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and Opus 3 Artists present

PKF - Prague Philharmonia Emmanuel Villaume, Music Director Sarah Chang, Violin

Vltava (The Moldau), Symphonic Poem No. 2, from Má vlast (My Fatherland)......................................... BEDŘICH SMETANA (1824-1884) Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 53, B. 96................. ............................................................... ANTONIN DVOŘÁK (1841-1904) Sarah Chang, violin I. Allegro; ma non troppo II. Adagio; ma non troppo III. Finale: Allegro giocoso; ma non troppo - INTERMISSION Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B. 163..............................DVOŘÁK I. Allegro con brio II. Adagio III. Allegretto graziso IV. Allegro ma non troppo

Thursday, January 26, 2017 at 8:00 p.m. The PKF - Prague Philharmonia (www.pkf.cz) would like to thank the following individuals for their contributions towards the US tour: Tour Founders: Christel DeHaan, Cynthia Fisher, Holly and Tom Mayer Friends of the PKF: Terry Adamson, Arlene And John Dayton, Antony and Katherine Francis, Peter Frank, Gisele Galaxie and Andy Chulak, Joy and Ron Mankoff - Mankoff Family Foundation, Alan and Sandra Silvestri, Mabelle Sonnereich, Joanna and T. Peter Townsend The PKF - Prague Philharmonia is subsidized by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic and the City of Prague US Tour Management: Opus 3 Artists | 470 Park Avenue South, 9th Floor North, New York, NY 10016 | www. opus3artists.com The photographing or sound recording of this concert or possession of any device for such photographing or sound recording is prohibited. Please silence all cell phones and paging devices, and please refrain from text messaging during the performance.

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Program Notes Vltava (The Moldau), Symphonic Poem No. 2, from Má vlast (My Fatherland) BEDŘICH SMETANA Born March 2, 1824, in Litomysl, the Czech Republic; died May 12, 1884, in Prague Smetana’s music, championing nationalism, described the Czech countryside and preserved Czech songs and dances. Smetana held a leading role in Prague’s musical life, serving as principal conductor at the National Theater and creating a place in the opera house and concert hall for music that expressed the character of the Czech people. In 1872 he contemplated composing a series of symphonic poems describing several aspects of Bohemia and its people; he composed four of them in 18741875, adding two more later. The most popular of the symphonic tone poems is Vltava, the Czech name of the great river that runs through the rural Czech countryside and Prague; Moldau, the German name, has become the preferred title of the work, probably because Smetana was a German-speaking Czech. His walks along the river’s shores inspired him to use the river as his subject. The best account of what Smetana sought to describe in this music depicting the sites along the river is the composer’s own, appended to the score as a preface: Two springs pour forth in the shade of the Bohemian Forest, one warm and gushing, the other cold and peaceful. Their waves, gaily flowing over rocky beds, join and glisten in the rays of the morning sun. The forest brook, hastening on, becomes the river Vltava (Moldau). Coursing through Bohemia’s valleys, it grows into a mighty stream. Through thick woods it flows, as the gay sounds of the hunt and the notes of the hunter’s horn are heard ever nearer. It flows through grass-grown pastures and lowlands where a wedding feast is being celebrated with song and dance. At night, wood and water nymphs revel in its sparkling waves. Reflected on its surface are fortresses and castles–witness of bygone days of knightly splendor and the vanished glory of fighting times. At the St. John Rapids the stream races ahead, winding through the cataracts, hewing out a path with its foaming waves through the rocky chasm into the broad river bed– finally, flowing on in majestic peace toward Prague and welcomed by time-honored Vysehrad [an ancient castle south of the city that is the subject of the first symphonic poem in the series.]. Then it vanishes far beyond the poet’s gaze. He gave the work a kind of rondo structure, dividing it into eight continuous 2

