Synopsis
In the late 19th Century, there were two rival musical camps: one favored “absolute music” like the symphonies, concertos, and chamber music of Brahms; the other the “music of the future,” namely the operas of Wagner and the tone poems of Liszt, works that told dramatic stories in music.
Now, Dvořák’s mentor was Brahms, and Dvořák was famous for his symphonies, concertos and chamber music. But on today’s date in 1896, at a concert of the Prague Conservatory Orchestra, three tone poems by Dvořák premiered: The Water Goblin, The Noonday Witch, and The Golden Spinning Wheel, all three based on Czech folk legends — and rather lurid, even gruesome ones at that.
Not surprisingly, the “absolute music” camp was shocked. Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick lamented: “It is strange that Dvořák now indulges in ugly, unnatural, and ghastly stories which correspond so little to his amiable character and to the true musician that he is. In The Water Goblin we are treated to a fiend who cuts off his own child’s head!”
But another Czech composer, Leos Janacek, heard something quite different: “In all the orchestral tone poems that I have known, the ‘direct speech’ of the instruments, if I might describe it thus, has never sounded with such certainty, clarity and truthfulness within the wave of melodies, as it does in The Water Goblin.”
Music Played in Today's Program
Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904): The Water Goblin; Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; Nikolaus Harnoncourt, conductor; Teldec 25254
On This Day
Births
1801 - Czech opera composer Franz (František) Škroup, in Osice. One of his songs was eventually used as the Czech national anthem.
1832 - French operetta composer Charles Lecocq, in Paris
Deaths
1875 - French composer Georges Bizet, 36, at Bougival (near Paris)
1899 - Austrian composer Johann Strauss, Jr., 73, in Vienna
1939 - Spanish composer and conductor Enrique Fernandez Arbos, in San Sebastian
Premieres
1896 - Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5, in Paris, with the composer as soloist
1915 - Chadwick: symphonic ballad Tam O’Shanter at the Norfolk Festival
1922 - Stravinsky: opera Marva, at the Paris Opéra
1947 - Poulenc: opera Les Mamelles de Tirésias (The Breasts of Tiresias) in Paris at the Opéra-Comique
1964 - Menotti: Martin’s Lie, at Bristol Cathedral in Bath, England
1979 - Menotti: La Loca, in San Diego, California
1988 - Michael Torke: Copper for brass quintet and orchestra, at the Midland (Michigan) Festival, with the Empire Brass and the Detroit Symphony conducted by Stephen Stein
1999 - Tan Dun: Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra (In Memory of Toru Takemitsu), at Lincoln Center, with percussionist Christopher Lamb and the New York Philharmonic conducted by Kurt Masur.
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About Composers Datebook®
Host John Birge presents a daily snapshot of composers past and present, with timely information, intriguing musical events and appropriate, accessible music related to each.
He has been hosting, producing and performing classical music for more than 25 years. Since 1997, he has been hosting on Minnesota Public Radio's Classical Music Service. He played French horn for the Cincinnati Symphony and Pops Orchestra and performed with them on their centennial tour of Europe in 1995. He was trained at the Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music, Eastman School of Music and Interlochen Arts Academy.