1893 and instantly won international recognition.
Iosif Raiskin

Age category 6+

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