Dvorak's last 'American' work

Synopsis

In London on today’s date in 1896, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák conducted the first performance of his Cello Concerto.

Two years earlier, while teaching at the National Conservatory in New York, Dvořák attended the Brooklyn premiere of a cello concerto by American cellist and composer Victor Herbert. Herbert had been the principal cellist for the premiere performance of Dvořák’s New World Symphony at Carnegie Hall and was a superb player and the soloist in the premiere of his own concerto.

After the concert, Dvořák rushed backstage, embraced Herbert, and told him his concerto was “splendid — simply splendid.”

Inspired by Herbert’s example, Dvořák began a cello concerto of his own, completing it in just three months. It was the last work he completed during his three-year stay in America, but on the final page of his manuscript score, he wrote, “I finished the concerto in New York, but when I returned to Bohemia I changed the end completely the way it stands here now.”

The concerto was written for and dedicated to Dvořák’s countryman, Czech cellist Hanuš Wihan, but due to a scheduling conflict, British soloist Leo Stern played its world premiere in London.

Music Played in Today's Program

Antonin Dvorak (1841-1904): Cello Concerto; Yo Yo Ma, cello; New York Philharmonic; Kurt Masur, cond.

On This Day

Births

• 1872 - Russian ballet impresario Sergei Diaghilev (Gregorian date: Mar. 31)

• 1873 - German composer Max Reger, in Brand (near Bayreuth)

• 1907 - English composer (of Irish descent) Elizabeth Maconchy, in Broxbourne

• 1929 - American composer Robert Muczynski, in Chicago

Premieres

• 1859 - Gounod: opera Faust, in Paris at the Théâtre-Lyrique

• 1864 - Gounod: opera Mireille, in Paris at the Théâtre-Lyrique

• 1870 - Gomes: opera Il Guarany (The Guarani), in Milan at the Teatro alla Scala

• 1892 - Tchaikovsky: The Nutcracker Suite, in St. Petersburg (Julian date: March 7); The first staged performance of the complete Nutcracker Ballet occurred later that same year in St. Petersburg on Dec. 6 (Julian)/Dec. 18 (Gregorian)

• 1896 - Dvorák: Cello Concerto in b, Op. 104, at London's Queens Hall by the London Philharmonic conducted by the composer, with Leo Stern as soloist

• 1910 - Bartók: String Quartet No. 1, Op. 7, in Budapest, by the Waldbauer Quartet

• 1915 - John Alden Carpenter: Adventures in a Perambulator, by the Chicago Symphony, Frederick Stock conducting

• 1919 - Gabriel Fauré's Fantasie for piano and Orchestra, at a Société Nationale de Musique concert at the Salle Gaveau in Paris, with Alfred Cortot as the soloist

• 1944 - Tippett: oratorio, A Child of Our Time, in London

• 1972 - George Perle: Sonata quasi una fantasia for clarinet and piano, in Buffalo, New York

• 1991 - John Adams: opera The Death of Klinghoffer, in Brussels at the Théatre Royal de la Monnaie

• 1998 - Robert X. Rodriguez: Sinfonia a la Mariachi, by the San Antonio Symphony, Christopher Wilkins conducting

Others

• 1931 - American premiere of Alban Berg's opera Wozzeck in Philadelphia, with Leopold Stokowski conducting