Dvorak Symphony No. 9, "From the New World" - LIVE with the Aalborg Symphony!

Sticky Notes: The Classical Music Podcast

Joshua Weilerstein

Clarinet, Timpani, Performing, Trombone, Cello, Trumpet, Bassoon, Classicalmusic, Performing Arts, Arts, Violin, Flute, Piano, Conductor, Music, Weilerstein

4.9 • 2.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 November 2023

⏱️ 102 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

I had the great joy to do my first ever live edition of Sticky Notes last month with the Aalborg Symphony in Denmark. For this concert, I chose a piece that is extremely close to my heart, Dvorak's New World Symphony. The story of the New World Symphony is a fascinating one. The symphony was the result of an extraordinary series of events, with Dvorak coming to America in 1892, meeting the great singer Harry Burleigh, and falling in love with a totally new, to him, genre of music: Black American and Native American folk music. Listening to Burleigh and other voices around America, Dvorak had discovered a new “American” sound for his music, and even though he would end up staying in the US for just three years, in that time he composed two of his most popular pieces, the American String Quartet, and the New World Symphony

But of course, the New World Symphony isn’t really an American piece. It is a piece written in America by a Czech composer, which means it embodies traits from both sides of the Atlantic. Moments of Black American influence elide into Czech Slavonic Dances and back again with incredible ease. All along the way, Dvorak infuses his highly traditional symphonic style with this "American" sound, a sound that enraptured the public from the very first time they heard it, and remains both incredibly popular and incredibly moving, today. Join myself and the Aalborg Symphony for this exploration of the symphony, followed by a complete performance. I'm extremely grateful to the Danish Radio for allowing me to use this performance for the show.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello and I. I'm a conductor and I'm the chief
0:14.2	conductor of the Allborg Symphony and the music director of the Phoenix Orchestra
0:18.0	of Boston. This podcast is for anyone who loves classical music, works in the
0:22.4	field, or is just getting ready to dive in to this amazing world of incredible music.
0:27.0	Before we get started, I want to thank my new Patreon sponsors, Stephanie and Susan,
0:32.0	and all of my other Patreon sponsors for making season 9 possible.
0:37.0	If you are a fan of the show, please just take a moment to give us a rating or review on Apple Podcasts.
0:42.0	Every rating or review is greatly appreciated.
0:45.0	As I said last week, this will be the final show of season 9,
0:52.0	and then I will be going on a bit of a hiatus because my wife and
0:54.7	I are expecting our first child very soon. I don't know exactly when I will be back
0:59.0	but the show will be back with a season 10 I'll be doing basically all the repertoire that I can think of that I have not covered yet on the
1:06.7	222 episodes of the show
1:13.0	so far, but I do encourage you during this hiatus to go back into the archive.
1:15.0	I've basically covered 95% of the standard orchestral repertoire.
1:19.0	I've started getting into chamber music, and in season 10, I will be also exploring the solo piano repertoire a lot more than I did in the previous seasons.
1:29.0	Thank you all so much for all of your support for listening to to the show, and especially thank you to my
1:34.5	Patreon sponsors for making all of this possible.
1:38.9	For today, I'm really excited to share this live edition of the Devoirchak New World Symphony with the wonderful
1:46.1	Allborg Symphony of which I'm the chief conductor.
1:49.1	This was the first time we've ever done this live version of the show. It was really exciting and this will also include a
1:56.2	complete performance of the Devoir Jacques New World Symphony. That's why this show is two hours long.
	...

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