DVORÁK SYMPHONY NO. 9

‘FROM THE NEW WORLD’

MELBOURNE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRATADAAKI OTAKA

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ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK 1841-1904

Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95 (B178) ‘From the New World’ [41’45]

1 I. Adagio – Allegro molto 9’38

2 II. Largo 11’57

3 III. Scherzo: Molto vivace 8’17

4 IV. Allegro con fuoco 11’53

5 Overture – Carnival, Op. 92 (B169) 10’19

Total Playing Time 52’16

Melbourne Symphony OrchestraTadaaki Otaka conductor

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Symphony No. 9

Dvořák composed his ninth, and last, symphony in New York between January and May 1893. As hisAmerican-born secretary, Josef Kovařík, was about to deliver the score to the conductor of the firstperformance, Anton Seidl, Dvořák suddenly wrote on the title page, in Czech, ‘From the New World’.That expression had been used in a welcome speech following his arrival in New York the previousSeptember, reflecting the Christopher Columbus quadricentenary: ‘The New World of Columbus andthe New World of Music’. Kovařík said the inscription was just ‘the Master’s little joke’; but the ‘joke’has, ever since, begged the question: how American is the New World Symphony?

Dvořák could have written his ‘New World’ inscription, as in the welcome speech, in English. By writingit in Czech he was seen to be addressing the work, like a picture postcard, to his compatriots back inEurope. At the same time he challenged listeners to identify depictions of America or elements ofAmerican music. Either way, the composer was seen to be meeting the desire of his employer, MrsJeannette Thurber, for music which might be identified as American.

Mrs Thurber had persuaded Dvořák to become director of her National Conservatory of Music in NewYork – the most eminent composer ever to take a teaching position in the USA. In addition to histeaching duties, he found he was expected to show Americans how to create a national music. So,controversially and perhaps naively, in a country which had not forgotten the Civil War, the egalitarianDvořák told Americans they would find their future music in their roots, whether native or immigrant,and in particular the songs of the African-Americans.

From his familiarity with gypsies in Europe, Dvořák had famously composed a set of Gypsy Melodies(including ‘Songs My Mother Taught Me’), and was thus receptive when introduced soon after hisarrival to African-American music – the sorrow songs and spiritual songs of the plantation. As a devoutman of humble rural origins, he responded to the pathos and religious fervour of the poor.

He told the New York Herald that the two middle movements of his new symphony were inspired byLongfellow’s epic poem The Song of Hiawatha, a work he had long ago read in Czech and which MrsThurber was now suggesting for an opera. The famous slow movement, he said, was inspired byHiawatha’s wooing of Minnehaha and the Scherzo by dancing at the wedding feast. Without usingNative American melodies, he claimed to have given the Scherzo ‘the local colour of Indian music’ – an effect probably limited to repetitive rhythms and strong, bold harmonies.

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At the same time, the New York Daily Tribune, reporting an extensive interview with the composer,declared that America’s ‘most characteristic, most beautiful and most vital’ folksong came ‘from thenegro slaves of the South’, adding that ‘if there is anything Indian about Dr Dvořák’s symphony it is onlyin the mood...of Indian legend and romance.’

On superficial acquaintance, Dvořák found that ‘the music of the Negroes and of the Indians waspractically identical’. But he took care to speak only in generalities as the debate, with all its goodpublicity, flourished.

As music, the New World Symphony is entirely characteristic of its composer (the ‘simple Czechmusician’ he liked to style himself) and owes nothing to any specific ‘borrowings’ from the indigenousor African-American musics Dvořák encountered in the New World. The ersatz-spiritual Goin’ home wasactually arranged from Dvořák’s Largo movement by one of his students, not the other way around.

There were strong non-musical impressions of America which doubtless crowded the composer’s mindas he worked on the symphony: the frenetic bustle of New York, the seething cauldron of humanity inthe metropolis, and the simple folk caught up in the impersonal whirl – the African-Americans, theindigenous Americans, the immigrant poor. The surging flow and swiftly changing moods of the outermovements perhaps reflect these images. The vast, desolate prairies Dvořák found ‘sad unto despair’,and this may be felt to underpin the deep yearning of the Largo (together with the composer’s ownhomesickness for his native Bohemia). As if to emphasise his personal longing for home, Dvořák usesa Czech dance as the central trio section of the third movement.

Musical ideas recur in the New World Symphony, like familiar faces in a crowd, to link the symphonicstructure. The two main themes of the first movement are recalled in festive mood in the Largo, at thebrassy climax of the famous melody first stated by the cor anglais. They figure again in the coda of theScherzo, the first theme (somewhat disguised) also making three appearances earlier in themovement. The main themes of both middle movements recur in the development section of thefinale, and the main themes of all three preceding movements are reviewed in the final coda. There, a brief dialogue between the themes of the first and last movements is cut short by a conventionalcadence, spiced by unexpected wind colouring in the last chord of all.

