A high-spirited, eclectic visit to Dvorak’s Prague

Jan 17, 2010

Author: Travis Rivers

Position: Correspondent

Source: Spokesman Review

The Spokane Symphony took its sizable Casual Classics audience at the Martin Woldson Theater at The Fox on a whirlwind musical tour of 18th- and 19th-century Prague.

Morihiko Nakahara opened Friday’s concert with a scurrying, energetic performance of the Overture to Mozart’s “The Marriage of Figaro,” an opera the composer conducted in Prague to huge success. The busyness of this overture made every listener understand the subtitle of this opera: “La Folle Journeé (The Crazy Day).” Crazy, but delightfully crazy.

Nakahara and the orchestra gave a high-spirited account of Mozart’s little masterpiece.

The remainder of the concert was devoted to two Bohemian composers who lived in Prague, now the capital of the Czech Republic. One is well known to symphony audiences everywhere: Antonín Dvorák. The other, Josef Suk, is scarcely known outside places where Czech is spoken.

The two major works Friday were patterned after Mozart’s serenades for winds and for string. Nakahara selected Dvorák’s Serenade for Winds, Op. 44, and Suk’s Serenade for Strings, Op. 6. Bohemian folk song and dance are the roots of both these pieces, and Nakahara made both of them sing and dance.

There were a few rough moments in the fast March that opens Dvorák’s Wind Serenade. But the high spirits of the Furiant that interrupts the stately Minuetto second movement and the beautifully lyric interplay of Chip Phillips and Keith Thomas’ clarinet and oboe duet in the Andante dispelled any uneasiness.

Those who know Suk’s name usually think of the composer’s grandson, an outstanding violinist. Suk the composer was Dvorák’s student and later his son-in-law. Nakahara, in his spoken program notes, told Friday’s audience that Dvorák warned his student “not to compose gloomy music all the time – write something more cheerful.”

Suk responded with his Serenade for Strings, Op. 6, an obvious knockoff of Dvorák’s own Serenade for Strings, Op. 22. The result proved no mere imitation, but a wonderfully refreshing piece combining his teacher’s love of folk song and dance and the sounds of nature. But young Suk, still a teenager, had some surprises in store – some quirky turns of phrase and some little harmonic jolts. The funniest music comes during the out-of-step waltz in the second movement to which the violins respond with a jittery giggle.

No wonder Dvorák’s daughter Otile fell in love with Suk after hearing the premiere of this serenade. Bravo to Nakahara for introducing Spokane to Suk’s music.

Players from the first stand of the symphony’s cello section each performed solos Friday. Helen Byrne, the assistant principal and cellist in the Spokane String Quartet, brought just the right rhythmic bounce to Dvroák’s Rondo in G minor, a farewell gift to the composer’s trio partner, cellist Hanus Wihan, as Dvorák prepared to leave for America. The warmth of Byrne’s playing gave a touch of bittersweet to this parting gift that made it more than a technically challenging showpiece – although it was that, too.

John Marshall, who has been the symphony’s principal cellist for 16 years, brought a slightly leaner but a sweetly beautiful lyric tone to Dvorák’s “Silent Woods.” The song’s Czech title, “Klid,” means “rest” or “calm,” and Marshall found its songful roots. Marshall’s intensity and depth made the work seem like the slow movement of a cello concerto. Sure enough, just two years after “Silent Woods,” Dvorák composed his famous Cello Concerto, a work he also dedicated to Wihan.

Nakahara’s musical visit to Prague was yet another demonstration of this conductor’s inventive programming and the skill and energy he brings to the works he programs.

This concert will be broadcast Monday at 7 p.m. on Spokane Public Radio, KPBX 91.1 FM.