An unprecedented multi-year project organized by the Dvorak American Heritage Association presents all of Antonin Dvorak’s chamber works. Join us as we offer the next chapter in this ongoing cycle, organized by violinist Laura Jean Goldberg and featuring the Sullivan Quartet.
The program is drawn from Dvorak’s prolific output of (over 40) chamber works.
PROGRAM
Quartet No. 10 in E-flat Major (“Slavonic”) Opus 51 B.92, composed 1878-79
Cypresses (Cypřiše) selections, arranged 1887
Quartet No. 13 in G Major Opus 106 B.192, composed 1895
General admission: $30; seniors, students: $20. Tickets may be purchased online through Eventbrite or at the door at the time of the event (cash only).
PROGRAM NOTES
The E-flat major Quartet Opus 51 is one of the composer’s major achievements from his Slavonic period. In this large-scale, lyrical music poem, Dvořák bravely fuses some of the characteristic idioms of Slavonic musical folklore with the conservative four-movement Sonata framework of Schubert and Brahms.
Selections from Dvořák's Cypresses (Czech: Cypřiše) In 1887, Dvořák made String Quartet arrangements of some of his own early songs for voice and piano, also titled Cypresses. These arrangements are numbered B.152. The composer arranged 12 out of 18 of the original songs. These early love songs are settings of poems by Gustav Pfleger-Moravsky from the collection "Cypresses."
The Quartet in G major Opus 106 was composed toward the end of the year 1895, after the end of Dvořák’s American sojourn. Dvořák’s experiences in the new world were impactful, and the compositional style of this late quartet reflect the experiences of a composer who was a world traveler, a teacher, and a profound artist. In Quartet Opus 106, Dvořák reflects on the musical style of the late quartets of Beethoven, with the inclusion of rhythmic and harmonic complexity, compositional ambiguity, and more abstraction than in earlier works. The piece is innovative, stretching the boundaries of the rules of compositional form. The music also expresses deep emotional tenderness, perhaps reflecting the composer's feelings about the recent death of his sister in law, Josephina, who was very dear to him.
This event is organized by the Dvorak American Heritage Association with support of the Bohemian Benevolent and Literary Association.