Anthony Cane © 1980 / 2003

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Carnival Overture

In his 50th year Dvořák composed three concert overtures, which he originally conceived as aconnected cycle entitled Nature, Life and Love. His correspondence indicates that he wanted to paintmusical pictures evoking the most powerful expressions of the human soul. His compositions werecoloured by his reflections on Nature as an expression of divine will, as well as a source of life whichembodied all aspects of good and evil.

Dvořák’s uncertainty as to what to call each overture is evident in sketches of the work. The first wastitled In Nature’s Realm or A Summer Night, with the subtitle Solitude. The second bore the subtitleCarnival as well as the title Life and the third was called both Love and Othello. Although a musical ideaor leitmotif denoting Nature is common to all three overtures, they are usually performed asindependent compositions.

Carnival opens with an exuberant theme suggesting a Bohemian fair: triangles, tambourines andcymbals add a festive brilliance. The overture proceeds through moods of mania and introspection – amusical discussion of that effervescent joy and passion for life which can unexpectedly appear in atime of solitude. The gentle serenity of the middle section gives way to an almost strident excitement,and the work ends as vigorously as it began.

© Symphony Australia

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Tadaaki Otaka

Tadaaki Otaka took up his appointment as Principal Guest Conductor of the Melbourne SymphonyOrchestra in 2010. In the same year, he became Artistic Director at the New National Theatre Tokyo.One of Japan’s leading conductors, Tadaaki Otaka’s wide-ranging activities include concert, opera, radioand television and also premieres of works by such distinguished composers as Teizo Matsumura, TōruTakemitsu and Akira Miyoshi.

He is Permanent Conductor of Tokyo’s NHK Symphony Orchestra and the Sapporo SymphonyOrchestra, and Conductor Laureate at the BBC National Orchestra of Wales (BBC NOW) and the TokyoPhilharmonic Orchestra. He is also Music Adviser and Principal Conductor of the Kioi Sinfonietta Tokyo,which he founded in 1995 and swiftly established as among Japan’s best chamber ensembles; he wasmade its Honorary Conductor Laureate in 2003.

Forthcoming engagements include Salome with the Tokyo Philharmonic at the New National TheatreTokyo, and symphonic projects with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra and West AustralianSymphony Orchestra, as well as his regular commitments with many Japanese orchestras.Highlights of recent seasons include Britten’s War Requiem with the Melbourne SymphonyOrchestra, special concerts in celebration of the 100th anniversary of the Tokyo PhilharmonicOrchestra, and a critically-acclaimed European tour with the Sapporo Symphony Orchestra. Hisregular commitments across Japan include performances with the Nagoya and Japan PhilharmonicOrchestras and the Osaka Symphony.

Tadaaki Otaka is a recipient of the Suntory Music Award, given each year to the most impressiveindividual Japanese musician or ensemble. In 1993 the Welsh College of Music and Drama conferredan Honorary Fellowship on him; he also holds an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Wales. In1997, he was awarded the CBE, in recognition of his outstanding contribution over many years toBritish musical life, and in 2000 he was awarded the Elgar Medal by the Elgar Society, marking acompelling record of conducting the composer’s works overseas.

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Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

With a reputation for excellence, versatility and innovation, the internationally acclaimed MelbourneSymphony Orchestra is Australia’s oldest orchestra, established in 1906.

This fine Orchestra is renowned for its performances of the great symphonic masterworks with leadinginternational and Australian artists including Bryn Terfel, Maxim Vengerov, John Williams, Osmo Vänskä,Paavo Järvi, Charles Dutoit, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Donald Runnicles, Sir Andrew Davis, Jean-YvesThibaudet, Yvonne Kenny, Edo de Waart, Lang Lang, Nigel Kennedy, Jeffrey Tate, Midori, ChristineBrewer, Richard Tognetti, Emma Matthews and Teddy Tahu Rhodes. It has also enjoyed hugelysuccessful performances with such artists as Sir Elton John, John Farnham, Harry Connick, Jr., kd lang,Ben Folds, KISS, Meat Loaf, Burt Bacharach, The Whitlams, Human Nature, Roberta Flack, Sting andTim Minchin.

The MSO performs extensively with its own choir, the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus,directed by chorus master Jonathan Grieves-Smith. The Chorus was formed by the integration of theMSO with the Melbourne Chorale in 2008. Recent performances together include Britten’s WarRequiem under Tadaaki Otaka, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe under Sir Andrew Davis and Beethoven’sNinth Symphony under Douglas Boyd as part of the 2011 Beethoven Festival.

