Symphony No. 9 in E minor, “From the New World,” Opus 95

By Antonín Dvořák

BORN : September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves, Bohemia (the present-day Czech Republic)

DIED: May 1, 1904, in Prague

Ω COMPOSED : 1893

Ω WORLD PREMIERE: December 16, 1893, at Carnegie Hall with the New York Philharmonic conducted by Anton Seidl. A free concert for the public was held the day before.

Ω CLEVELAND ORCHESTRA PREMIERE: March 30, 1920, at the Rialto Theatre in Elyria, Ohio, led by Nikolai Sokoloff

Ω ORCHESTRATION: 2 flutes (2nd doubling piccolo), 2 oboes, english horn, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion (triangle, cymbals), and strings

Ω DURATION: about 40 minutes

THE COMPOSER Hugo Wolf voiced a common European prejudice of more than a century ago when he described America as the “land where no nightingales sing.” To an eminent Austrian composer of the later 19th century, emigration to the States, or even a visit, was widely considered the last resort of the unsuccessful. Nevertheless Antonín Dvořák, like Giacomo Puccini and Gustav Mahler after him, only briefly resisted an invitation to take up a position in Manhattan.

Dvořák was appointed head of the soon-to-open National Conservatory of Music, arriving in September 1892. He was handsomely paid by his patron,

Jeannette Thurber, and despite his strong attachment to his homeland and a distaste for travel, he overcame many bouts of anxiety and made the journey, bringing along his wife and several of their children.

He expressed an interest in both themes from Black and Indigenous music, and within a few months he had begun a new symphony, his ninth, making use of the nontonal and pentatonic scales that give the “New World” Symphony such striking color. He likely read an article titled “Negro Music,” which appeared in the Chicago journal Music in December 1892. (Its author, who hid behind a pseudonym, was probably Mildred Hill, a composer and teacher from Kentucky who had studied African American music and later wrote the melody for “Happy Birthday to You.”) The themes quoted in the article included “Swing Low, Sweet Chariot,” whose resemblance to one of the first movement’s themes in Dvořák’s symphony has long been remarked upon.

Dvořák was also reading Longfellow and thinking about a Hiawatha opera, which was never written. Nonetheless, there is some evidence that Hiawatha’s adventures, transformed from an operatic mold to a symphonic setting, lie behind the central two movements of the symphony, in rhythms and in the atmosphere of the music.

Over and above all this concern for local American inspiration, Dvořák felt the constant tug of his homeland and a natural predilection for Bohemian musical shapes and rhythms. Perhaps to put a check on all this exotic inspiration, Dvořák employed the latest “glues” from the German music industry to bind his work into a single entity. The anticipation and recall of melodies from one movement to another in thoroughgoing cyclic fashion, for instance, is a self-conscious imposition of European methods that he previously had not employed so prominently. But, whatever the formula, it worked. And the symphony has remained one of the best-loved works in the concert repertory for over a hundred years. Unlike Beethoven, Dvořák never contemplated a 10th symphony and instead turned his attention to opera after this work.

A dramatic introduction to the first movement throws out various musical fragments. One of these, played by the horns, will become the theme of the movement’s main Allegro section. The movement’s second theme also arrives after anticipatory hints, and its curious sonority (flute and oboe in unison) and its modal flavor are quickly modified to suit the demands of the full orchestra. The famous tune for solo flute, low in its register, is given first to the principal player and then on its return to the second flute, as if to distribute these beautiful gems fairly between the players.

The glorious chords at the beginning and end of the slow second movement employ the tuba for the only time in the whole work. The unforgettable melody on the english horn is often thought to represent the love between Hiawatha and Minnehaha, whose journeys may be portrayed in the quicker sections that follow. There are clear sounds of birdsong. The melodies are beautifully contrasted, and, at the climax, the trombones remind us of the first movement’s main theme. The last chord is entrusted to the double basses divided into four parts.

The third movement, created as a Scherzo, may have originated in the music conceived for Hiawatha’s wedding feast, with its lively dance and lopsided rhythms. The triangle plays a leading role. A relaxed pentatonic melody in the major key provides the first contrasting episode, and a lilting Schubertian theme provides a second. The movement’s coda section contains the essential reminder of the first movement’s horns, while the fourth-movement finale is full of such memories, with additional fragments of all three previous movements called back at one time or another. Whatever their purpose or effect, it is Dvořák’s energy and his ear sharply tuned to unusual captivating melodic shapes that claim our admiration and give the symphony its unique character.

