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Jeff Spurgeon: In New York City, there are lots of ways to get to Carnegie Hall. The subway, the taxi, a walk down 57th Street. You've just found another way to get to America's most famous home for classical music. Welcome to Carnegie Hall Live, a broadcast series that gives you a front row seat to concerts by some of the greatest artists in the world. And you hear the performances exactly as they happen. You are part of the audience sharing the experience of music making at Carnegie Hall. Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon, alongside John Schaefer.

John Schaefer: And alongside us, members of the Czech Philharmonic, waiting to take the stage here at Carnegie Hall to perform the second of three concerts in a series.

They are here for the first time since 2018, and they are here to celebrate the Year of Czech Music. I hope you can hear the capital letters there. The Year of Czech Music happens every ten years. It's a tradition that began in 1924, which was the centennial celebration of the birth of the Czech composer Pedrošek Smetana. And since then, every time a year ends in the number four, it is declared the Year of Czech Music. And if you're wondering who makes that declaration, that's a very good question. I suspect it's the Czechs, because I had never heard of this before. [laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: They've had this celebration going for a century now, and this is a special one, too, because it is the bicentennial of Smetana's birth year, so there's that special note to it. And so there are a lot of activities happening in New York City, not only with the Czech Philharmonic, but with the Prague Philharmonic Choir and some other organizations that are in town celebrating the great legacy that the Czech people celebrate in the music of their country and the major composers with, with whom they, they have shared the world.

So there's, there's a great deal going on and Carnegie Hall is appropriately festive. There are red and white and blue bouquets bedecking the stage of Carnegie Hall. Those are the colors of the Czech flag. So there are red and white and blue carnations and roses, and a great big blue banner over the stage that says Czech Philharmonic and declares this the 2024 Year of Czech Music.

So so many events in the cultural life of the Czech Republic and in Czech music have happened in years that end in four, composer birthdays and deaths and major composition premieres which weirdly also happens for the country itself, the Czech Republic, only then it's with years ending in eight.

John Schaefer: Well, the, the Czech Republic, the Czech Philharmonic is exactly the group you'd want to hear for a celebration of, of this music, of course. And conducting the Czech Philharmonic is their music director, Semyon Bychkov. He has been their chief conductor since 2018, and when we spoke with him earlier this week, he told us what was so special about this orchestra.

Semyon Bychkov: There is of course this legendary sound of the Czech Philharmonic in people's ears, and it's very difficult to describe the sound of the orchestra without banality. But what is clear is that it has enormous warmth to it. It is not ugly. It is actually difficult for them to create ugly sounds that some of the music sometimes requires. And on top of everything else these are very good people. There is goodness in them, and one hears it in the music. One hears it in the quality of sound, and they're touched by musical beauty. So in that sense, it's a very fulfilling and very organic relationship.

Jeff Spurgeon: The voice of conductor Semyon Bychkov, who will conduct this concert by the Czech Philharmonic tonight.

I love what he said, John. I think it's such an unusual statement to say that you cannot describe the sound of this orchestra without banality. Without sounding banal. Yeah. And we have been talking about this recently because in recent broadcasts, we've presented some really amazing orchestras at Carnegie Hall, the Berlin Philharmonic and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam. Orchestras with distinctive, individual, legendary, highly renowned sounds. And yet to describe them can be a real challenge.

John Schaefer: Right.

Jeff Spurgeon: Without descending or landing in an area of, of banality. Well, it's part of the challenge of talking about music, the same difficulty that painters have in in painting about dancing.

John Schaefer: Right. Well, the, I think it was Martin Mull, although this quote has been attributed to many other people, that, you know, writing about music is like dancing about architecture.

Jeff Spurgeon: Ha ha ha ha.

John Schaefer: So, so, you know, when, when someone sits down to describe a symphony orchestra, you know, and what their sound is like, it is a difficult task.

Jeff Spurgeon: Yeah, right.

John Schaefer: It's a very elusive thing.

Jeff Spurgeon: And, and it's part of the richness of the experience and one of the reasons why this is a sold-out concert tonight at Carnegie Hall. People want to hear this sound even if it's a little beyond words to describe it.

And there are just two pieces on the program tonight. Antonin Dvorak's Violin Concerto, and then after intermission, a light, brief piece. Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5. 70 minutes of music.