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sections. The melodic freshness, the work’s harmonic shape, and the interaction of contrasting tempos provide a delightful musical experience. Flutes, soon joined by clarinets, begin the work, representing the two sources of the river, before the strings play the well-known main theme, a calm and proud representation of the river. Musicological research supports the theory that Smetana appropriated a Swedish folk song, Ack Värmeland, du sköna, for the theme. The melodic freshness, the work’s harmonic shape, and the interaction of contrasting tempos make for a delightful musical experience. The calm and proud subject, the representation of the river, has a folk-like character. This theme is developed and then the “Forest Hunt” is introduced with a triumphant sound. A spirited folk-like theme pictures the “Peasant Wedding” celebration followed by the delicate “Moonlight: Dance of the Water Nymphs.” The main theme returns briefly before the introduction of the powerful “The Rapids.” The river theme makes another appearance; then the main theme from the first symphonic poem, the Vysehrad, is introduced before the work’s energetic conclusion. Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 53, B. 96 ANTONIN DVOŘÁK Born September 8, 1841, in Nelahozeves; died May 1, 1904, in Prague Dvořák, the son of a village innkeeper and butcher, began studying music when he took violin lessons from a local schoolteacher in his small village, and when he reached the age of sixteen, he left home to study in Prague. Five years later, he joined the orchestra of the National Theater, playing the viola (an instrument that in his time was designated the instrument of failed violinists). Soon thereafter he began to test his creative powers with extended compositions in the classical forms. He was almost completely unknown until 1875, when his talent came to the attention of Johannes Brahms, who helped him launch his career by securing for him a generous grant from the Austrian Imperial government in Vienna as well as recommending him to his own music publisher in Berlin. Dvořák’s concertos are not at all like the majority of empty but technically demanding virtuoso showpieces that were so popular in his time. Following the model of Brahms, Dvořák composed his concertos as symphonic works in which a single solo instrument is given a prominent role to play. Brahms wrote his violin concerto for his lifelong friend, the violin virtuoso, Joseph Joachim; soon after its first performance, Joachim asked Dvořák to write a concerto, also particularly for him. Dvořák wrote this concerto in 1879 and immediately sent it to Joachim. That November, Dvořák tried the new concerto out with Joachim and declared himself satisfied with all but a few details. Joachim had been ENJOY WORLD-CLASS ENTERTAINMENT

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tremendously helpful to Brahms when he was composing his violin concerto, and he offered similar help to Dvořák. Dvořák was himself a violinist and had performed in the orchestra of the Czech National Theater from 1866 to 1873, but he, nevertheless, was open to Joachim’s advice on string technique. Joachim had not been very enthusiastic about Dvořák’s concerto, and had asked Dvorák to come to Berlin to hear his suggestions for amendments he felt the composer should make. After their dialogue, Dvořák wrote to his publisher, Simrock, in May 1880, “at Joachim’s suggestion I have revised the whole Concerto, leaving not a single bar untouched. I have kept the main themes and added a few new ones, but the whole conception of the work is different; harmonies, rhythms, orchestration are all changed.” Although the composer was grateful to Joachim for his suggestions, Simrock, who was also Brahms’s publisher, annoyed the composer with even more suggestions for revisions that he thought would increase its commercial value. After an angry exchange of letters, Dvořák agreed to cut the last movement, but steadfastly refused to change anything else. He firmly rejected the advice to amend the shape of the opening movement in which he omitted the traditional recapitulation. Joachim was disappointed with the results of the revision and did not mention the concerto for two more years, but in August 1882, sent Dvořák a letter in which he gave some fainthearted praise, saying that the solo part seemed more practical now, but that the work still was not ready for performance, and he again asked the composer to come to Berlin to go over it once more. Dvořák acquiesced, and this time, Joachim played through the concerto with the student orchestra of the Berlin Hochschule für Musik. As a result of that experience, Dvořák cut the finale some more and amended the solo part a bit, but still Joachim was not content because he thought the first two movements should be separated. Dvořák planned for Joachim to give the premiere, but Joachim did not play it then or ever, even though when it was published in 1883, Dvořák dedicated it “with deepest respect” to him. The soloist in the first performance, which was given in Prague on October 14, 1883, was the Czech violinist, František Ondříček, and at that time, the work was very positively received. In this concerto, Dvořák, spurred by the national feeling in Smetana’s music, introduced the idea of Czech nationality. Before this time, he had been under the sway of the influence of the music of Wagner and Liszt; now, he simplified his form and delved into the resources of Czech national music. This work brings forth this new strain as well as a refined sense of proportion and elegance of form. 4

