Antonin Dvorák (1841-1904)�
Symphony No. 9 in e minor, Op. 95 "From the New World"

Largo
Allegro con fuoco

Czech composer Antonin Dvorák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor (first published as Symphony No. 5), remains one of the most popular symphonies in the concert repertoire.  Completed during the composer's tenure as director of the National Conservatory of Music of America, the piece was premiered by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in Carnegie Hall, December 15, 1893.  After the second movement and again at the conclusion, the audience gave wildly enthusiastic ovations.  The work received a similar reception in subsequent performances in Boston and Vienna.

The meaning of the subtitle 揊rom the New World� and the origin of the themes that Dvo?ák used in the symphony have been a matter of discussion from the beginning. The subtitle, added hastily at the last moment, seems to connote a letter from a homesick ex-patriot telling of his impressions and experiences in a new land, the bustle and excitement of New York (where he composed the piece), the broad expanse of the landscape, the generosity and openness of the people.  An ardent nationalist himself, Dvorák often encouraged his American students to draw on indigenous American music and inspiration from American literature to cultivate a distinctive National music.  He was an enthusiastic student of the spirituals and plantation songs of the African-Americans (one of the students in the conservatory, H. T. Burleigh introduced many of these songs to him). He also was quite taken with the interweaving of the old Native American legends of Longfellow抯 epic poem The Song of Hiawatha.  Rather than quoting American folk melodies in the symphony, the composer said, 揑 merely tried to write in the spirit of those national melodies."  The two middle movements were particularly inspired by Longfellow's poem: the Largo by the funeral of Minnehaha, 揹eep in a snow-bound forest,� and the Scherzo by the dance of Pau-Puk-Keewis at the wedding feast.  All in all, the piece remains a fusion of Dvorák抯 American experience, and who he was: a homesick Czech composer.

The two movements heard on tonight抯 concert are tied together by the relationships of themes. Following solemn chords on the winds, the English horn, accompanied by muted strings introduces the lovely largo theme (given the rather appropriate text 揋oing Home� by a later writer).  The finale begins with an assertive march theme.  Listen for the reappearance of the largo theme, first on flutes and clarinets, then stated with various instrumentations, rhythms, and also in minor.  The solemn chords of the largo抯 introduction take a final bow in the coda of this remarkable fusion of musical themes and emotions.