John Schaefer: And if you're wondering what Mahler, an Austrian composer, is doing on this program, well, Mahler actually conducted this orchestra himself. And Mahler, although he was Austrian, was born and raised in a couple of small towns in what is now the Czech Republic. It was then part of the Austrian Empire, but, so, geographically, he fits, and musically, he fits.

Jeff Spurgeon: You bet.

John Schaefer: And the orchestra is also going to be joined tonight by a fixture on New York's classical music scene for many years, the violinist Gil Shaham, widely sought after as a soloist. His playing has been described as haunting and utterly beautiful, but Semyon Bychkov said what he appreciates most about Shaham's playing is his exuberance.

Semyon Bychkov: Gil is a very spontaneous musician, and it is terribly important to all of us, no matter how often an artist will perform this or that piece, one always has to have a feeling that it is being rediscovered. Nothing is written in stone. Everything is open to question. And that is just joyful, you know? Joy, by the way, is like a virus. It's contagious.

Jeff Spurgeon: Again, conductor Semyon Bychkov, in this case speaking about Gil Shaham, who is a joyful person and spreads that around himself too. That has absolutely been our experience in dealing with Gil.

Well, this Dvorak Violin Concerto, and we should say that that we are waiting, John and I, backstage at Carnegie Hall, as is the audience, for the orchestra to take its seats. The noise that you hear around us right now are members of the Czech Philharmonic. They're just waiting for the cue to go out and take their seats. Then we'll have the arrival of the concertmaster, and then we'll see Semyon Bychkov and Gil Shaham ready to bring you that Dvorak Violin Concerto, which is a crazy piece. It owes its existence to a relationship between the composer and a great violinist of the time Joseph Joachim. Dvorak wrote the concerto intending to dedicate it to Joachim and, and sent him sketches and Joachim said, okay, you mind a couple changes here or there? And so there was this long revision process.

John Schaefer: But that was, that was kind of Joachim's MO. He is, this is the same violinist for whom Brahms wrote his violin concerto, and Max Bruch, and you know, we owe a lot to this guy, even if he might have been a little bit of a pill to deal with. And unfortunately for Dvorak, his revisions did not pass muster for Joseph Joachim. He in fact returned it to the composer and when it was eventually premiered, (years later), it was done by a different violinist. However, despite that inauspicious start the piece has found its place in the standard repertoire and for our conductor tonight, Semyon Bychkov, it is a piece that really represents the Dvorak sound.

Semyon Bychkov: I have to say that when one goes deeply inside those scores, one rediscovers that unique sound world of Dvorak, the unique expression, the melodic gestures, the rhythmic variety of Dvorak, and it is not really a music in which orchestra just accompanies a soloist. It becomes in a way a symphonic kind of collaboration, which makes it really masterpieces that they are.

Jeff Spurgeon: Semyon Bychkov, discussing the Dvorak Violin Concerto that we're going to hear tonight as the first of two works on this program by the Czech Philharmonic with the Mahler Symphony No. 5 in the second half. And this is an a, I guess it's, you could call it a well-balanced concerto. Three movements, they're all about the same length, and we don't get a lot of orchestra at the beginning. The, the orchestra and soloist kind of start up together and, well, the violinist really actually takes off.

John Schaefer: Right, right. So, it's, it's. This would have been, I think, a surprise to late 19th century audiences that well, there's the soloist right up front at the beat. There's no, like, orchestral prelude, you know, there's no curtain raising. It's just right into the thing. And in fact, it's, it's pretty fitting that this orchestra is playing this piece on this concert because Dvorak himself was on the podium conducting the Czech Philharmonic the night that they gave their first concert back in 1896. Not a year ending in a four or an eight, but nonetheless an auspicious year for the Czech Philharmonic, who over the years have also seen, besides Dvorak, composers like Edvard Grieg and Igor Stravinsky and Leonard Bernstein conducting them. And of course, as we mentioned earlier, Gustav Mahler as well.

And Semyon Bychkov and this orchestra are in the midst of recording the complete Mahler symphonies. So when we get to the second half of the program and that Mahler Fifth Symphony with its famous Adagietto movement for harp and strings, you can be sure that this is an orchestra and a conductor who are immersed in the sound world of gustav Mahler.

