Tag Archives: Antonin Dvořák

Arcana at the Proms – Prom 49: Anastasia Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Jakub Hrůša – Dvořák Cello Concerto & Suk ‘Asrael’ Symphony

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Dvořák Cello Concerto in B minor Op.104 (1894-95)
Suk Symphony no.2 in C minor Op.27 ‘Asrael’ (1905-06)

Anastasia Kobekina (cello), Czech Philharmonic Orchestra / Jakub Hrůša

Royal Albert Hall, London
Tuesday 27 August 2024

reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photos (c) Andy Paradise

First heard at the Proms in those testing times of 1969, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra has since appeared at these concerts with some frequency during the past quarter-century, and this evening brought the first in a pair of concerts with its principal guest conductor Jakub Hrůša.

Each of these Proms features a Dvořák concerto, with that for cello undertaken by the highly regarded Anastasia Kobekina. The opening Allegro evinced an elegance and understatement abetted by the chamber-like interaction, Kobekina’s line faltering only marginally in its more intensive passagework, though the thrilling ascent up to the reprise of the second theme went for relatively little and its coda rather lacked decisiveness. Much the highlight was an Adagio of ruminative warmth and, after its restless central section, an exquisite poise when the main melody is entrusted to the soloist prior to a melting close. The final Allegro too went well for much of its length, but a tendency to drift came to the fore in its extended coda – Kobekina’s response rather selling short its pathos and, in turn, the inevitability of the orchestral pay-off.

A fine if not overly memorable account, but Kobekina (below) is an artist of style and personality – as she demonstrated in the rendition of Gallardo (Variations on an Ancient Theme) by her father Vladimir Kobekin, Pavel Polívka providing tambourine accompaniment for this lively encore.

Having already made two recordings and given a memorable account with the Philharmonia a decade ago, Hrůša is evidently on a mission to establish Suk’s ‘Asrael’ Symphony in the wider repertoire and tonight’s reading did not disappoint. Especially impressive was his maintaining emotional intensity across those three movements that make up its first part – the introduction to the opening of them starkly drawn so what followed needed only an incremental impetus to sustain itself over a complex yet cohesive sonata design then on to a peroration whose despair was unremitting. The intermezzo found ideal an accord between its ‘otherness’ and that ironic ambiguity where Mahler’s influence is apparent, its teetering on silence a foil for the scherzo whose anxiety was soulfully waylaid by the trio before it exploded in fury towards the close.

What had begun as the commemoration of Dvořák (Suk’s teacher) became a memorial to his daughter Otilie (Suk’s wife) in its second part. Compassionate but never cloying, the opening Adagio was enhanced by some alluring woodwind and an eloquent contribution from leader Jan Mráček as underlined the significance of solo violin for Suk’s output overall. Its subdued close was brusquely denied by timpani at the outset of the finale – a relatively loose but never diffuse structure, the headlong clamour of whose central build-up carried over into a dramatic climax before this subsided unerringly into the lengthy coda. The composer was explicit as to the nature of the latter – its barely fulfilled serenity perfectly captured by Hrůša as this music reaches, if not benediction, at least that repose from where further creativity became possible.

Acknowledging considerable applause, Hrůša explained that no encore would be played given how apposite were the final bars in their countering the ‘‘crazy world’’ around us. Something which could overall be said of what was a highly perceptive and often profound performance.

You can get details about this year’s season at the BBC Proms website – and you can click on the names to read more about cellist Anastasia Kobekina, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and conductor Jakub Hrůša

Published post no.2,287 – Wednesday 28 August 2024

Another serenade for an early summer evening…

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…from the pen of Antonin Dvořák, who wrote two irresistibly charming works in the form – one for strings, and this Serenade for Wind Instruments in D minor, published as Op.44. It has quite a serious tone to begin with – but the wonderful sonorities come through, as in this performance from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, filmed in Cadogan Hall in 2021:

Published post no.2,225 – Sunday 30 June 2024

In concert – Mark Bebbington, Czech National Symphony Orchestra / Steven Mercurio: Delius, Beethoven, Smetana & Dvořák @ Symphony Hall, Birmingham

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Mark Bebbington (piano, below), Czech National Symphony Orchestra / Steven Mercurio

Delius The Walk to the Paradise Garden (1906)
Beethoven Piano Concerto no.5 in E flat Op.73 ‘Emperor’ (1809)
Smetana Má vlast – Vltava (1874)
Dvořák Symphony no.8 in G major Op.88 (1889)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Tuesday 21 May 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Although it might not see the number of visiting orchestras that it once did, Symphony Hall still hosts a number of such concerts and the season’s representation ended tonight with this welcome appearance by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and music director Steven Mercurio.

Opening with Delius’ The Walk to the Paradise Garden (from his opera A Village Romeo and Juliet) found these players evincing real affinity with its powerful if elusive idiom, Mercurio securing a poetic response from the woodwind and no mean ardour during its climactic stages.

