Dvořák / ČajkovskijDvořák / Tchaikovsky

The German cellist Jan Vogler often connects music and literature in his concerts. His repertoire includes a thorough study of Dvořák's works for cello, and he recorded chamber works on CD in 2022 with young musicians from the Moritzburg Festival. He recorded the Cello Concerto in B minor with the New York Philharmonic back in 2005, and the CD arrangement also includes Gypsy Melodies, Op. 55 and American Songs. These refer to the context of the composition of this extremely popular work by Antonín Dvořák, which he composed in his last year in the USA. The choice of the cello as a solo instrument surprised Dvořák’s friends, as the composer was of the opinion that the cello “hums above and strums below”. Dvořák probably gained a new insight into the instrument’s sonic ambitions after the premiere of a concerto by his fellow cellist and composer Victor Herbert. He was so intrigued by the work’s instrumentation that he borrowed the score and, six months later, set to work writing it himself, and so a legendary work was born.

In his notes to the introduction of Symphony No. 5, Op. 64, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrote: “A complete resignation before fate, before the inscrutable guidance of Providence.” Although still one of his most iconic and most played works, Tchaikovsky was not satisfied with it. In a letter to his patron Nadezhda von Meck, he wrote: “I have already performed my symphony in St. Petersburg and in Prague, but I have come to the conclusion that it is a mistake.” Time has not proved him wrong; the symphony is an example of the fusion of the European tradition of symphonic music with Russian national music, and to this day it still defends its place on the concert stage.