Jeff Spurgeon: And in this 2024 Year of Czech Music, the orchestra has also made a new recording of the Smetana cycle of symphonic poems called Má vlast, and that is an event as well. So there has been great celebration of this 2024 Year of Czech Music, and and Bychkov and the Czech Philharmonic are having a really nice run together. About well, let's see, 2018, so six years into the relationship, and and the reports have been very good, and well, you're going to get to find out for yourself in just a moment.

And now the stage doors of Carnegie Hall have opened, and out process from we're on stage right, the string section.

Not sure if the whole orchestra's entering through this area, but they might be. Oh, no, thank you, John. Yes.

John Schaefer: We've got, we've got half the orchestra entering stage left, half stage right. And we have a soloist in sight. Gil Shaham has just waved hello. So we know he's standing by. Once the orchestra is out and settled and tuned, he will stride out to center stage with the conductor, Semyon Bychkov.

And we will get to hear this Dvorak violin concerto in A minor.

Jeff Spurgeon: Nice warm applause. I didn't mean to interrupt you, John. Nice warm applause for the orchestra now all on its feet with this sold-out Carnegie Hall house tonight.

Our concertmaster stepping forward and preparing to tune the orchestra.

And then Maestro Bychkov and Gil Shaham will appear, yes.

John Schaefer: So you mentioned, Jeff, it's a well-balanced three movement piece. It is also a work, there are moments in the, both the violin and cello concertos by Dvorak that remind me of Wagner, who was very much in the air. [orchestra tuning noises in background]

Jeff Spurgeon: Sure. [violin tuning in background]

John Schaefer: And was a composer that you had to deal with as a contemporary composer at that time, either to agree to follow the path as far as you could or to just kind of back away and do something totally different. Both of the string concertos, the violin and cello concerto by Dvorak, have moments where I think you can hear Dvorak at least making some steps down that Wagnerian path.

Jeff Spurgeon: Now that's not in harmony, that's in orchestration.

John Schaefer: Yes, yes.

Jeff Spurgeon: So we'll have a hint to look at that. And we're hearing a really nice Stradivarius violin in the background here. Gil, that's Gil Shaham tuning and just checking things to make sure things are settled well.

John Schaefer: Because as we say, he's not going to have a chance to...

Jeff Spurgeon: ...fix it up on the way. He starts in and plays almost through the whole work, so very few moments of rest for the soloist in this work.

A little conversation between the soloist and the conductor, and a stage door to Carnegie Hall opens, and out they go. [applause]

John Schaefer: Conductor Semyon Bychkov, violinist Gil Shaham, the Czech Philharmonic. A sold-out Carnegie Hall, and the first half consisting of this single piece, the Violin Concerto in A minor by the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. Deep bows from the soloist and the conductor for this sold-out crowd here at Carnegie Hall.

And now, this performance of Dvořák's Violin Concerto from Carnegie Hall Live.

[DVORAK VIOLIN CONCERTO REMOVED FROM ON-DEMAND STREAM, AS NOT PERMITTED].

John Schaefer: …and when we continue with music, it'll be with live music, that is, it'll be with the Mahler Fifth Symphony, the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov. But let's hear a little more Dvorak first.

This is the Brooklyn based chamber ensemble known as The Knights, a chamber orchestra, Performing Dvorak's Czech Suite. We recorded this in 2015 at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park.

MUSIC: DVORAK CZECH SUITE

Jeff Spurgeon: An outdoor performance of Dvorak's Czech Suites at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park in New York City. A performance by the New York based orchestra, The Knights. We bring you that during the intermission of this concert that we're presenting tonight by the Czech Philharmonic and music director, Semyon Bychkov, from Carnegie Hall Live.

This is Classical New York, WQXR, 105. 9 FM in HD, Newark, 90. 3 FM, WQXW, Ossining, and WNYC FM, HD2 New York.

Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon alongside John Schaefer and alongside a dozen or so members of the Czech Philharmonic who are waiting for the cue to go back on stage.

John Schaefer: And when they do, they will play music by Mahler, his Symphony No. 5. It's a big piece, almost goes without saying when you say "Mahler symphony." 70 minutes. And while you might think of some of Mahler's big symphonies with choruses and vocal soloists. This one is purely instrumental and actually, Jeff, includes what is arguably Gustav Mahler's most famous piece of music.

