Ravinia 2019, Issue 6, Week 11

original idea which led me to write five pieces of two minutes each. From there was born the idea of representing the five elements ( wu xing ) that constitute the universe; this is to say metal, wood, water, fire, and earth. In Chinese: jin , mu , shui , huo , tu . To characterize a symbol musical- ly in an extremely short time and to present a tangible material in an abstract language were my lines of strength. But even more than that, to establish relationships between the materials, so that each element generated the next one as if the last was the consequence of the first.” ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK (1841–1904) Cello Concerto in B minor, B. 191 Scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, three horns, two trumpets, three trombones, tuba, timpani, strings, and solo cello In many respects, the Cello Concerto in B mi- nor is a valedictory work. Dvořák sketched the concerto between November 8, 1894, and Febru- ary 9, 1895, in New York, during his tenure as di- rector of the National Conservatory of Music. He had begun this work at the request of cellist Ha- nus Wihan, the composer’s old friend and dedi- catee of the concerto. Dvořák had left an earlier Cello Concerto in A major (1865) unorchestrat- ed, convinced of the cello’s unsuitability as a solo instrument. However, his opinion changed after attending performances of Victor Herbert’s Cello Concerto No. 2 with the New York Philharmon- ic. With the complete cello score packed in his luggage, Dvořák bade farewell to the US a sec- ond (and final) time on April 16, 1895. Although Wihan received the dedication of Dvořák’s cello concerto, another soloist, Leo Stern, gave the premiere in 1896. Wihan did not play the work publicly until three years later. Like many of Dvořák’s “American” composi- tions, the cello concerto contains a prominent, albeit unhappy Old World connection. Dis- tressing news of his sister-in-law Josefina Kau- nicová’s grave illness reached Dvořák in New York during composition of the concerto’s slow movement. Many years before, Dvořák con- fessed his love for Josefina—at that time, the unwed Josefina Čermáková was his piano stu- dent—which she did not requite. Instead, she married Count Kaunic, and Dvořák later wed her sister Anna. In 1880, the Dvořáks built their Villa Rusalka on a one-acre corner plot pur- chased from the count. Josefina’s illness had a crushing personal impact on the composer. In the concerto’s slow movement, he introduced a melodic variation of his song Lasst mich allein (Leave Me Alone), B. 157, no. 1—one of Josefina’s favorites. One month after Dvořák returned to Prague, Josefina died. He promptly reworked the ending to his Finale , adding a 60-measure quotation from the same song. This concerto be- came Dvořák’s farewell to his first love, Josefina. After reading through the concerto, Wihan pre- sumptuously recommended corrections to the publisher Simrock. The composer vehemently rejected these (especially a suggested solo caden- za) as violating the work’s fundamental design. Dvořák wrote to Simrock on October 3, 1895: “I do not agree with my friend Wihan in regard to a number of places. … In short, it must remain as I felt it and as I imagined it. There is no cadenza in the last movement either in the score or in the piano arrangement. I told Wihan straight away when he showed it to me that it was impossible to stick bits on like that. The finale closes gradu- ally diminuendo , like a sigh—with reminiscences of the first and second movements—the solo dies down to pianissimo ‚ then swells again, and the last bars are taken up by the orchestra and the whole concludes in a stormy mood. That was my idea and I cannot depart from it.” Though Dvořák did not elaborate upon his objections, this cadenza would have mutilated his memorial to Josefina. The Allegro modifies slightly the traditional double-exposition concerto form. Clarinets and bassoons submit a surging figure, whose mel- ancholy expression the orchestra soon intensi- fies. A gentle, lyrical second theme is heard in the horn. The solo cello lends rich tenor tones to these melodies and expands the gaps be- tween themes with melodious dialogue with were disrupted two years later with the start of the Cultural Revolution, which attacked the preoccupations of the conservatory and Chen’s family. After three years of hard labor, he under- went a period of ideological re-education. The loosening of restrictions allowed Chen to re- sume musical studies as a member of the army; for five years (1973–78), he served as principal clarinetist of an orchestra in Hangzhou. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Chen was one of only 26 students admitted to the Central Con- servatory in 1978. After five years of composition studies, he was the highest-ranking composition graduate in the country, allowing him to pursue further studies abroad. Olivier Messaien, already retired from the Paris Conservatory, accepted Chen as his last composition student, and Chen has lived in France ever since, becoming a citizen in 1992. He has become one of the most widely heralded Chinese composers to emerge from the Cultural Revolution, along with Tan Dun, Chen Yi, and Zhou Long, and was chosen to serve as Director of Music for the opening ceremony of the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing and com- posed the theme song, “You and Me.” His symphonic realization of the Chinese tradi- tional “five phases,” Wu Xing , was commissioned by Radio France, which broadcast the May 21, 1999, premiere by the Radio France Philhar- monic Orchestra, conducted by Didier Benetti. In his preface to the score, Chen revealed that he identifies most closely with the calmness of Water , which he set in the leading position of his musical list of elements. Wood possesses many intriguing variations, and the warmth of Fire he equated with life. As a generative element, Earth is the “matrix” and produces Metal , itself the source of strength and light. “This commission immediately raised all my in- terest,” Qigang Chen elaborated, “for the propo- sition coincided with a period of personal quest. The challenge pleased me, and I took it up as a style exercise, supported by the pressure of the duration [the time to compose] and making it a rule for new pressures to me. Such was the Qigang Chen Antonín Dvořák Hanuš Wihan AUGUST 12 – AUGUST 18, 2019 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE 95