9 February 2022
Dvořák and Brahms - Songs
Time
7:30 PM
Venue
Walter S. Gubelmann Auditorium
Program
“Our Four Arts 2022 festival, “Around Dvořák”, centers on the music of one of history’s most beloved composers. It’s exciting to discover that the famed creator of the New World Symphony was also the composer of a great number of definitive, masterful chamber works that constitute a significant portion of our standard repertoire today. In looking and listening “around” this impressive Czech composer, we’ll encounter those who influenced, inspired, and impacted Dvořák’s creativity, surrounded by an assemblage of his most heartfelt Romantic works, both classics and novelties. Hear an individual concert or participate in a week-long residency program with a package ticket.” – David Finckel and Wu Han, Beyer Artists-in-Residence
Around Dvořák II
This musical banquet pairs our featured composer, Antonín Dvořák, with his early and most important champion, Johannes Brahms. It was Brahms who introduced Dvořák to the publisher Simrock, who would become a key to his success. Beginning with Slavonic and Hungarian Dances of folklike vigor for four-hand piano, the program features sets of songs by both composers as well as two instrumental masterpieces by Dvořák: his unique and charming Terzetto for two violins and viola, composed for his friends, and his exuberant second Piano Quartet, written at the behest of Simrock, which features irresistible melodies for the cello.