Subscription Concerts 2024-2025Program A
No. 2031 Subscription (Program A)

Alexander Zemlinsky (1871–1942), born to Jewish parents in Vienna, was known more as a leading conductor than a composer during his lifetime (he was the first Kapellmeister of the newly founded Vienna Volksoper), although his works such as Lyric Symphony (1923) have been performed more and more frequently in later days. Overall, his chromatically-expanded harmonic style follows Mahler (1860–1911) and Richard Strauss (discussed below) remaining in the traditional tonal language. Unlike Schönberg (1874–1951) who was Zemlinsky’s composition pupil and brother-in-law (his sister married Schönberg), he never adopted the novel twelve-tone technique.
When it comes to Zemlinsky’s relation to the Czech musical world which is an essential element of today’s concert, he contributed much to the development of Prague’s musical culture from 1911 to 1927 as the music director of the New German Theater (later renamed the Prague State Opera) and a guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. During this period, Zemlinsky conducted important compositions by Smetana (1824–1884) and Janáček (described below) before moving to Berlin.
To flee from Nazi Berlin, Zemlinsky moved back to Vienna in 1933. Sinfonietta (meaning “little symphony”) was written the next year in response to a proposal from the Austrian publisher Universal Edition and first performed in Prague in 1935. It is composed of three fast-slow-fast movements. The lively outer movements both in D major, piquant and even cynical at times, evokes his contemporaries Hindemith and Stravinsky, while the central movement in B-flat minor entitled Ballade reminds us of Mahler with its late-Romantic dismal, melodious emotiveness.

[Kumiko Nishi]

The Munich-born composer Richard Strauss (1864–1949)’s oeuvre is abundant in notable passages for French horn(s), with his Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life) and Eine Alpensinfonie (An Alpine Symphony) springing to mind. His earliest memory of the instrument is unmistakably linked to his father Franz (1822–1905), a historic horn virtuoso who served as the principal hornist at the prestigious Munich Court Orchestra. A precocious musical genius, his son began to compose at age 6. Guided by his father’s conservative taste, Strauss’s earliest compositions were modeled after Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven and Schubert. Renowned for his anti-Wagner stance, Strauss’s father is said to have kept a close watch on his son’s works still in the early 1880s.
Strauss penned the Horn Concerto No. 1 in 1882–1883 to celebrate his father’s 60th birthday, although the latter never performed it in public most likely due to old age. Commentators have often pointed out that it is influenced by Mozart and Mendelssohn but also the Horn Concerto in C minor written by Strauss’s father, while the young Strauss in his late teens surely intersperses the score with his own voice.
Performed without break, the concerto’s three movements share some common motifs. Opened immediately by the soloist announcing the principal theme evoking a hunting call, the first movement is a flexible rondo instead of a sonata. The darker next movement in A–B–A´ form lets the horn sing sonorously during its middle section. The spirited finale in 6/8 meter, again a rondo, accelerates toward the end to conclude the concerto with jaunty steps.

[Kumiko Nishi]

An important figure of Czech national school in music, Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) was born near Prague in Bohemia (the western part of the Czech Republic nowadays) then ruled by the Austrian Empire. Three years he spent in the United States were to further enrich his already matured style, as represented by his Symphony No. 9 From the New World (1893).
Dvořák returned from America to Bohemia in 1895 having nine years left until he passed away in Prague. From this final period, The Wild Dove (1896) is a symphonic poem based on a ballad of the same title by Czech national poet K. J. Erben (1811–1870). The first performance was given in 1898 under the baton of Janáček (mentioned below).
The Wild Dove in a single-movement has five sections of different tempos and moods following meticulously the ballad’s plot. During the opening section, we hear a funeral procession of a man whose widow sheds fake tears as she actually killed him with poison. The next A-major section’s jaunty trumpet melody represents a young man. The third C-major section in triple time is a scherzo describing the wedding celebration of the widow and the young man. During the next slow section in F minor, the woman hears a dove (flutes) cooing sorrowfully and obstinately on the grave of her former husband. She, racked by guilt, runs mad and commits suicide. The final section has the opening funeral music return, this time for the woman.

[Kumiko Nishi]

A thirteen-year junior to Dvořák, Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) was born in Moravia (the eastern part of the Czech Republic today) then a part of the Austrian Empire. He first received musical education in Brno, Moravia’s capital, before studying organ in Prague where he met Dvořák. Trained at Leipzig’s and Vienna’s Conservatories in the early 1880s, Janáček began to have a passion for the study of Moravian folk songs and dances in the late 1880s, which would deeply influence his classical compositions marked by metrical/rhythmical individuality and intense contrast of sonority. A late bloomer, he won international fame in his sixties in 1916 when his opera Jenůfa (1904) was first staged in Prague with much success.
Then in 1918, an earnest wish of Janáček—and his compatriots—was fulfilled immediately after World War I ended: the independence of Czechoslovakia. He composed Sinfonietta in 1926 for Prague’s Sokol Festival (Sokol is a gymnastic society established by Czech patriots in Prague), intending at first to dedicate it to the new Czechoslovak Army. According to the composer’s own words, the work honors “contemporary free man, his spiritual beauty and joy, his strength, courage and determination to fight for victory.” Sinfonietta is a homage to Brno as well, as originally, each movement (except for the opening one) had a title related to the sights of the city: I Fanfare / II The Castle, Brno / III The Queen’s Monastery, Brno / IV The Street Leading to the Castle / V The Town Hall, Brno.
Sinfonietta is, despite the title (meaning “little symphony”), Janáček’s biggest purely instrumental piece. It is scored for an orchestra and an additional brass band which is composed of nine trumpets, two bass trumpets and two tenor tubas. Against the norm, the main orchestra—the single exception is timpani—remains silent during the opening movement performed by the brass band alone. It is only toward the end of the final movement that the brass band returns in an impressive manner, this time to play together with the entire main orchestra.

[Kumiko Nishi]