{"id":6487,"date":"2021-10-11T08:00:19","date_gmt":"2021-10-11T06:00:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.henle.de\/blog\/en\/?p=6487"},"modified":"2021-10-11T08:17:03","modified_gmt":"2021-10-11T06:17:03","slug":"dvoraks-gran-partita","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/2021\/10\/11\/dvoraks-gran-partita\/","title":{"rendered":"Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s \u201cGran Partita\u201d? On the presumed model of his Wind Serenade in d minor op. 44"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my last blog post<\/a> I already reported on our recently published new edition of Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s Wind Serenade op. 44 (HN 1234<\/a>), focussing primarily on interesting information about several scoring details provided by autograph sources and contemporary concert accounts. But why, in the first place, did Dvo\u0159\u00e1k opt for such an unusual ensemble as 2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 bassoons plus contrabassoon, 3(!) horns as well as cello and double bass?\u00a0 For in 1878, the year of its composition, the heyday of large-scale wind music was long past, and even though Bohemia, in particular, had made countless contributions to this repertoire through such composers as Krommer, Myslive\u010dek, Vanhal, Dru\u017eeck\u00fd, Neubauer, Fiala, Du\u0161ek, and many others, it is not likely that Dvo\u0159\u00e1k was acquainted with these works or had ever heard them.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Programme from the concert exclusively devoted to Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s works in the Prague Sophiensaal of 17 November 1878. The third item that evening was the premi\u00e8re of the Wind Serenade. (Click to enlarge)<\/p><\/div>\n

A familiar and plausible explanation, probably going back to Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s first biographer Otakar \u0160ourek, is that in a concert during his stay in Vienna the composer heard Mozart\u2019s so-called Gran Partita<\/em>, K. 361 (with twelve winds and double bass), suggesting that this auditory impression inspired his own serenade.<\/p>\n

This assumption seems plausible not only because of the strong similarities in the scoring (Dvo\u0159\u00e1k only dispensed with the then rare basset horns and the 4th<\/sup> horn and reinforced the bass section with cello and contrabassoon), but also because of direct musical references, such as the resemblance of his serenade\u2019s slow movement to the Gran Partita<\/em>\u2019s first adagio (especially famous today since Milo\u0161 Forman\u2019s movie Amadeus<\/a><\/em>).<\/p>\n

All that is really documented, though, in this account is that Dvo\u0159\u00e1k visited Vienna around the turn of the year 1877\/78 and began sketching and writing his wind serenade immediately after his return to Prague. According to the dates in the autograph sources, the work was composed in just two weeks between 4 and 18 January 1878.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
\nWind serenade op. 44, sketch; inception of work is dated 4 January 1878.
\nPrague, N\u00e1rodn\u00ed knihovna \u010cesk\u00e9 republiky, shelfmark 59 R 2151 (view complete source<\/a>)<\/p>\n

So when and where, then, could he have previously heard the Gran Partita<\/em>? We can learn something about this from his correspondence with Johannes Brahms, who, as is well known, was a great friend of Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s music and promoted to the best of his ability his younger, then impoverished colleague. Brahms had campaigned for Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s financial security by way of an Austrian state scholarship, besides also recommending him in December 1877 to his own publisher Fritz Simrock, a circumstance that soon made the Czech composer well recognised in Germany.<\/p>\n

In two effusive letters of thanks to Brahms dated 3 and 19 December 1877, Dvo\u0159\u00e1k still did not mention a meeting or a planned trip to Vienna, though he did write him on 23 January 1878:<\/p>\n

\u201cMost esteemed Master! About 3 weeks ago I began my intended trip to Vienna to express my personal thanks to your Excellency for all the favours shown to me. I was very sorry that I did not have the pleasure of meeting you before you left for Leipzig.\u201d<\/p>\n

Anton\u00edn Dvo\u0159\u00e1k \u2013 Correspondence and Documents<\/em>, eds. Milan Kuna et al, vol.1, Prague, 1987, pp. 133f.<\/p>\n

Documented is that Brahms left Vienna in the evening of 30 December, taking the night train to Leipzig, where he conducted an orchestral rehearsal the next morning. Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s futile visit could therefore have taken place that evening at the earliest. That very day, in fact, Mozart\u2019s Gran Partita<\/em> was on the programme of a midday concert by the Vienna Philharmonic, as reported in the daily press as well as in the orchestra\u2019s concert archives: see this entry<\/a>. Dvo\u0159\u00e1k could thus have heard this concert beforehand.<\/p>\n

A contemporary review also reveals that only three of the Gran Partita<\/em> movements were played, namely, the outer movements and precisely the Adagio that is so similar in character to Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s own slow movement:
\n\"\"
\nSignale f\u00fcr die musikalische Welt<\/em>, 1878, no. 6, p. 86<\/p>\n

Another odd circumstantial evidence also suggests Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s concert attendance: According to a newspaper report, the Gran Partita<\/em> in the said performance was played with a contrabassoon as well as a double bass and celli [sic]:
\n\"\"<\/em>
\nDie Presse<\/em>, 8 January 1878, <\/em>p. 2.<\/p>\n

This unusually heavy bass group can be found exactly in this form in Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s autograph of the serenade (planned for in the first edition is only 1 cello), so that the performance\u2019s function as a direct role model is very conceivable.<\/p>\n

There is only one drawback to this theory: Brahms\u2019s 2nd<\/sup> Symphony in D major was also premi\u00e8red in exactly the same midday concert on 30 December, in the presence of the composer\u2026! If Dvo\u0159\u00e1k attended this concert, would he really have passed up the opportunity briefly to \u201cshake hands\u201d with Brahms, who was the actual objective of his journey? And even if the diffident Dvo\u0159\u00e1k were to have avoided making contact \u2013 wouldn\u2019t he at least have said a polite word about the new symphony in the letter quoted above? He doesn\u2019t mention it at all, reporting instead on a performance of Brahms\u2019s d-minor piano concerto in Prague.<\/p>\n

So, doubts still remain about whether Dvo\u0159\u00e1k really did hear the Gran Partita<\/em> live on that occasion, unless there was perhaps another performance in the days following 29 December. Or did he later read the concert review and then out of interest in the scoring buy the music for his own study? A new edition was at least available, as the score had been published in 1861 by Breitkopf and H\u00e4rtel.
\n\"\"
\nHofmeisters Monatsberichte<\/em>, December 1861, p. 218<\/p>\n

Until further documents come to light, the question must remain open \u2013 only one thing is certain: that there is hardly a more worthy successor to the Gran Partita<\/em> than Dvo\u0159\u00e1k\u2019s Wind Serenade op. 44\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my last blog post I already reported on our … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[289,491,34,3,275,763,367],"tags":[480,28,762],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6487"}],"version-history":[{"count":19,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6511,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6487\/revisions\/6511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6487"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6487"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.henle.de\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6487"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}