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In the first movement, Allegro, ma non troppo, the soloist and orchestra give a compact treatment of the charming subject, with much remarkably original writing for violin and orchestral woodwind soloists. The movement has a symphonic character with brilliant orchestration. After a brief cadenza, there is a transition, with a woodwind chorale, which leads without a break to the long slow movement, Adagio ma non troppo. Beginning with a subtle, peaceful, pastoral melody, the music of this movement has rich melodic ideas, freely organized in an improvisatory, rhapsodic style. Here, Dvořák expresses tenderness in the Czech style. In the spirited Finale, Allegro giocoso, the Czech folk element is most strongly evident, and Dvořák utilizes many boisterous peasant-like characteristics. Dvořák had recently composed his first set of Slavonic Dances, and he approaches this rhythmically vital rondo movement in a similar manner to those dances. The liveliness of the syncopated rhythms of the fiery folk dance furiant is evident as are the characteristics of the more thoughtful dumka. The concerto is scored for two flutes, two oboes, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, timpani, and strings. Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B. 163 ANTONIN DVOŘÁK Dvořák wrote his Symphony No. 8 in 1889, an unusually productive year during which, he confided to a friend, he felt so overwhelmed with musical ideas that he did not have time to put them all down on paper. He composed this symphony swiftly in his country home at Vysoká, beginning it in September and completing it by November 8. Dvořák conducted the first performance with the Prague National Theatre Orchestra on February 2, 1890. Symphony No. 8 gained international recognition more rapidly than any of Dvořák’s other symphonies. After being well-received at its Prague premiere, Dvořák took it to England, and it was performed there in April 1890. Only a few months later, Dvořák’s friend Hans Richter conducted a performance in Vienna. Writing to Dvořák after this concert, Richter expressed his admiration: “You would certainly have been pleased with this performance. All of us felt that it is a magnificent work, and we were all enthusiastic. Brahms dined with us after the concert and we drank to the health of the absent father of [Symphony No. 8]. Vivat sequens!” On March 11, 1892, the New York Philharmonic Society premiered it in the United States at a concert in the Metropolitan Opera House. The following year, Dvořák conducted a performance of it at the Columbian Exposition in Chicago. ENJOY WORLD-CLASS ENTERTAINMENT

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This symphony was originally published as Symphony No. 4, although it was actually Dvořák’s eighth work in the symphonic form, and thus it is now known as Symphony No. 8. It is sometimes also known as Dvořák’s English Symphony, because a London firm issued it during a period when the composer was having a disagreement with his usual publisher, Simrock. In 1876, Brahms had introduced Dvořák to Simrock, in Berlin; at Simrock’s request Dvořák wrote his popular Slavonic Dances. During their years of collaboration, Simrock and Dvořák were frequently in disagreement about one basic issue. The publisher wanted Dvořák to write more short works in the popular style of the Slavonic Dances, but he preferred to spend his time on the publication of the symphonies and serious chamber music. Historians have always remarked on Symphony No. 8’s carefree and spontaneous nature, asserting that its idyllic, bucolic, and folk-like character reflects its roots in the music of the Bohemian countryside. Here Dvořák allows his Bohemian personality to assert itself in his own individual rhythmic and melodic style. Dvořák’s biographer, Karel Hoffmeister, speaks of Dvořák’s thoughts “breaking into flower, not like little blossoms lodged in the stony crevices of an architectural structure, but as the Czech meadows flower, in luxuriant garlands of varied charm and color.” At this point, Dvořák was putting Brahms’s imposing influence behind him and finding his own personal and natural means of expression. Dvořák wrote that he aimed in this work to compose a symphony “different than the other symphonies, with individual thoughts worked out in a new way.” Here and in the New World Symphony (Symphony No.9), he took a novel approach to form and thematic development. The first movement, Allegro con brio, begins seriously and pensively, but the principal theme soon dispels the solemn mood with a kind of birdsong for the flute. The movement contains many memorable melodies that have the character of Czech folk songs, cheerful and robust. Some are reminiscent of the Slavonic Dances. Dvořák does not give the themes the development usually found in the first movement of symphonies: he hesitates to develop any of this string of melodies, simply letting their profusion and their contrasting character carry the movement forward instead. Brahms once said, when responding to a critic of Dvořák’s music, “I would be happy if one of his passing thoughts occurred to me as a main idea.” The second movement, Adagio, begins with a short opening motif that serves as the foundation for variations, as somber mood alternates with serenity. Here again, Dvořák’s music contains straightforward folk-like melodies written in an alternating ABAB structure. The movement begins 6

