“Oh, the places you’ll go! Congratulations! ... You're off to Great Places! You're off and away!” Dr. Seuss
Next month, Music Director Gianandrea Noseda and the National Symphony Orchestra are off to Great Places, from Carnegie Hall to La Scala! January’s NSO Showcase program on WETA Classical takes us on a European journey to the Czech Republic (Dvořák), Austria (Beethoven), and France (Farrenc).
We love Dvořák for his lilting melodies, but there can be a dark side to his music...a VERY dark side. The folk tale The Wood Dove, for example, tells the story of a young wife who has poisoned her husband but can’t escape her suicidal guilt. The story begins with the widow attending her victim’s funeral. She falls in love with another man, and we hear a lively wedding scene. However, her guilt eats at her, until one day a wood dove alights on her first husband’s tomb. “Don’t coo, don’t call, or I shall jump!” she pleads with it. Of course, she jumps into the river, and we imagine her pale body floating off in her white dress. The funeral theme returns, with the dove’s mocking accompaniment. Cheery, no?
After Dvořák’s sinister story, Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony (No.6) provides much needed relief. The first movement, titled “Awakening of cheerful feelings on arrival in the countryside” never fails to fill me with elation. It's like a deep breath of fresh air every time I hear it, and the birds in this symphony are all chirpy and happy. Beethoven needed five movements to express his love of nature in this symphony, and it’s a delight to accompany him on his ramblings...by a brook, meeting a merry gathering of country folk, sheltering from a thunderstorm, and feeling refreshed after the storm.
French composer Louise Farrenc’s third symphony closes the program, a mid-nineteen century tour-de-force which earned the praise of Berlioz and Schumann who attended the premiere at the Paris Conservatoire’s Société des concerts. No wonder, it features a gorgeous slow movement with a to-die-for clarinet melody, and a quicksilver scherzo à la Mendelssohn.
Altogether, a delightful program, even with Dvořák’s macabre folk tale. Join us for NSO Showcase Wednesday, January 3rd at 9:00 p.m. on WETA Classical and streaming all month long at WETAClassical.org. It’s just the beginning of an adventurous musical season with the NSO.
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