Key musical figures in the Orchestra’s history include Hiroyuki Iwaki – who was Chief Conductor andthen Conductor Laureate, between 1974 and his death in 2006 – and Markus Stenz, who was ChiefConductor and Artistic Director from 1998 until 2004. Oleg Caetani was the MSO’s Chief Conductorand Artistic Director from 2005 to 2009.

The MSO, the first Australian symphony orchestra to tour abroad, has received widespreadinternational recognition in tours to the USA, Canada, Japan, Korea, Europe, China (2002), StPetersburg, Russia (2003), Japan (2005) and Europe (2007). In addition, the Orchestra tours throughoutregional Victoria, and presents an annual concert season in Geelong.

Each year the Orchestra performs to more than 200,000 people, at events ranging from the annual SidneyMyer Free Concerts in the Sidney Myer Music Bowl to the series of Classic Kids concerts for youngchildren. The MSO reaches an even larger audience across Australia through its regular concertbroadcasts on ABC Classic FM. The Orchestra’s considerable ceremonial role in Victoria has included

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participation in the opening ceremony of the 2006 Commonwealth Games, in the 2009 Bushfirememorial service Together for Victoria, the Prime Minister’s Olympic Dinner and the 2010 AFL Grand Final.

The MSO’s extensive education and community outreach activities include the Meet the Orchestra,Meet the Music and Up Close and Musical programs, designed specifically for schools; composing andimprovising ensembles of children aged 8-13, created in collaboration with the City of Melbourne’sArtPlay; MSO Jams, in which members of the public make music with MSO players; and a partnershipwith PING!, which brings music-making into the virtual world for school-age children around Victoria. In2011 the MSO launched an educational iPhone and iPad app designed to teach children about the innerworkings of an orchestra. The Orchestra’s Artist Development work includes the Cybec 21st CenturyAustralian Composers Program, which each year commissions and performs music by four youngAustralian composers.

Recent recordings include major CD releases on the Chandos and ABC Classics labels. The MSO’sChandos recordings of Alexandre Tansman’s symphonies with Oleg Caetani all received Diapason d’Orawards. In 2005 the Orchestra launched a new live-in-concert CD series, MSO Live, through ABCClassics. MSO Live releases include the Orchestra’s acclaimed cycle of Tchaikovsky symphonies and aCD devoted to the final concert given in Australia by Sir Charles Mackerras, with the MSO, inNovember 2007. The Chandos disc featuring Goossens’ Symphony No. 1 was the last recordingconducted by Richard Hickox.

Members of the Orchestra have featured on numerous film soundtracks including those for such majormotion pictures as Babe, Six Degrees of Separation, The Dish, Beneath Hill 60 and Moulin Rouge.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is funded principally by the Australian Government through theAustralia Council, its arts funding and advisory body, and is generously supported by the VictorianGovernment through Arts Victoria, Department of Premier and Cabinet. The MSO is also funded by theCity of Melbourne, its Principal Partner, Emirates, and individual and corporate sponsors and donors.

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Executive Producers Martin Buzacott, Robert Patterson

Recording Producer Stephen Snelleman

Recording Engineer Nic Mierisch

Assistant Engineer Chris Lawson

Editing Alex Stinson 2, Thomas Grubb (ManoMusica)

Mastering Thomas Grubb (ManoMusica)

Publications Editor Natalie Shea

Marketing and Catalogue Coordinator Laura Bell

Booklet Design Imagecorp Pty Ltd

Cover Photo Moulton Barn, Grand Tetons Mountains, Wyoming © Dan Barba / Photolibrary

For the Melbourne Symphony OrchestraChairman Harold Mitchell AC

Managing Director Matthew VanBesien

Principal Guest Conductor Tadaaki Otaka

Patricia Riordan Associate Conductor Chair Benjamin Northey

Director, Artistic Planning Huw Humphreys

Director of Operations Lou Oppenheim

Recorded 6-8 April 2010 in the Iwaki Auditorium of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation’s

Southbank Centre, Melbourne.

This recording was made using the Artia edition of Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9, ed. Otakar Šourek.

ABC Classics thanks Lorraine Neilson (Symphony Services International), Jonathan Villanueva and Virginia Read.

www.abcclassics.com

� 2011 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. � 2011 Australian Broadcasting Corporation. Distributed in Australia and New Zealand byUniversal Music Group, under exclusive licence. Made in Australia. All rights of the owner of copyright reserved. Any copying, renting,lending, diffusion, public performance or broadcast of this record without the authority of the copyright owner is prohibited.

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