Volltext Seite (XML)
First Essay for Orchestra in 1938, and in subsequent years the first performances of his works were given in New York, Boston and Philadelphia under conductors of the calibre ofWalter, Koussevitsky, and Mitropoulos. His two operas, Vanessa and Antony and Cleopatra were premiered at the Metropolitan Opera House in 1958 and 1966 respectively. He died in 1981. Two thirds of the Violin Concerto by Barber reflects his 'Youthful'style, with graceful cantabile melodies, easy-to- absorb harmonies, and relatively simple rhythmic formulas, as well as strong lyricism in the first two movements. In the final movementa'new'Barber emerges, with dissonances suddenly appearing, irregulär and unpredictable rhythmic patterns and a sense of agitation rather than serenity. Barber's biographer, Nathan Broder, has written, that'it is as if the composer had suddenly lost patience with certain self-imposed stylistic restrictions'. However there were also direct practical reasons for this marked change of style. The Concerto was originally commissioned by a wealthy American businessman as a vehicle for a young protege. Barber began work on it in the summer of 1939, while living in the Swiss villageof Sils Maria. He continued working on it as he moved to Paris and after he had returned to his native Philadelphia. After submitti ng the first two movements, Barber discovered that his benefactor was displeased with the Concerto: the young Violinist for whom it was intended found it too simple, and without the bravura elements required. Barber promised to make amends with a showpiece finale, only to find after its completion that the young Violinist now found it too difficult. The Situation worsened when the businessman insisted upon a refund of his fee, only to be told by Barber that it had already been spent in Europe.To prove that the finale was not too difficult for effective performance, Barber arranged for it to be played at a private audition by the Violinist Oskar Shumsky. Only partly appeased, the commissioner settled for payment of half the original fee, in return for the protege relinquishing the rights to the first performance.This was given on 7 February 1941, by Albert Spalding and the Philadelphia Orchestra, with Eugene Ormandy conducting. From 1939 onwards Barber's avant-garde Impulses made themselves continually feit. The neo-romantic gestures of the first two movements of the Violin Concerto were not to appear again without the accompaniment of modernist countergestures.The Concerto thus marks a significant transition in the development of Barber's personal style as a composer. Exceptfor the inclusion ofthe piano and'military' drum, the Concerto is scored for a traditional symphony orchestra of modest proportions: flutes, clarinets, horns and trumpets in pairs; timpani and the usual complement of strings. Antonm Dvorak a 841-1904) SYMPHONY NO. 9 IN E MINOR ‘FROM THE I. ADAGIO - ALLEGRO MOLTO II. LARGO III. SCHERZO: MOLTO VIVACE IV. ALLEGRO CON FUOCO By 1890 Dvofäk had established himself as a major Creative force in European music.That year he conducted his Eighth Symphony with great success in London and Frankfurt, and completed his Requiem. This was performed the following year at the Birmingham Festival, which had commissioned it. In 1891 he started to teach composition at the Prague Conservatory of Music, and received an honorary doctorate from the University of Cambridge. In September 1891 he celebrated his 50th birthday at his country home in the village of Vysoka. While celebrating his European success he was at the same time negotiating to begin a new chapter of his career in the USA. In 1888 Mrs Jeanette Thurber, the wifeofa millionaire New York merchant asked Congress for a grant of $200,000 to set up a conservatory of music. Although she received no money from Congress, it did grant to her a charter for the conservatory, the only such one to be created to this day. Mrs Thurber put up an initial $100,000 for the company's first year, and raised further monies from wealthy contemporaries including August Belmont and Andrew Carnegie. In June 1891 Mrs Thurber invited Dvofäk to take up the directorship of her institution, now named the National Conservatory of Music, New York. The terms offered were generous: in return for an annual salary of $ 15,000, nearly 30 times the equivalent of what he was receiving in Prague, he agreed to a two year contractThis required him to conduct ten concerts of his music each year, to teach composition for six hours weekly, and to conduct orchestral rehearsals for four hours each week. Otherwise he was a free man, provided also with four months' holiday each year. Dvofäk accepted these terms and left Prague for New York in September 1892. On 21 October 1892 he gave his first concert at Carnegie Hall, which included his recently completed trilogy of overtures, In Nature's Realm, Carnival, and Otello. The public reception was wholly favourable. At the beginning of 1893 Dvofäk started seriously to sketch his new Symphony. As with the Eighth it was quickly completed, on 24 May.The first performance was given by the New York Philharmonie Society, the forerunner ofthe New York Philharmonie Orchestra, conducted by Anton Seidl in 15 December 1893, with unqualified success. Since then the Symphony has remained one ofthe most populär in the whole repertoire. The origins ofthe Symphony's nickname'From the New World' have clearly been explained in the memoirs of Kovarik, a close colleague of Dvofäk. On the evening ofthe day on which Seidl had told Dvofäk ofthe proposed date for the first performance, and just as Kovarik was about to take the score to Seidl, 'the Master wrote at the last minute on the title page'From the New World'. Till then there was only'E minor Symphony No.8'. The title 'From the New World' caused then and still causes today, at least here in America, much confusion and division of opinion. There have been and are many people who thought and think that the title is to be understood as meaning the'American'