Dvořák’s enthusiasm for the New World’s local music was regarded with great suspicion by the musical establishment in New York and Boston, who felt that music had to be German, or at least European, to be worthy of the name. The new symphony sparked a lively debate, which was still alive 30 years later when Aaron Copland argued that American music needed to find its own identity. But surely the “Gaelic” Symphony that Amy Beach composed in 1896 in undisguised imitation of Dvořák’s work, even to using the same key of E minor, is as American as apple pie. More than three decades later, Florence Price would also set her First Symphony in E minor in a nod to this legacy. Nationality is in the ears and eyes, and hearts and minds, of the beholder.

— Hugh Macdonald

PHOTO BY ROGER MASTROIANNI

Franz Welser-Möst Music Director

FRANZ WELSER-MÖST is among today’s most distinguished conductors. The 2022–23 season marks his 21st year as Music Director of The Cleveland Orchestra. With the future of their acclaimed partnership extended to 2027, he will be the longest-serving musical leader in the ensemble’s history. The New York Times has declared Cleveland under Mr. Welser-Möst’s direction to be “America’s most brilliant orchestra,” praising its virtuosity, elegance of sound, variety of color, and chamber-like musical cohesion.

With Mr. Welser-Möst, The Cleveland Orchestra has been praised for its inventive programming, ongoing support of new music, and innovative work in presenting operas. To date, the Orchestra and Mr. Welser-Möst have been showcased around the world in 20 international tours together. In 2020, the ensemble launched its own recording label and new streaming broadcast platform to share its artistry globally.

In addition to his commitment to Cleveland, Mr. Welser-Möst enjoys a particularly close and productive relationship with the Vienna Philharmonic as a guest conductor. He has conducted its celebrated New Year’s Concert three times, and regularly leads the orchestra at home in Vienna, as well as on tours.

Mr. Welser-Möst is also a regular guest at the Salzburg Festival where he has led a series of acclaimed opera productions, including Rusalka, Der Rosenkavalier, Fidelio, Die Liebe der Danae, Aribert Reimann’s opera Lear, and Richard Strauss’s Salome. In 2020, he conducted Strauss’s Elektra on the 100th anniversary of its premiere. He has since returned to Salzburg to conduct additional performances of Elektra in 2021 and Giacomo Puccini’s Il Trittico in 2022.

In 2019, Mr. Welser-Möst was awarded the Gold Medal in the Arts by the Kennedy Center International Committee on the Arts. Other honors include The Cleveland Orchestra’s Distinguished Service Award, two Cleveland Arts Prize citations, the Vienna Philharmonic’s “Ring of Honor,” recognition from the Western Law Center for Disability Rights, honorary membership in the Vienna Singverein, appointment as an Academician of the European Academy of Yuste, and the Kilenyi Medal from the Bruckner Society of America.

Michael Sachs Principal Trumpet

robert and eunice podis weiskopf

chair

MICHAEL SACHS JOINED The Cleveland Orchestra as principal trumpet in 1988. Currently celebrating his 35th season, he is the longest-serving principal trumpet in the Orchestra’s history. During his tenure, he has appeared as a soloist with the Orchestra on 24 different works, including the world premieres of John Williams’s Concerto for Trumpet and Michael Hersch’s Night Pieces for Trumpet and Orchestra (both commissioned by The Cleveland Orchestra for Mr. Sachs), the US and New York premieres of Hans Werner Henze’s Requiem, and the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s Chute d’Étoiles at the 2012 Lucerne Festival. Most recently, he performed Hummel’s Trumpet Concerto in E major with the Orchestra in November 2019. His recital of music for trumpet and organ (with organist Todd Wilson) was recorded and released in 2005 by the Musical Arts Association on the album Live from Severance Hall.

Since 2015, Mr. Sachs has served as Music Director of the Strings Music Festival in Steamboat Springs, Colorado. As a co-founder and lead artistic administrator of the National Brass Ensemble, Mr. Sachs performed on the National Brass Ensemble’s 2014 Gabrieli recording project and subsequent concert in Chicago’s Orchestra Hall, in addition to the 2022 NBE academy, concert, and recording project, Deified, scheduled for release later this year.

Mr. Sachs is head of Cleveland Institute of Music’s trumpet department and regularly presents masterclasses and workshops throughout the US, Europe, and Asia. He is the author of 10 books, including Daily Fundamentals for the Trumpet, 14 Duets for Trumpet and Trombone (with Joseph Alessi), The Orchestral Trumpet, Practice Sequences for The Orchestral Trumpet, as well as newly updated versions of Ernst Sachse’s 100 Transposition Etudes for Trumpet and Wilhelm Wurm’s 120 Etudes for Trumpet.

Michael Sachs was previously a member of the Houston Symphony and a faculty member at Rice University’s Shepherd School of Music. Originally from Santa Monica, California, he attended UCLA, receiving a BA in History before continuing his studies at The Juilliard School.