Edvard Grieg
Two Melodies op. 53

Felix Mendelssohn
Sinfonia no. 8 in D major

Antonin Dvorák
Serenade, op. 22, in E major

Friday, November 9, 2007

11:00 a.m. & 7:30 p.m.
Assumption University Chapel

Instrumentally Speaking, pre-concert talk, inside the Freed-Orman
Centre at 6:55 p.m.

Tickets: $32-$20   

John Morris Russell, Conductor

Two Melodies op. 53

Edvard Hagerup Grieg
B. June 15, 1843, Bergen, Norway
D. September 4, 1907, Bergen

Approx. 9 minutes.

By Dr. Ed Kovarik
These two pieces for string orchestra date from 1891, when the composer was approaching fifty; they are arrangements of songs originally written for voice and piano a decade or two earlier. The first, titled “Norsk” (Norwegian), was originally written in 1880 from a text by A.O.Vinje which exhorts all true Norwegians to speak and write only in their native language, not in Danish or German. The second, titled “Det forste Mode” (First Meeting), is from a song cycle titled “The Fisher-maiden” written in 1870 to texts by B. Bjornson (Bjornson and Grieg at one time had planned to write a nationalistic opera together, but nothing came of this plan). Grieg must have been particularly fond of this second song because he later arranged it again for solo piano.

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Sinfonia no.8 in D major

Felix Mendelssohn
B. February 3, 1809, Hamburg
D. November 4, 1847, Leipzig

Written in 1822 and first performed in a house concert at the Mendelssohn residence in Berlin. Approx. 31 minutes.

By Dr. Ed Kovarik
All four of the Mendelssohn children took music lessons, and all of them performed—along with friends and invited guests—at the regular Sunday morning concerts held at the family home in Berlin. The star of these sessions was the second-oldest, Felix, who wrote much of the music that was performed as well as conducting and playing piano or violin. By his fifteenth birthday Felix had produced four operas, a quantity of chamber music with piano, several concertos, and no less than thirteen “symphonies” for string orchestra. Only the chamber music was published in his lifetime, and only it was included in the collected edition of the composer’s music that appeared later in the 19th century. The remaining music, including all of the string symphonies, remained as a stack of manuscripts in the Prussian State Library until the second half of the 20th century, when they finally began to attract attention. As might be expected, these juvenile symphonies are more derivative—more indebted to models—than Mendelssohn’s mature music, the favoured models being Bach and Handel, Mozart and von Weber. Even so, they works already show the composer’s gift for thematic invention, his natural exuberance, and his fondness for clearly articulated formal structures.

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Serenade, op.22, in E major

Antonín Dvo?ák
B. September 8, 1841, Nelahozeves, near Prague, Czech Republic
D. May 1, 1904, Prague

Premiered in 1876 by Adolf ?ech and the Prague Philharmonic. Approx. 27 minutes.

By Dr. Ed Kovarik
When the talented but unknown Dvo?ák, a good orchestral violist and mediocre church organist, decided in his early twenties to make his career as a composer, he began entering every contest and competition he could find. One of these, sponsored by the Austrian government, brought him to the notice of Brahms (a member of the jury), who took the young Czech boy under his wing. Gaining recognition and a substantial monetary award proved inspirational. In short order Dvo?ák produced a String Quintet, Piano Trio, Piano Quartet, and the String Serenade, all in major keys and all written in the space of a few months in the spring of 1875 (the mood was not to last: the sudden death of his young daughter later that same year plunged him into despair).

The Serenade is in five movements. A lyric opening movement is followed by a minor-key Waltz (with its trio) and then by a Scherzo. The deepest part of the work is the fourth movement, Larghetto, which was a favourite of the composer himself. The work ends with a lively and original rondo, which features thematic interplay (canon) between violins and lower strings.

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