Russian National Orchestra
conducted by Kent Nagano
Narrators
Sophia Loren
Bill Clinton
Introduction / Intermezzo /
Epilogue by
Mikhail Gorbachev
(translation by Sergei Markov)
Artistic Director: Kent Nagano
Executive Producers:
Richard Walker and Sergei Markov
Recording producer:
Wilhelm Hellweg

PTC 5186 011

DSD recorded

Dvorák: Symphony No. 9

Jeanette Thurber, the wife of a rich grocery wholesaler, was a woman with a mission: the promotion of a national American style of composition. To this end she founded a conservatoire in New York in 1885. However, it appeared that her dream was not to come true, as the school did not manage to attract any talented musicians. But she refused to give up and asked the famous Czech composer Antonín Dvorák if he was interested in becoming the principal of her National Conservatory of Music. The salary she offered him was very generous – no less than 25 times the amount he had earned in Prague. Dvorák accepted and in September 1892 he crossed the ocean with his wife and two children and arrived in the New World.
The roots of Dvorák’s music lay in the folk music of his native country of Bohemia. But if the Americans wanted to develop their own musical identity, they would have to reach back into their own musical foundation: "I am at present convinced that the future music of this country will have to be based on the so-called ‘negro songs’. They will have to form the real basis for a serious and authentic school of composition which will have to be developed in the United States."
Although Dvorák was busy at the conservatoire, he still found the time to compose. In May 1893, he completed his first American composition, his Symphony No. 9. Naturally, the folk music of his beloved Bohemia can be heard in the symphony, however, Dvorák also processed some of the music of his host country which had welcomed him with open arms. Through a colleague at the conservatoire, he had come into contact with African-American spirituals and songs which the slaves had sung in the plantations. (One of his black composition students, Harry T. Burleigh, regularly sang spirituals for him.) And he had studied American Indian music in transcription.
Literal quotes from American folk music cannot be found in Dvorák’s Symphony No. 9, which he titled ‘From the New World’. That was never his intention: he had tried to reproduce the spirit of the music in his newest symphony. "I did not use existing melodies. I just wrote original themes which contain the characteristics of Indian music, and then I elaborated on these themes using all the means of modern rhythm, harmony, counterpoint and orchestral tones."
It became evident later that Dvorák had plumbed the depths of American music when one of his students wrote a text for the melody of the slow movement from the Ninth, and then arranged it for choir. This arrangement of the symphony, Goin’ home, was long believed to be an original spiritual quoted by Dvorák.Tchaikovsky: Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet
Fatal love, doomed to a tragic ending. This subject has often inspired composers to create majestic and compelling works. Tchaikovsky, for example, who was something of a late developer. In fact, he was 28 years old when Mili Balakiref conducted the première of his orchestral piece Fatum. This was his third composition for symphony orchestra and, just as its two predecessors, not a success. However, Balakiref had faith in the composer and took his young colleague under his wing. Fatum lacked structure and direction. He suggested that Tchaikovsky based his next work on Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet – Balakiref was probably aware of Tchaikovsky’s unrequited love for the Belgian soprano Désirée Artôt, and believed that the fate of the famous couple would encourage Tchaikovsky to compose.
However, Tchaikovsky was not immediately enthusiastic: he did not like symphonic poems. Nevertheless, he started work and took to heart Balakiref’s explicit instructions with regard to the composition: "Begin with the music which represents Brother Lawrence, then interrupt it with the uproar of the quarrelling families, then give a portrait of the young lovers." In November 1869, Tchaikovsky completed the first version of his Fantasy Overture Romeo and Juliet. Two revisions followed at the advice of Balakiref, and only after 10 years had passed, was Tchaikovsky completely satisfied. Finally, Romeo and Juliet became a convincing and beautiful love song, which includes a yearning horn solo representing the two lovers.