Jeff Spurgeon: For sure, I think that's right.

John Schaefer: The fourth movement, the Adagietto, just for harp and strings, the rest of the orchestra drops out it, it's been seen as a kind of love letter to Alma Schindler, who would of course become Alma Mahler. They were courting at the time, I suppose, and, and so this fourth movement, you know, is kind of, kind of a part of that process as well as the musical was.

Jeff Spurgeon: Sure, but it's of course had some other life, that piece, as a stand alone. Notably Leonard Bernstein conducted it at the funeral of Robert Kennedy in 1968. And also in Luchino Visconti's Death in Venice, the film. But even though it has all of these very different associations, Gustav Mahler actually wrote it, as you said, as a love letter for Alma. And that was nice because it was a difficult courtship, Alma being Alma, and Gustav being Gustav. Neither of them particularly easy personalities. At one point Mahler wrote a letter to Alma in which he insisted that she give up everything for him, including her music studies, and she was a very fine composer.

John Schaefer: And not thrilled at the prospect of giving up her musical life. But there, there certainly was something special in the music that he wrote, and possibly something convincing to her, in that, that famous Adagietto. And when we spoke to tonight's conductor, Semyon Bychkov, he told us what makes Mahler's music so magical to him.

Semyon Bychkov: I don't think there is anything in his music that isn't special. And when I think what it must have sounded to those who experienced it for the first time, also played badly, because the challenges of his music for every artist involved, doesn't matter which instrument or whether it is someone who conducts it, the challenges are colossal. Remaining so to this day, even though by now we have lived with it for over a century. What is important to me is that he creates and recreates the world every single time he is creating a composition because he's interested in the world. He's interested in the world as it is, as he sees it. He's also interested in what the world could be or what he wants it to be. And so there is this permanent search and very often struggle to find harmony within conflict.

Jeff Spurgeon: That's conductor Semyon Bychkov, who is very familiar with this work and Mahler's symphonies, as is this entire orchestra, for, as John mentioned earlier this evening, this orchestra is in the midst of a years-long effort to work on, perform, record all of the Mahler symphonies. And so that cycle is about halfway done as we've reached the fifth symphony. This comes out of a lifelong relationship with Mahler's music for maestro Bychkov, who told us what it was like to have that sort of deep, lifelong connection to Mahler's music.

Semyon Bychkov: His world is really inexhaustible, and I can tell you that living with his music practically ever since I became conscious as a musician, and conscious of his music, which by now will be, I guess, nearly 60 years. What I notice is that even the music remains exactly what it always was. But as we change, as we go through life, our connection to it changes and every single time when I return to his score, I recognize certain moments that for some reason now are glaring at me whereas they didn't before. And that is in a way precious for an interpreter because when you have a feeling that you have exhausted the possibilities that the piece has to offer, then there is not particularly a reason to come back to it. It's not so in the case of truly great creations and Mahler is absolutely one of those creators who is able to do this for us.

John Schaefer: Conductor Semyon Bychkov speaking about his lifelong relationship with the music of Gustav Mahler. The Czech Philharmonic back out on stage tuning up, ready to begin the 70-minute journey through the Symphony No. 5.

It is a work, Jeff, that has a typically large orchestra and very often a composer will call for numerous flutes, one doubling piccolo, numerous oboes, one doubling English horn. Mahler calls for four flutes and calls for all four of them to double on piccolo. There's a lot of piccolo in this very big piece.

Jeff Spurgeon: Four trumpets and six horns in this orchestra as well. So it is, it's a great symphonic palette that Mahler is using to draw from. And I think it's worth mentioning, too, once again, that there's a deep connection between Mahler and this orchestra. For Gustav Mahler was born in Bohemia, not really so far from Prague. Those borders have changed a great deal over the years. But when you think of Mahler and those little country band episodes that he puts into some of his symphonies, that's Bohemia, that's his world, Bohemia, that you're hearing.

Well, we're about to hear Mahler and the Symphony No. 5 in a performance by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and their music director and conductor, Semyon Bychkov, from Carnegie Hall Live.