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seriously with the clarinets articulating minor themes. Then the oboe, flute, and after them, the solo violin outlines melodic figures above a gentle dance-like accompaniment. Dvořák uses a waltz-like Allegretto grazioso, instead of a scherzo for the third movement and includes a contrasting central section that is almost Schubertian in character. Some critics have labeled the main theme the most haunting melody Dvořák ever composed; its roots have been traced to the folk music of the composer’s native Bohemia. The trio’s melody, which is like a folk dance, Dvořák took from his own (now never performed) comic opera, The Stubborn Lovers. The movement ends with a lively coda, Molto vivace, in the style of one of the composer’s Slavonic Dances. A trumpet fanfare begins the finale, Allegro ma non troppo, with a stately processional announcement that becomes developed in the form of theme and variations. The cellos proclaim the theme, a short and simple melody that Dvořák worked very hard to perfect, forcing it go through many drafts before he felt content with it. What follows after is diverse and inventive: the variations go from a gutsy and rough Bohemian folk dance to a ruminating, quiet, and philosophical woodwind and string statement. The end of the movement introduces another Bohemian dance-like figure, resembling the furiant, a popular Slavonic dance. There are also echoes of the main subject of the opening movement, bringing the symphony to a crashing conclusion. Dvořák scored this symphony for piccolo and two flutes, two oboes and English horn, two clarinets, two bassoons, four horns, two trumpets, two trombones, bass trombone, tuba, kettledrums, and strings. He dedicated it, “to the Bohemian Academy of Emperor Franz Joseph for the Encouragement of Art and Literature.” Program notes by Susan Halpern 2017

Biographies EMMANUEL VILLAUME Conductor French-born conductor Emmanuel Villaume has led captivating performances with the most prominent opera companies and symphony orchestras around the world. In 2015 Villaume began his tenure as Music Director and Chief Conductor of the PKF - Prague Philharmonia. Recent projects with the PKF include a Deutsche Grammophon recording with Anna Netrebko, a ENJOY WORLD-CLASS ENTERTAINMENT

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Warner Classics release with Bryan Hymel, and a New Year’s celebration concert at the Royal Opera House Muscat. Villaume is now entering his fourth season as Music Director of the Dallas Opera. The Chicago Classical Review praised Villaume’s conducting of Roméo et Juliette at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, “Villaume is almost without peer in this repertory, and his conducting provides a virtual seminar in how French opera should be performed.” His recent orchestral performances include at New York’s Avery Fisher Hall for the 2014 Richard Tucker Gala, with the Juilliard Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, at Grant Park Music Festival, the White Nights Festival at the Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg, Russia, and a European concert tour of Iolanta. He was Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the National Slovenian Philharmonic and Chief Conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra from 2009–2016. As author of noted articles of musicology, Villaume was appointed dramaturg of the Opéra National du Rhin in Strasbourg at the age of twenty-one. SARAH CHANG Violin Recognized as one of the foremost violinists of our time, Sarah Chang has performed with the most esteemed orchestras, conductors, and accompanists in an international career spanning more than two decades. Since her debut with the New York Philharmonic at the age of eight, Chang has continued to impress audiences with her technical virtuosity and refined emotional depth. In 2006 Chang was listed in the “Twenty Top Women on Leadership” in Newsweek Magazine, and in 2008 Chang was named a Young Global Leader by the World Economic Forum. In 2012 Chang received the Harvard University Leadership Award, and in 2005 Yale University dedicated a chair in Sprague Hall in her name. In 2004 Chang carried the Olympic Torch in New York for the Olympic games, became the youngest person ever to receive the Hollywood Bowl’s Hall of Fame award, and was awarded Internazionale Accademia Musicale Chigiana Prize in Sienna, Italy. Other previous distinctions include the Avery Fisher Career Grant, Gramophone’s Young Artist of the Year award, Germany’s Echo Schallplattenpreis, Newcomer of the Year honors at the International Classical Music Awards in London, and Korea’s Nan Pa award. In 2011 Chang was named an official Artistic Ambassador by the United States Department of State. 8

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PRAGUE PHILHARMONIA The PKF - Prague Philharmonia was founded in 1994 by conductor Jiří Bělohlávek and has become one of the most respected Czech orchestras in the world. The orchestra specializes in Viennese works by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, as well as romantic, modern, and contemporary music. The orchestra has been headed by the distinguished French conductor Emmanuel Villaume since 2015. The PKF - Prague Philharmonia is a regular guest at international music festivals, frequently performs at prestigious world concert halls, and is a regular partner of renowned conductors and soloists including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Milan Turković, Jefim Bronfman, András Schiff, Shlomo Mintz, Sarah Chang, Isabelle Faust, Mischa Maisky, Magdalena Kožená, Anna Netrebko, Natalie Dessay, Rolando Villazón, Plácido Domingo, Elina Garanča, Juan Diego Flórez, Radek Baborák, Thomas Hampson, and many others. To date the orchestra has recorded more than sixty CDs for labels including Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Supraphon, EMI, Warner Music, and Harmonia Mundi. Their albums have received the RAC Canada Gold Disc (2000), the Harmonie Award (2001), and the Diapason d’Or (September 2007). The PKF – Prague Philharmonia has recorded with Anna Netrebko, Magdalena Kožená, Isabelle Faust, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Dagmar Pecková, and many others. Their most critically acclaimed album is a 2010 live recording of Smetana’s Má vlast (My Fatherland) at Prague conducted by Jakub Hrůša.