Despite coming from and being based in or around Birmingham for most of his career, Mark Bebbington (above) is less known locally than he might be and his account of Beethoven’s Emperor Concerto confirmed a sure grasp of its expansive formal structure, with his secure and never inflexible technique more than equal to its pianistic demands. After those commanding initial exchanges, the initial Allegro felt just a little under-characterized until hitting its stride in the development; from where this reading proceeded with tangible conviction through to an agile ‘anti-cadenza’ then combative coda. The Adagio’s winsome variations could have had greater inner rapture, yet the eloquence of Bebbington’s response was not in doubt while the hushed transition into the Rondo produced an emotional frisson as carried through this finale overall.

Throughout the movement, Bebbington’s scintillating pianism duly galvanized the CNSO into a forthright response right up to the life-affirming close – after which, he acknowledged the enthusiastic applause with his limpid take on Chopin’s Nocturne (no.20) in C sharp minor.

Following the interval, Czech music not unreasonably took centre-stage. The players might have been surprised by reference to the ‘Moldau’, but Mercurio directed a fluent Vltava with such passages as its wedding dance or traversal of St John’s Rapids nothing if not evocative.

Having been at the helm of the CNSO since March 2019 (in succession to the much-missed Libor Pešek), Mercurio has certainly put his own stamp on its repertoire and presentation. He gave an account of Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony (sometimes referred to as the ‘English’ due to being published by Novello, but actually the most Czech-sounding of his mature symphonies) that, if affording few revelations, underlined its structural innovations as surely as its melodic immediacy. The opening Allegro made a virtue out of eliding the customary formal divisions on route to a resounding peroration, then the Adagio was even finer for the way that its pathos and grandeur were melded into a seamless and methodical yet cumulative design; one where the composer’s Romantic instincts and his Classical inclinations find especially potent accord.

The lilting Allegretto sees Dvořák at its most felicitous – Mercurio aptly taking its boisterous pay-off as a lead-in to the final Allegro, with its variations on an easeful theme for the strings that ingeniously shadow the outline of a sonata design prior to a coda of headlong brilliance.

Conductor and orchestra duly responded with two encores – a rhythmically incisive piece by Iranian-Canadian composer Iman Habibi, then a bossa nova as gave first trumpet and CSNO co-founder Jan Hasenöhrl the spotlight and brought the whole evening gently down to earth.

Click on the names to read more about the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, conductor Steven Mercurio, pianist Mark Bebbington and composer / pianist Iman Habibi

Published post no.2,186 – Wednesday 22 May 2024

In concert – CBSO Chorus & Orchestra / Joshua Weilerstein: Haas, Bernstein, Shaw & Dvořak

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Michael Mulroy (treble), CBSO Chorus, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Joshua Weilerstein

Haas Study for Strings (1943)
Bernstein Chichester Psalms (1965)
Shaw Music in Common Time (2014)
Dvořak Symphony no.9 in E minor Op.95 ‘From the New World’ (1893)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Wednesday 15 May 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Picture (c) Yuri Pires Tavares

In recent seasons, Joshua Weilerstein has presided over several of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s most thought-provoking concerts and tonight’s programme was no exception in its potent mix of the recent and unfamiliar, alongside a symphonic evergreen.

It was thanks to the conductor and Auschwitz survivor Karel Ančerl that Study for Strings by Pavel Haas survived its immediate context, as propaganda for a Nazi documentary on cultural activity at the Theresienstadt transit-camp, to become one of this composer’s defining works. Felicitously combining Czech folk music with traditional Jewish inflections and (in its central section) more expressionist undertones, alongside a compact and quasi-symphonic design, it is a potent indication as to where post-war Czech music might conceivably have been headed.

It duly brought a vivid and energetic response from the CBSO strings, who were then joined by brass and percussion in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms. Commissioned by the Dean of the city’s cathedral, it enabled the composer to pull together a number of earlier or aborted ideas in three Psalm-settings given focus by being heard in Hebrew translation with an authentic (if impractical as regards the percussion) scoring. Weilerstein drew the requisite verve from its initial setting, and if Michael Mulroy seemed tentative in its successor (discreet amplification might have helped), the contrast between his plaintiveness and edginess of the male-chorus interludes was pertinently drawn. Its anguished prelude for strings powerfully rendered, the final setting had an affecting eloquence through to the serene unaccompanied closing chorus.

After the interval, the CBSO Chorus was heard in rather more restrained guise with Music in Common Time by Caroline Shaw. Its brief and oblique text might have come from a late song by Talk Talk, but it yet provides the framework for a cannily unfolding fantasia in which the eddying textures of John Adams frame a speculative section with its string writing more than a little redolent of early Penderecki. Throughout, voices and instruments were finely melded in a composition that certainly suggests a plausible way out of any post-minimalist impasse.

