ÿþ<html> <head> <title>Forest Hill Chamber Music Festival 2004</title> <style> a:link {color:888888;text-decoration: none} a:active {color:888888;text-decoration: none} a:visited {color:888888;text-decoration: none} a:hover {color:000000;text-decoration: none} </style> </head> <body bgColor=ffffff topmargin=15 leftmargin=0 text=555555 link=000000 alink=000000 vlink=000000> <center> <a href="index.html"><img src="title01w.gif" border=0></a><BR> <BR><font size=3> { <a href="p1.html">6/11</a> &nbsp; <a href="p2.html">6/12</a> &nbsp; <a href="p3.html">6/13</a> &nbsp; <a href="p4.html">6/13</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="artists.html">artists</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="notes.html">program notes</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="photos.html">photos</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="contact.html">tickets</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="ack.html">acknowledgements</a> } &nbsp; { <a href="intro.html">about</a> } <BR><BR><BR> <table border=0 cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0> <TR> <Td align=right valign=top> <table border=0 cellpadding=15 cellspacing=0><TR><TD align=right> <a href="n01-bach.html">Johann Sebastian Bach </a><BR> <a href="n02-beet.html">Ludwig van Beethoven </a><BR> <a href="n03-berg.html">Alban Maria Johannes Berg </a><BR> <a href="n14-druk.html">Jacob Raphael Druckman </a><BR> <a href="n04-dvor.html">Antonín DvoYák </a><BR> <a href="n05-hind.html">Paul Hindemith </a><BR> <a href="n06-mech.html">Kirke Mechem</a><BR> <a href="n07-mess.html">Olivier Messiaen</a><BR> <a href="n08-moza.html">Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart </a><BR> <a href="n09-rohde.html">Kurt Rohde</a><BR> <a href="n10-ss.html">Charles Camille Saint-Saëns </a><BR> <a href="n11-scho.html">Arnold Schönberg </a><BR> <a href="n12-schub.html">Franz Peter Schubert </a><BR> <a href="n13-schum.html">Robert Schumann</a><BR> </td></tr></table> </td> <TD valign=top> <img src="black.gif" width=1 height=310><BR> </td> <TD valign=top width=500> <Table border=0 cellspacing=0 cellpadding=15><TR><TD> <font size=5><center><b>Antonín DvoYák</b><font size=2><br><i> b. 1841 Nelahozeves, Bohemia; d. 1904 Prague, Czechoslovakia</i></center><font size=3><br><br> <b>String Quintet No. 2 in G Major, Op. 77 (1875)</b><br> <br> Into a life which, in brief overview, might seem like the classic Hollywood success story, Antonín DvoYák was born, the eldest of nine children, to a village innkeeper and butcher in Bohemia, an area rich in home music making which had been a source for many of the great European court orchestras best musicians in Mozart s time. A capable violinist and violist, DvoYák helped his father at the inn from an early age, playing the violin to entertain guests. <br><br>Ultimately the recipient of honors and awards from all sides, DvoYák remained a modest man of simple tastes, with a deeply religious background, who loved nature, and who remained loyal to his Czech nationality. It offended him to have his first named Germanized to  Anton by his German publisher and to be praised as being an  Austrian composer in England, where he was made an honorary Doctor of Music by Cambridge University. <br><br>Now certainly the Czech Republic s most beloved composer, DvoYák s output over forty years consists of more than one hundred major pieces, including nine symphonies and ten operas, plus a great many smaller-scale compositions, not counting the many he destroyed as unworthy. <br><br>The success story began when DvoYák applied for a modest subsistence grant which would allow him to devote himself to composition, which gained him the attention of Johannes Brahms, who considered him an extraordinarily talented artist, and who secured the Berlin publisher Simrock for some of his works. Publication of his  Moravian Duets and  Slavonic Dances ensued, and DvoYák became a celebrated composer almost overnight. He was then 37 years old. <br><br>Always devoted to his heritage, DvoYák succeed as none other in merging the tradition of Western European romantic chamber music with the Slavonian individual character. He drew his musical inspiration from Moravia, Slovakia, Poland, and Russia. He mined Slavic music for archaic harmonic modes, strange modulations, and a whole new wealth of rhythms and melodic turnarounds. <br><br>The String Quintet in G Major is a strong example of such a melding of musical sources. Written for an Umelecka Beseda (Arts Society) competition, and for which DvoYák won 5 ducats, it is dedicated  To My Nation, the competition s motto. <br><br>Now with four movements, the quintet originally had an additional middle movement,  Andante religioso, derived from an earlier discarded string quartet. Then, having decided that  two slow movements seemed to be too much, DvoYák removed it from the quintet, reworked it for string orchestra, and sent it out into the world as  Nocturne, Opus 40. <br> </td></tr></table> </td> </tr> </table> </body></html>