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PFK - Prague Philharmonia Orchestra Roster EMMANUEL VILLAUME • MUSIC DIRECTOR

FIRST VIOLIN Jan Fišer concert master Miloslav Vrba Hana Jarošová Kubisová Roman Hranička Veronika Panochová Martin Bialas Zuzana Bialasová František Kosina Martina Bačová Dmitry Samojlov Eva Schäferová Tomáš Bařinka SECOND VIOLIN Jan Adam Marta Hajšmanová Lada Ševčíková Lukáš Kroft Alena Miřácká Iva Středová Matěj Polášek Jan Zrostlík Veronika Šenová Martin Balda VIOLA Stanislav Svoboda Anna Cibulková Dagmar Mašková Emi Sawahata Zdeněk Suchý Ondřej Martinovský Angelika Boué Anna Šimková CELLO Lukáš Pospíšil concert master Teodor Brcko Balázs Adorján Judita Škodová Martin Havelík Marie Dorazilová

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DOUBLE BASS Pavel Klečka Jan Prokop Dalibor Tkadlčík Lubomír Čížek FLUTE Jiří Ševčík Oto Reiprich Lenka Schichová OBOE Jan Souček Lenka Filová CLARINET Jindřich Pavliš Jan Czech BASSOON Václav Fürbach Jiří Jech FRENCH HORN Jan Musil Mikuláš Koska Adéla Triebeneklová Eva Mlázovská TRUMPET Svatopluk Zaal Lubomír Kovařík TROMBONE Stanislav Penk Vít Kořínek Václav Kotek TUBA Petr Salajka TIMPANI Pavel Rehberger PERCUSSION Radek Doležal Anton Zdanovich Štěpán Hon HARP Hana Müllerová

FOR OPUS 3 ARTISTS: President and CEO David V. Foster Senior Vice President, Director, Touring Division Leonard Stein Vice President, Manager, Artists & Attractions Jeffrey Vanderveen Associate, Touring Division Irene Lönnblad Associate, Artists & Attractions Aaron Grant Tour Manager John Gilliland Stage Manager Donald Irving

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We would like to thank our Board of Trustees and our Administration for their extraordinary support of Soka Performing Arts Center Soka University of America Board of Trustees: Steve Dunham, JD, Chair Kris Knudsen, JD Tariq Hasan, PhD, Vice Chair Karen Lewis, PhD Yoshihisa Baba, PhD Daniel Nagashima, MBA Matilda Buck Gene Marie O’Connell, RN, MS Lawrence E. Carter Sr., PhD, DD, DH, DRS David P. Roselle, PhD Maria Guajardo, PhD Yoshiki Tanigawa Clothilde V. Hewlett, JD Shunichi Yamada, MBA Lawrence A. Hickman, PhD Soka University of America Administration: Daniel Y. Habuki, PhD, President Edward M. Feasel, PhD, Vice President of Academic Affairs & Dean of Faculty Archibald E. Asawa, Vice President for Finance and Administration & CFO Tomoko Takahashi, PhD, Vice President of Institutional Research and Assessment & Dean of Graduate School Wendy Harder, MBA, APR, Director of Community Relations Katherine King, PHR, Director of Human Resources Hyon J. Moon, EdD, Dean of Students Andrew Woolsey, EdD, Director of Enrollment Services Soka Performing Arts Center Staff: David C. Palmer, General Manager Rebecca Pierce Goodman, Marketing and Administrative Manager Shannon Lee Blas, Patron Services Manager Sam Morales, Technical Services Manager Steve Baker, House Manager; Lindsey Cook, Stage Manager; Marcia Garcia, Production Coordinator; Kay Matsuyama, Sound & Video Technician; Ray Mau, Lighting Technician Jim Merod, Director, Jazz Monsters Series and Soka University Jazz Festival Students of Soka University of America who serve as patron and technical services crew, as well as marketing assistants.

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