Dvorak's Seventh

Synopsis

At London’s St. James’s Hall on today’s date in 1885, Czech composer Antonín Dvořák conducted the London Philharmonic Society’s orchestra in the premiere of his Symphony No. 7, a work they had commissioned.

The Society had also commissioned Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 decades earlier, a fact of which Dvořák was quite aware, and just before starting work he heard and was bowled over by the brand-new Symphony No. 3 by his friend and mentor Johannes Brahms. In other words, “No pressure!”

Dvořák felt he must do his very best, and, judging by the warm reception at its London premiere, the new work was a success, with one reviewer calling it “one of the greatest works of its class produced in the present generation.”

But not all reviews were glowing. Another wrote, “the entire work is painted grey on grey: it lacks sweetness of melody and lightness of style.” And his German publisher complained big symphonies were not profitable and advised he write only shorter piano pieces that had a ready market.

But subsequent performances helped establish the new symphony as the masterwork it is, and although not as often-played as his New World Symphony, today Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 ranks among his finest creations.

Music Played in Today's Program

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904): Scherzo (Movement No. 3); from Symphony No. 7; Berlin Philharmonic; Rafael Kubelik, conductor; DG 463158-2

On This Day

Births

• 1658 - Italian composer and violinist Giuseppe Torelli, in Verona

• 1858 - British composer and women's rights advocate Dame Ethel Smyth, in Rectory

• 1922 - American composer and jazz bassist Charles Mingus, in Nogales, Arizona

• 1932 - American composer Michael Colgrass, in Chicago

Deaths

• 1892 - French composer Edouard Lalo, 69, in Paris

• 1925 - French composer André Caplet, 46, in Paris

• 2001 - American composer, pianist and author Robert Starer, 77, in Woodstock, New York

Premieres

• 1749 - Rameau: opera-ballet Naïs, in Paris

• 1885 - Dvořák: Symphony No. 7, in London, with the Royal Philharmonic conducted by the composer

• 1904 - Chadwick: Euterpe overture, by the Boston Symphony with the composer conducting

• 1912 - Dukas: ballet La Péri, in Paris

• 1927 - Roger Sessions: Symphony No. 1, by the Boston Symphony with Serge Koussevitzky conducting

• 1938 - Leo Sowerby: Organ Concerto, by the Boston Symphony, Serge Koussevitzky conducting

• 1939 - Menotti: opera The Old Man and the Thief, in New York City as a NBC radio broadcast; The first staged performance took place in Philadelphia on February 11, 1941

• 1944 - Harry Partch: Eight Hitchhiker Inscriptions from a Highway Railing, at the chamber concert room at Carnegie Hall

• 1961 - Ginastera: Piano Concerto No. 1, in Washington, D.C.

• 1969 - Peter Maxwell Davies: Eight Songs for a Mad King, in London

• 1975 - Andrew Lloyd-Webber: musical Jeeves (book and lyrics by Alan Ayckbourn), in London. A revised version of this musical, By Jeeves, opened in London on July 2, 1996.

• 1999 - Harbison: Four Psalms, by vocal soloists Lisa Affer, Lorraine Hunt, Frank Kelley, and James Maddalena, with the Chicago Symphony and Chorus, Christoph Eschenbach conducting

Others

• 1723 - J.S. Bach is elected cantor at St. Thomas Church in Leipzig

• 1853 - First documented American performance of Beethoven’s Leonore Overture No. 2, at Niblo’s Rooms in New York City, by the New York Philharmonic, Theodore Eisfeld conducting

• 1869 - First documented American performance of Beethoven’s King Stephen Overture, at the Academy of Music in New York, by the Theodore Thomas Orchestra

• 1876 - American premiere of Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture, by the New York Philharmonic, George Matzka conducting

• 1921 - In Paris, the first of the Koussevitzky Concerts organized and conducted by the wealthy Russian emigree conductor and music patron, Serge Koussevitzky

• 2001 - Philharmonic Hungarica gives its final concert in Düsseldorf. The orchestra was founded by Hungarian musicians who fled to West Germany after the Soviet invasion of Hungary in 1956. For London/Decca Records the Philharmonic Hungarica made the first complete set of all of Haydn’s symphonies under the baton of its honorary president, the Hungarian-American conductor Antal Dorati.