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Antonín Dvorak: Carnival Overture, Op. 92 9 min

Bohuslav Martinu: Piano Concerto No. 3 25 min I Allegro II Andante poco moderato III Moderato – Allegro

INTERVAL20min

Antonín Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 40 min “From the New World” I Adagio – Allegro molto II Largo III Scherzo (Molto vivace) IV Allegro con fuoco

Interval at about 7.55 pm. The concert ends at about 9 pm. Broadcast live on YLE Radio 1 and the Internet (www.yle.fi/rso).

Ludovic Morlot, conductor Olli Mustonen, piano

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Antonín Dvorak (1841–1904): Carnival Overture, Op. 92 (1892)

Dvořak’s career as a composer was slow to take off, for he made a living from playing the viola until he was over 30. By the age of 40 he was al-ready familiar to musical audiences, and by the early 1890s, when he was then in his fifties, he had become famous the world over. Music by him was played all over Europe and America, and his honorary doctorates from Cambridge, Prague and other universities obliged him to note their degree ceremonies and other festive occasions by both attending them and compos-ing music for them.

In 1891 Dvořak composed several festive overtures. His original idea was, in keeping with his down-to-earth nature, almost naïve: to express in music the basic issues in human life. The “semi-programmatic” set of three over-tures bore the arrestingly simple title Nature, Life and Love. The first, echoing evening and nocturnal moods, he called In Nature’s Realm, and this he dedicated to the University of Cam-bridge. The second, describing life, he called the Carnival Overture and the address on this was the University of Prague. The third is about love

– and the less fortunate variety. The title, Oth-ello, more or less says it all. This overture had no dedicatee.

The Carnival Overture was to be the most popular of the three, and it has been performed more on its own than with the others. Though understandable, this is a pity, because it means some of the original idea is lost. Dvořak tied the overtures together with a theme that calls to mind the Morning Mood in Grieg’s Peer Gynt but that also evokes associations with the pen-tatonic folk music of Dvořak ‘s native Bohemia.

The Carnival begins with a flourish. The lusty, headlong rhythms of the Czech furiant dance dominate the beginning and end, but in be-tween the piece touches on the pantheistic mood that was the theme of the In Nature’s Realm overture. The last pages of the score are an inventive contribution to the stock of trium-phant, symphonic build-ups, though not with-out a hint of mockery: Dvořak seems to cock a snook at the stiff formality of the universi-ty ceremonies and to suggest a party instead!

Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959): Piano Concerto No. 3 (1948)

Martinů’s instrument was the violin, but he al-so composed virtuosic concertos for the piano. Born in the little town of Polička in East Bohe-mia, he got by as a string player as a young man while busily composing but felt a constant yen to cast his net further afield. In time this drove him to Paris, where he was to spend 17 years. The war then forced him to flee the Nazis. With virtually no money, he wandered round South-ern France, Spain and Portugal before being able to board a ship bound for America. For a good ten years he lived in New York, establish-ing connections with, among others, the Bos-ton Symphony. In the end he returned to Eu-rope and finally settled in Switzerland.

Martinů drew ideas from many sources. His early music was described as impressionistic in tone. This in time made way for a new way of thinking looking further back into the past, but a greater clean sweep was to come: his head was filled with echoes of the jazz winging its way from America across to Paris. In the 1930s he developed an interest in pre-classical music. His move to the United States did not lead to a rediscovery of jazz; instead, he composed mu-sic serious in mood catalysed by the war. His biggest single influence was Czech folk music.

The Piano Concerto No. 3 was premiered in Dallas and the soloist was a fellow Bohemi-an, Rudolf Firkušný. The first two of the three

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movements open in weighty, dramatic vein. The mood switches between passionate and melan-choly. The solo writing is cleverly fashioned; it has a strong romantic streak in the manner of Liszt or Rachmaninov, but it also affords glimpses of a classical approach in the spirit of Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Ravel – and jazzy

strains reminiscent of Gershwin. The presence of Gershwin is felt more strongly in the last movement, which, after a leisurely introduc-tion, takes off fresh and relaxed The Bohemian element begins to dominate, weaving romantic, virtuosic patterns in the final bars.

Antonín Dvorak: Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 “From the New World” (1893)

“From the New World” has long been a top favour-ite with audiences. And it is indeed a captivat-ing symphony of beautiful melodies. In 1892 Dvořak had only been teaching composition at the Prague Conservatory for a year when he re-ceived an invitation to accept the post of di-rector of the New York National Conservato-ry of Music. The ultimate aim was to get music in the United States organised along European lines – an idea typical of American cultural pol-icy at the time. The nation was becoming more affluent and could afford to allocate resources to raising the standard of culture. It lacked the people competent to do this and looked to Eu-rope for recruits. Dvořak was persuaded to ac-cept the invitation, though he was aware that the expectations were unrealistic even before his ship docked in New York. The time he spent in America was, however, a success. The facili-ties were good and he enjoyed being in the New World. But his roots lay deep in the Czech soil, and in three years homesickness got the better of him and he returned to Bohemia.

