The OTHER Dvorak String Quartets

Synopsis

If you say “Dvořák” and “string quartet” to most classical music lovers, they will immediately think of Dvořák’s “American” Quartet in F Major, composed during the summer of 1893 in Spillville, Iowa, where the composer and his family were vacationing after his first year as Director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York City.

Now, the “American” Quartet is an irresistible, tuneful masterwork – but it’s a little sad that its popularity with music lovers doesn’t extend to the 13 other string quartets that Dvořák composed, like his joyful and exuberant String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, published as his Opus 105.

That quartet, too, was begun in America, in March of 1895, less than a month before Dvořák left America, and completed in December of that year after he had returned to Prague. In the last decade of his life, Dvořák devoted himself mostly to composing tone poems and operas based on Czech folk legends, so this quartet in A-flat Major proved to be the last he completed.

Its premiere performance took place in Prague on today’s date in 1896, given by the famous Rosé Quartet of Vienna, whose 1st violinist was Arnold Rosé, the concert master of the Vienna Philharmonic in those days.

Music Played in Today's Program

Antonin Dvořák String Quartet No. 14 in Ab, Op. 105 Vlach Quartet Prague Naxos 8.553374

On This Day

Births

• 1874 - American composer and insurance executive Charles Ives, in Danbury, Connecticut;

• 1890 - American composer and jazz pianist Ferdinand "Jelly Roll" Morton, in New Orleans (In older biographies, his birth date is incorrectly given as September 20, 1885);

• 1944 - American composer William Albright, in Gary, Indiana;

Premieres

• 1842 - Wagner: opera, "Rienzi," in Dresden at the Hoftheater;

• 1847 - Lortzing: opera "Undine" (2nd version), in Vienna at the Theater an der Wien;

• 1860 - Brahms: String Sextet No. 1 in Bb, Op. 18, in Hanover, by violinist Joseph Joachim and his ensemble;

• 1892 - Rimsky-Korsakov: opera " Mlada," at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Eduard Napravnik conducting (Gregorian date: Nov. 1);

• 1923 - Delius: "A Dance Rhapsody," in London, conducted by Sir Henry Wood;

• 1949 - Hartmann: opera "Simplicius Simplicissimus" (first staged performance) in Cologne at the Theater der Stadt (Kammerspiele); The premiere concert performance of this opera by the Bavarian Radio occurred in Munich on April 2, 1948;

• 1950 - Hanson: "Pastorale" for Solo Oboe, Strings and Harp, with oboist Marcel Tabuteau, and the Philadelphia Orchestra, Eugene Ormandy conducting;

• 1952 - Peter Mennin: "Concertanto (Moby Dick)" for orchestra, in Erie, Pa.;

• 1958 - Hovhaness: "Meditation on Orpheus," by the Houston Symphony, Leopold Stokowski conducting;

• 1960 - Lukas Foss: "Time Cycle for Soprano and Orchestra" at New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Bernstein, with soprano Adele Addison the vocal soloist;

• 1974 - Elliott Carter: Brass Quintet, on a BBC broadcast from London, with the American Brass Quintet; The American premiere occurred at the Library of Congress on November 15 that year with the same performers;

• 1974 - Henze: "Tristan" for piano, orchestra, and tape, by the London Symphony, Colin Davis conducting;

• 1977 - Michael Colgrass: "Déjà vu" at New York Philharmonic concert conducted by Leinsdorf;

• 1983 - Menotti: Double-bass Concerto, by the New York Philharmonic, Zubin Mehta conducting, with James VanDemark as soloist;

• 1985 - Lou Harrison: Piano Concerto, in New York, with Keith Jarrett the soloist.

• 2004 - Peter Maxwell Davies: "Naxos Quartet" No. 5 ("Lighthouses of Orkney and Shetland"), at Wigmore Hall, London, by the Maggini Quartet;

Others

• 1739 - Handel completes in London his Concerto Grosso in b, Op. 6, no. 12 (Gregorian date: Oct. 31);