What to say about the New World Symphony? Firstly, that it fitted judiciously into the overall programme as to conception; secondly, that it brought out the best in this partnership. Right from its evocative introduction, Weilerstein was alive to those many expressive ambiguities in the initial Allegro (a pity, though, that he omitted the exposition repeat as this undermines the formal balance overall), then drew a rapt and often searching response from the CBSO in the Largo – Rachel Pankhurst making the most of its indelible cor anglais melody. Nor was there any lack of bite or (in its trio section) gracefulness in the scherzo; such incisiveness of ensemble consistent throughout the finale, whose rhythmic impetus ensured the coda was not merely decisive but crowned the whole work in an apotheosis as conclusive as it was joyous. In his thoughtful initial remarks, Weilerstein spoke of this programme as being defined by its complexity, nuance and confrontation: qualities not always evident in present-day music, or in present-day discourse, but whose absence is our loss – as this concert eloquently confirmed.

Click on the link to read more on the current CBSO concert season, and on this link to read about the CBSO’s 2024/25 season. Click on the names for more on conductor Joshua Weilerstein, the CBSO Chorus and composer Caroline Shaw

Published post no.2,181 – Friday 17 May 2024

In concert – Simon Desbruslais, English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods: Sibelius, Sawyers, Dvořák, Fribbins & Elgar

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Simon Desbruslais (trumpet), English Symphony Orchestra / Kenneth Woods

Sibelius Rakastava Op.14 (1893, arr. 1912)
Sawyers Concerto for Trumpet, Strings and Timpani (2015)
Dvořák Notturno in B major Op.40 (1870, arr. 1883)
Fribbins Soliloquies (2012, arr. 2017)
Elgar Introduction and Allegro for strings Op.47 (1905)

Hall One, Kings Place, London
Sunday 15 April 2024

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

Concerts by the English Symphony Orchestra in the London Chamber Music Society’s season are always a worthwhile fixture and this early-evening event, in its mixing established classics with contemporary pieces, demonstrated the stylistic range and sympathies of this ensemble.

A pity that Sibelius’s Rakastava has never been taken up by many British conductors – John Barbirolli and Sir Colin Davis excepted – as this extensive reworking for strings and timpani of an early choral work should be a staple of its repertoire. Kenneth Woods duly brought out the wistful poise of The Lover, and if the stealthiness which underpins The Way of the Lover seemed just a little tentative, the bittersweet pathos that permeates Good evening, Farewell then came through unabated in what is as moving a leave-taking as its composer ever penned.

The music of Philip Sawyers has been a constant feature of the ESO’s programming this past decade, and his Trumpet Concerto more than deserved revival. The outward Classicism of its formal trajectory should not belie the deftness by which Sawyers modifies the sonata design of its opening Allegro, the impetus and reflectiveness of its main themes finding accord prior to a trenchant cadenza with timpani at the fore, or a central Andante that exuded an emotional breadth and fervour in advance of the excellent recording by these artists. Among the leading trumpeters of his generation, Simon Desbruslais – placed high to the rear of the auditorium, to potent effect – was wholly unfazed by its demands; nor those of a final Allegro in which more reflective elements leaven the initial energy, only to be outdone in the virtuosic closing bars.

Next, a welcome hearing for the Notturno that Dvořák salvaged from an early (and reckless) quartet. Its relative swiftness here recalled its intermediate reworking as an intermezzo in the second of his string quintets, so emphasizing its appealing lilt over any more ethereal quality.

Desbrulais (above) returned after a brief hiatus for Soliloquies by Peter Fribbins. A composer as adept on a symphonic as on a miniature scale, these brief if affecting pieces draw on three earlier songs – the recasting of whose vocal line encourages the soloist to an eloquence that, after the relative restraint of the initial Adagio and central Tranquillo, comes to the fore in a final Adagio where evocation takes on an almost cinematic aura. With impressive concertos for piano and violin to his credit, Fribbins ought to consider a full-length work for trumpet.

Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro has not unexpectedly been key to the ESO’s repertoire since its founding some 45 years ago, and this performance did not disappoint. Most admirable was the variety and depth of string tone that Woods (a one-time professional cellist) secured from only 19 players, so ensuring a vitality and impact in the more animated sections together with the requisite delicacy in those passages where the composer’s ruminative mood is uppermost. Both aspects were brought into thrilling accord at the close of the powerfully projected coda.

Beforehand, Woods spoke of the changing nature of commissions and the current difficulties in securing the necessary funding. This season has not been easy for the ESO though, on the basis of this programme, these players are commendably taking it all in their collective stride.

Click on the link to read more on English Symphony Orchestra, and on the names for more on their conductor Kenneth Woods, and trumpeter Simon Desbruslais. Click on the names for more on the new composers featured, Philip Sawyers and Peter Fribbins

Published post no.2,150 – Tuesday 16 April 2024