MUSIC: MAHLER SYMPHONY NO. 5

Jeff Spurgeon: A great musical journey in the work of Gustav Mahler. You just heard it from Carnegie Hall Live in a performance by the Czech Philharmonic and conductor Semyon Bychkov. Gustav Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

And now the Maestro calls the orchestra to its feet to the cheers of this sold-out Carnegie Hall audience. As the Czech Philharmonic visits New York City in this 2024 Year of Czech Music, 200 years since the birth of Bedřich Smetana and 100 years since these decennial, every 10 years, celebrations of Czech music have begun to occur. So the orchestra comes to New York to celebrate and brings with it music of, well, one of the great symphonists not really associated with the Czech lands of Bohemia, yet, that's where Gustav Mahler was born. Not so many miles from Prague.

Backstage at Carnegie Hall. I'm Jeff Spurgeon alongside john Schaefer. Sorry, John.

John Schaefer: Prague, of course, is where the Czech Philharmonic is based. Semyon Bychkov has been their chief conductor since 2018, which was the last year that they were here at Carnegie Hall.

The Mahler Symphony No. 5, that finale, I mean, a lot of attention is justifiably focused on the fourth movement, the Adagietto, famously used in Visconti's film Death in Venice, often played by itself. But that fifth movement, the finale, just kind of weaves together themes that you've heard earlier in the symphony and just piles layer upon layer.

Mahler claimed a symphony should "Embrace everything”. And, that finale does that.

Jeff Spurgeon: Applause there for our principal trumpet, who has one of the toughest assignments in this entire work, opening it with that triple tongued funeral march theme, and a few other things to play in the course of the work as well.

Maestro Bychkov calling sections of the orchestra to their feet. The winds including four flutes, all doubling on piccolo, as John mentioned before the performance began. And the six horns now rising to their feet.

And the low brass, three trombones, tuba, and our timpanist.

John Schaefer: Bravos all around from the sold-out crowd here at Carnegie Hall. And the strings taking a well-deserved bow on stage.

So we've heard two big works, the Dvorak Violin Concerto with soloist Gil Shaham in the first half of the program, and now the Mahler Symphony No. 5, taking up the second half of this program from Carnegie Hall Live.

Jeff Spurgeon: We might on a normal night, an ordinary night, expect an orchestra to offer an encore at a concert like this. But there are two problems. First of all, what do you follow Mahler with? And perhaps the more cognizant question, the orchestra is here for multiple performances tomorrow night, performing with the Prague Philharmonic Choir and a group of soloists, the Glagolitic Mass, one of the great works in the Czech repertoire.

John Schaefer: By the composer Leoš Janáček.

Jeff Spurgeon: Thank you. Yes. And and so, perhaps the orchestra has decided tonight to lay it just a touch low. But, as Carnegie Hall audience is on its feet, and so is the orchestra receiving applause, as the maestro acknowledges and speaks with various players.

John Schaefer: Walking through the ranks of the orchestra, shaking hands and sort of like the coach of a sporting team after a match, after a game has ended, you know, just walking through, telling people they've done a great job, and certainly the audience seems to appreciate it as Semyon Bychkov is back on the podium, facing them, deep bow to the crowd, the members of the orchestra all on their feet here at Carnegie hall.

Jeff Spurgeon: Those latter cheers for this maestro born in St. Petersburg. Came to New York in his 20s, Jewish family, origins, leaving Russia. Stayed in the United States for a few years, worked in New York, studied in New York and then went back to Europe where that has been his home for now many decades. Great success at the BBC Symphony Orchestra and since 2018 with the Czech Philharmonic.

John Schaefer: And that about wraps up this broadcast from Carnegie Hall Live. Our thanks to Clive Gillinson and the staff of Carnegie Hall.

WQXR's team includes engineers George Wellington, Duke Marcos, Bill Siegmund, Noriko Okabe, and Neil Shaw. Our production team, Lauren Purcell-Joiner, Eileen Delahunty, and Laura Boyman.

Our project director is Christine Herskovits. Aimée Buchanan is our digital producer. I'm John Schaefer.

Jeff Spurgeon: And I'm Jeff Spurgeon. Carnegie Hall Live is a co production of Carnegie Hall and WQXR in New York.

Classical New York is WQXR 105. 9 FM and HD Newark, 90. 3 FM WQXW Ossining, and WNYC FM HD 2 New York.