Tag: Rudolf Firkusny

Each summer, the Marlboro Music School and Festival becomes a destination for chamber music performers and enthusiasts. But periodically, throughout the year, Marlboro also takes it show on the road.

The next Marlboro tour will take place from March 17-24, with stops in Greenwich, CT, New York City (at Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall), Philadelphia (at the Kimmel Center for the Performing Arts’ Perleman Theater), Washington, DC, and Boston.

Capping a program of music by Franz Joseph Haydn, Henry Purcell, and Benjamin Britten will be Antonin Dvořák’s String Quintet in A major, Op. 48. On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” I’ll offer a preview of this attractive work, in the context of an all-Czech hour.

Dvořák’s sextet was composed largely in May of 1878, making it contemporaneous with the “Slavonic Dances,” Op. 46. It’s hardly surprising, then, that the work betrays a similarly nationalist character. The sextet’s two inner movements, in fact, bear overtly Czech names: dumka and furiant.

In music, dumka (literally, “thought”) signifies a kind of melancholy introspection. A furiant is a rapid and fiery Czech dance.

The sextet holds an important place in Dvořák’s development. Thanks to a government subsidy, Dvořák was able to concentrate solely on composition, and he was determined to confirm his worth. The sextet proved to be the first of Dvořák’s works to receive its premiere outside of Bohemia. It was given its first public performance in Berlin, headed up by the famed violinist Joseph Joachim.

We’ll hear it performed at the Marlboro Music Festival in 2017 by violinists Stephen Tavani and Scott St. John, violists Rosalind Ventris and Rebecca Albers, and cellists Alice Yoo and Judith Serkin. Serkin, the daughter of Marlboro co-founder Rudolf Serkin, will also appear on the Marlboro tour.

By way of introduction, we’ll have a hell of bonus in the form of Leoš Janáček’s “Concertino,” a chamber concerto of sorts, composed in 1925. Amusingly, the composer added descriptive notes to the program of the piece, comparing the theme of the first movement to a “grumpy hedgehog,” the clarinet in the second movement to a “fidgety squirrel,” the atmosphere of the third movement to “a night owl and other night animals,” and the character of the fourth movement to a “scene from a fairy tale, where everybody is arguing.” It’s worth noting, perhaps, that Janáček had written his opera “The Cunning Little Vixen” between 1921 and 1923.

We’ll hear a 1982 performance of the “Concertino,” with violinists Elena Barere and Mei-Chen Liao, violinist Steven Tenenbom, clarinetists Cheryl Hill (E-flat) and Steven Jackson (B-flat), bassoonist Stefanie Przybylska, and hornist Robin Graham.

The pianist is none other than Rudolf Firkušný. Firkušný, born in Moravia in 1912, was a living link to the composer. He also studied with Josef Suk, the pupil and son-in-law of Dvořák, and with Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. That’s quite a pedigree!

You’re not going to want to miss this one. Czech it out, on the next “Music from Marlboro,” this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EDT, on WWFM – The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

To learn more about the Marlboro Music School and Festival – its history, its tours, and its summer concerts – visit marlboromusic.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

PHOTOS (clockwise from left): Dvořák, Janáček, Firkušný, hedgehog

Czech, please!

On this week’s “Music from Marlboro,” it’s an all-Czech affair.

Legendary pianist Rudolf Firkušný, born in Moravia in 1912, was a living link to composers Leoš Janáček and Josef Suk (the pupil and son-in-law of Antonin Dvořák). Firkušný studied with both and with pianists Alfred Cortot and Artur Schnabel. What a pedigree!

Despite a very long and remarkable career, Firkušný was likely recognized by more Americans because of an unlikely venture – selling Nike sneakers alongside David Robinson of the San Antonio Spurs:

Firkušný was 78 years-old at the time of his television “15 minutes-of-fame” in 1990. He was about to make his triumphant return to Czechoslovakia, which he had fled ahead of the Nazi occupation in 1939 and then shunned during Communist rule. Firkušný had not performed in his homeland since 1946. He has been described by author, radio personality, and noted pedagogue David Dubal as “the preeminent Czech pianist of the 20th century.”

We’ll hear Firkušný at the 1982 Marlboro Music Festival, performing Janáček’s “Concertino,” a chamber concerto of sorts, written in 1925. He’ll be joined by violinists Elena Barere and Mei-Chen Liao, violist Steven Tenenbom, clarinetists Cheryl Hill (E-flat) and Steven Jackson (B-flat), bassoonist Stefanie Przybylska, and hornist Robin Graham.

Then we’ll turn to Dvořák’s String Quintet No. 2 in G major, Op. 77. Dvořák’s quintet is unusual in several regards. First, rather than doubling the violas or cellos, as you’ll find in most quintets for strings, Dvořák adds a double bass. Second, the piece originally included five movements, two of them slow. The composer second-guessed its length and removed one of them, which he later reworked as his “Nocturne for Strings” in B major.

Dvořák dedicated the quintet, a competition winner, “To my Nation.” It was originally composed in 1875, then slightly revised and published in 1888.

We’ll hear it performed at the 1985 Marlboro Music Festival by violinists Isidore Cohen and Ralph de Souza, violist Benjamin Simon, cellist Astrid Schween, and double bassist Peter Lloyd.

That’s music by Janáček and Dvořák on this week’s “Music from Marlboro.” Czech it out, this Wednesday evening at 6:00 EST, on WWFM The Classical Network and wwfm.org.

Marlboro School of Music and Festival: Official Page

Firkušný knows… Nike and Janáček