Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904) 

Symphony no. 5 in F, op. 76 (1875) 

• Allegro, ma non troppo 

• Andante con moto 

• Scherzo: Allegro scherzando 

• Finale: Allegro molto  

Break 

Antonín Dvořák 

Cello Concerto in b, op. 104 (1894-1895) 

• Allegro 

• Adagio, ma non troppo 

• Finale: Allegro Moderato 

Antonín Dvořák 

Waldesruhe from "The Bohemian Forest," op. 68, no. 5 (1883, orchestration 1893) 

End of concert approximately 10 p.m. 

Jonathan Bloxham - conductor 

Studies Began playing the cello at age eight. Studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School & Royal College of Music and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Received conducting lessons from Sian Edwards and Paavo Järvi, among others.  

Highlights Was co-founder and cellist of the Busch Trio with which he gave concerts throughout Europe. Was assistant conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (2016-2018), then conducted the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, London Symphony, Salzburger Mozarteumorchester, London Philharmonic and in December 2020 the Residentie Orkest. among others. Made his debut at the famous Glyndebourne Festival in 2021. 

Julian Steckel - cello 

Education Studied with Ulrich Voss, Gustav Rivinius, Boris Pergamenschikow, Heinrich Schiff and Antje Weithaas. 

Highlights Soloed with orchestras such as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra London, Orchestre de Paris, Münchner Philhamornie, Residentie Orkest, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Bamberger Symphoniker. Played in chamber music with Janine Jansen, Vilde Frang, Lars Vogt, Menahem Pressler and Renaud Capuçon.  

Awards ARD-Musikwettbewerb (2010); ECHO Klassik (2012). 

Other Professor of cello at the Hochschule für Musik und Theater München. 

Residentie Orkest The Hague 

Founded The Hague, 1904 

Current chief conductor Anja Bihlmaier 

Permanent guest conductors Richard Egarr and Jun Märkl 

Chief conductors Henri Viotta, Peter van Anrooy, Frits Schuurman, Willem van Otterloo, Jean Martinon, Ferdinand Leitner, Hans Vonk, Evgenii Svetlanov, Jaap van Zweden, Neeme Järvi, Nicholas Collon. 

To be seen at Amare, Paard, The National Opera, Royal Concertgebouw, De Doelen, TivoliVredenburg among others . 

Education Annual outreach to over 40,000 schoolchildren, adults and amateur musicians in educational projects. Part of this is The Residents, through which the orchestra brings hundreds of children from districts in The Hague into contact with classical music. 

Dvorák 

Growing up in the Bohemian village of Nelahozeves, a hamlet that had fewer than fifty houses in a landscape of vast fields, farmlands and gently rolling hills, Antonin Dvořák came into contact with music at an early age. His father ran a butcher shop and an inn but also played the zither excellently. From him, little Dvořák received his first music lessons, which were later continued at the village school. Making music was in the villagers' blood anyway, as Dvořák aptly described in an interview with the British Sunday Times in 1885: "All Slavs love music. They can work all day in the fields, but they are always singing, and the true musical spirit burns ardently in them. And how they also love to dance! On Sunday, when church is out, they start making music and dancing, often until early the next morning. Every village has an orchestra of about eight or ten musicians - I belonged to ours as soon as I could fiddle a little." Folk music was instilled in Dvořák with the mother's milk. Not surprisingly, as a composer he combined his expressive lyricism and powerful rhythms with elements of Slavic folk music. This style revealed itself particularly from the Fifth Symphony, which Dvořák put to paper in just five weeks in 1875. A symphony very different from the previous one, in which Wagner's influence is still very evident with lots of brooding drama, grand percussion and downright Wagner quotations. In the Fifth, Dvořák's Bohemian-expressive style breaks through: more relaxed, more fluid, more rural with delightful bird and hunting sounds and, of course, some Bohemian dances. That the pastoral symphony was created in the midst of nature may be audible. 

"The cello is a beautiful instrument but its place belongs in the orchestra and in chamber music. As a solo instrument, the cello does not come into its own." Remarkable words for a composer like Dvořák, who at the end of the nineteenth century would compose one of the most famous cello concertos ever. He made his first taste of solo concertos at the age of 23 when writing his first Cello Concerto in A, probably inspired by his love for Josefina Cermáková, the sister of his later wife Anna. Unfortunately, Josefina rejected him and the concerto was never orchestrated. The suitability of the instrument, the "nasal sound in the high register of the cello and the mumbling sound in the low register" made Dvořák hesitate to write another cello concerto, even though he was urged to do so on all sides. Only during his stay in New York - Dvořák was artistic director and composition teacher at the National Conservatory of Music from 1892 to 1895 - did he become so impressed with the Second cello concerto by fellow teacher Victor Herbert that Dvořák decided to write another Cello Concerto cello concerto himself, in just three months. Working on the second movement, Dvořák received word that his former childhood sweetheart Josefina was seriously ill. Out of respect for his sister-in-law, he incorporated the song Lasst mich allein written for her into the Adagio. Her death in May 1895 so affected Dvořák that he adapted the ending of the whirlwind Finale by adding a meditative section with references to the first and second movements, just before the orchestra enters the accelerando to end the concerto majestically. 

When in late 1891 Dvorák decided to accept the offer to become director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York, he almost immediately began making preparations for his departure in September 1892. Music publisher Velebin Urbánek organized a veritable farewell tour for Dvorák through Bohemia in early 1892, performing as pianist in a trio with violinist Ferdinand Lachner and cellist Hanus Wihan. Main work on the program was the recently composed Dumky Trio. Dvorák also wanted another work in which the cello could solo. During the Christmas vacations, he therefore devoted himself, among other things, to composing the Rondo in g and to arranging the fifth movement from the cycle "Aus dem Böhmerwald," consisting of six character pieces for piano four hands from 1883. The particle bore the title "Klid," which Dvorák literally translated into German as "Die Ruhe" for this arrangement. Both the Rondo and Die Ruhe became so popular that Dvorák arranged both works for cello and orchestra in the fall of 1893, when he was already in New York. Publisher Fritz Simrock eventually changed the title to Waldesruhe; it is still considered one of Dvorák's best adagios.