Dvořak wrote many of his greatest works in America. One of them was the sympho-ny “From the New World”. It was premiered in New York in December 1893 and got excellent

reviews. Since he himself had titled it “From the New World”, people felt authorised to say it used native American materials. Dvořak’s in-tention was, however, merely to indicate where the symphony had been composed. In his en-thusiasm for folk music he was unusual in that he understood folklore as being basically an in-ternational phenomenon, and he preferably picked out features common to various cul-tures. The “American” themes could just as well be “Bohemian”. Dvořak had long been fascinat-ed by indigenous American culture: he had read Longfellow’s The Song of Hiawatha and decided to set it to music. Maybe the E minor sympho-ny is an attempt to do just this? He is known to have thought Hiawatha to be a description of an Indian burial when he was composing the main theme of the slow movement.

“From the New World” is such a cavalcade of evergreen hits that it is not always recognised as a fine fruit of the European symphonic tra-dition. Listeners should therefore note not on-ly the themes but also the way Dvořak develops them. The drama is flamboyant and sustained.

Jouni Kaipainen (abridged)

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Ludovic Morlot

French musician Ludovic Morlot is fast estab-lishing a reputation as one of the leading con-ductors of his generation. Trained as a violin-ist, he studied conducting at the Royal Acade-my of Music and the Royal College of Music in London. He is Music Director Designate of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra and will assume the full role of Music Director from Septem-ber 2011, for an initial period of six years. Also in demand elsewhere in North America, he last season conducted the Chicago and Boston Sym-phony Orchestras and made his debut with the Cincinnati and Atlanta Symphony Orchestras.

Last season he also made his debut with the Oslo Philharmonic, the Danish National Ra-dio Orchestra and the Tokyo Philharmonic and toured Germany with the London Philharmon-ic Orchestra and Anne-Sophie Mutter. He al-so conducted the Ensemble intercontemporain, with which he has a regular relationship. Major recent engagements have included appearanc-es with the New York Philharmonic, the Cleve-land Orchestra, the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Tonhalle and the Stockholm and Seoul Phil-harmonic Orchestras. Ludovic Morlot has also collaborated with many distinguished soloists.

Olli Mustonen

In the course of an international career span-ning two decades or so, Olli Mustonen has ap-peared with many of the world’s great orches-tras and most celebrated conductors. He has al-so given solo recitals in the major music me-tropolises – London, Vienna, Paris, Tokyo, Ber-lin – but also in little towns in his native Fin-land, where he has further performed solo rep-ertoire with Finnish orchestras. His name fea-tures regularly as the conductor of the main Finnish orchestras and increasingly abroad. He is the founder and Artistic Director of the

Helsinki Festival Orchestra and was conduc-tor of the Tapiola Sinfonietta 2003–09. Also a composer, Mustonen has, in recent years, had works premiered in various parts of Europe at the rate of a couple a year, and he has a contract with the illustrious German publisher Schott. His discography is both extensive and out-standing and records by him have won many in-ternational awards. Olli Mustonen has a long-term recording contract with Ondine both as a pianist and a conductor, and Ondine has re-leased discs of many of his compositions.

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra (FRSO), the orchestra of the Finnish Broadcasting Com-pany (YLE), celebrated its 80th anniversary in autumn 2007. Its Chief Conductor is Sakari Oramo, who assumed the post in 2003 after nine years as its conductor.

The Radio Orchestra of ten players founded in 1927 grew to a full-size symphony orchestra in the 1960s. Its chief conductors have been Toivo Haapanen, Nils-Eric Fougstedt, Paavo Berglund, Okko Kamu, Leif Segerstam and Juk-ka-Pekka Saraste.

Contemporary music is a major item in the repertoire of the FRSO, which each year pre-mieres a number of YLE commissions. All in all the FRSO has so far premiered more than 500 works. Its programme for the 2010/11 season features six world and many Finnish premieres.

The FRSO recordings now number over 100, on the Ondine and other labels. One historic gem is the Andante festivo conducted by the composer, Jean Sibelius, at the Helsinki Con-servatory (now the Sibelius Academy) Hall. This recording is the only known document of Sibe-lius in the role of conductor.

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With Sakari Oramo the FRSO has record-ed music by Bartók, Hakola, Lindberg, Kaipai-nen, Kokkonen and others, and the debut disc of the opera Aslak Hetta by Armas Launis. Its discs have won many prestigious distinctions, such as Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine awards. Its most recent honour, a MIDEM Clas-sical Award, was for the recording of the Lind-berg and Sibelius Violin Concertos with Lisa Ba-tiashvili as the soloist in 2008. Another record-ing of Lindberg’s orchestral pieces was select-ed as the record of the year 2008 by the New York Times.

The FRSO has been on major tours all over the world and given more than 300 concerts abroad. It has visited Japan four times. During the 2010/11 season it will be visiting Edinburg, Frankfurt, Zurich and Dortmund.

All the FRSO concerts, both in Finland and abroad, can be heard on the FRSO’s home chan-nel, YLE Radio 1. They are usually broadcasted live and can also be heard worldwide via the In-ternet (yle.fi/rso).