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s a n m a r t i n : c e l l o c o n c e r t o for flute doubling piccolo, oboe, clarinet, bassoon; horns, trumpets, trombone; percussionists (timpani, crotales, suspended cymbal, claves, vibra-slap, temple block, glockenspiel, vibraphone, marimba, tomtoms, bass drum); strings composed May-November 006 in Damariscotta, Maine, and Waldoboro, Maine; New Smyrna Beach, Florida; and Woodland, California; “for David Russell and the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, D. Kern Holoman, conductor” first per formed February 007 in Jackson Hall, Mondavi Center, University of California, Davis, David Russell, cello, UC Davis Symphony Orchestra, D. Kern Holoman, conducting Duration: about 5 minutes 4 n o t e s It seems criminal that it has taken me ten years to write a piece for David Russell, as he is one of the best musicians I have ever known. David plays with such commitment and conviction it seems that he is baring his soul. This commitment, combined with how much his cello playing reflects his personality, is what makes his performances so special. I truly enjoyed writing this piece. The cello writing came as if I were transcribing various “David moments” from my memory bank. The opportunity for David to perform as soloist with the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra was a great inspiration to finally write him a piece. In May 006 I began writing a tuneful and euphoric melody over a regularly pulsating drone, which I thought would become an important theme in the cello concerto. However, this music ended up going into a wedding piece that I transcribed for viola and cello for David Russell’s marriage to violist Tanya Maggi on July . While the seed melody did not make it into the concerto, the regularly pulsating drone did. For the first few minutes of the piece, the audience waits patiently for the soloist to enter while the orchestra very gradually introduces itself, slowly branching out from a regularly pulsating A—the same note that the orchestra uses for tuning. The opening music becomes increasingly lyrical and dramatic. The soloist sneaks in quietly with the lyrical strings, and then takes over, intensifying into a vigorous cadenza-like section that is a duet with the principal cellist. The two players battle for a few minutes before their climactic end and the return of more lyrical, steady and slow orchestra music. The first movement ends with the soloist playing a harmonic glissando that evaporates into the cello’s highest register. The orchestra begins the second movement with a bang that is rhythmically challenging and punchy. The cello enters with a serene passage of harmonics after the gruff and dramatic orchestral introduction. This contrast between the orchestra and soloist gradually evens out, leading to a longer cadenza that references many past moments in the piece. The piece ends gently with the soloist easing down to his lowest register. The orchestra patiently supports the cello with a sustained C-major chord. This concerto was written with the UC Davis Symphony Orchestra players in mind, many of whom have been my students and whom I have heard perform with the orchestra, in chamber music classes and in solo recitals. I found writing for them and for David Russell to be inspiring and an all-around wonderful experience. I’m grateful to D. Kern Holoman and David Russell for granting me this opportunity. —LSM
n o t e s Nine years after the success of his D-minor symphony, Dvorˇák set out to compose his Eighth at his home in Prague. Called the “English” symphony, owing to its publication in London by Novello (initially as “Symphony No. 4”), the Eighth has become a favorite of concertgoers everywhere. The first thematic group of the Allegro con brio opens—not yet con brio—with the rich colors of the lower woodwinds, brass and cellos in G minor, not major. A hint of the cheerier major mode begins with the birdcall of the flute; sighs come from the strings until the timpani and lower brass begin a big orchestral crescendo. After the short climactic moment, strings effect the true establishment of G major across the entire orchestra, its melodic shape reminiscent of the earlier birdcall. The flutes and oboes present the second, more conversational, group of themes, including one of dark, almost sinister hue, and a reprise of the opening. Duets—the flute and violas, then violins and oboes—mark the beginning of the development and are soon interrupted by the darker thematic transformations. This all leads to the recapitulation, now heroic, as the opening theme is dominated by trumpets. The forward lurch in tempo, called a stretto, marks the coda. Dvorˇák builds his second movement on two contrasting ideas, one uncertain, one stable. The opening seems detached at first, as fragmentary brooding ideas coalesce across strings and winds. The second subject occupies the realm of the purest and most stable key of all, C major. Note the elegant scalar cascades that permeate the accompaniment, one of several indications of “outdoor” music. The third movement is a melancholy G-minor waltz, with a G-major trio for winds in gorgeous eight-bar phrases. The coda has the character of a polka. The finale, a sonata-rondo introduced by the bold trumpet fanfare, presents an exposition in four variations of the melody, the first alluding directly in orchestration and manner to the opening of the first movement, and gathering at length into a lavish, frenzied dance for full orchestra. The flute departs in a virtuoso turn, unveiling a rustic march for gypsy-band instruments. With the return of the now-familiar cello textures, the movement begins to dissipate and reminisce, closing then with a final tutti statement, bursting with its sheer joy and happiness. In the long run Dvorˇák had nothing much to add to sonata practice, but his rhapsodic treatments, like this one, are hard to beat. —Fawzi Haimor D v o rˇ á k : s y m p h o n y n o . 8 i n G m a j o r for piccolo, flutes I-II, oboes I- II, clarinets I- , bassoons I-II; horns I-IV, trumpets I-II, I-II, trombones I-III, tuba; timpani; strings composed 6 August-8 November 889 in Prague; offered in 890 “for my installation as a member of the Czech Academy of the Emperor Franz Joseph for Sciences, Literature, and Arts” first performed February 890 by the National Theater Orchestra, Prague, Dvorˇák conducting published by Novello, Ewer & Co. (London, 89 ). Inexpensive score: Antonín Dvorˇák: Symphonies Nos. 8 and 9 in Full Score (New York: Dover, 984) Duration: about 40 minutes 5
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