In this time of uncertainty, fear, and isolation, but also courage and light, the Dvořák American Heritage Association (DAHA) has launched a new program called From DAHA With Love.  As other organizations have reached out to their audiences and members, we are pleased to provide you with some of our favorite musical moments.   Some of these are from concerts sponsored by our organization, others are suggested by members and our extended DAHA family, and still others are newly created for this program.  We broadcast this music on weekdays at 10AM, and each program features a short clip, usually less than 10 minutes.

You can enjoy this music here on our website, on our FaceBook page or on our YouTube Channel.

Prepared with the support of the Bohemian Benevolent & Literary Association and the Czech Center New York.

Final Week!!

For the last six months we have been posting some of our favorite musical selections, from past DAHA events, recordings by members of DAHA, and a range of curated videos.  It has been an honor to share these with you.  Our Fall season is beginning and we will end our series this week with a homage to Halloween by attending to Dvořák’s darker side, or darker uses of his music.  We hope you enjoy it and that you will attend virtually our events this year.

Friday, October 23rd

“Dance of the Devils” from The Devil and Kate

What’s Halloween without a few devils here and there? We end this week and our series with another example of “nursery room grotesque” where we can both shudder and giggle.

Tuesday, October 20th,

“The Witches of Eastwick”

A rare treat to hear Susan Sarandon play the Dvořák Cello Concerto.  As an even more special treat you get to hear Jack Nicholson speak Czech in the second clip!!

 Monday, October 19th

Sand Animation, The Noon Witch

One of the composer’s most ghoulish works is the tone poem, The Noon Witch.  This is an animated version using sand to set the tale.

Friday, October 9th

Frank Valdor—“Humoreske” (1969)

 Valdor, known for his 60s dance party tunes, rewrites Dvořák’s “Humoresque” for marimba, scatting choir, saxophone, guitar, and drums. It’s heavy on the syncopation and vaguely resembles Afro-Latin dance styles. It’s very “groovy.”

Thursday, October 8th

O Mega— “Peace & Harmony” (1998)

 This bit of French techno/electronica cites Dvořák as a call for a more peaceful America and world. The lyrics are: “I have a dream coming through the dark skies of civilization. I explore the dark sides of your mind, of your hopes and fears. A deep breath in all of us is an instrument of the same symphony. I transform the dead bodies into living images living in peace and harmony.”

Wednesday, October 7th

James Last—“Slavonic Dance no. 10” (1969)

 James Last reimagines Dvořák’s Dance with synthesized voices, accordion, mandolin, and the strings of the James Last Orchestra. The result is reminiscent of the Mantovani Orchestra—with saccharine strings and a “cascading” orchestral sound.

Tuesday, October 6th

Serge Gainsbourg— “Initials B.B.” (1968)

 Serge Gainsbourg’s illustrious tryst with French singer and sex symbol, Brigitte Bardot, wasn’t long-lived but it is immortalized in this song. “Initials B.B.” is an ode to Bardot, weaving together references to key moments in their relationship, including nods to Dvořák and Edgar Allan Poe.

Friday, October 2nd

František Xaver Brixi—Concerto for Organ and Orchestra in F major: I. Allegro moderato

Brixi is best known for his organ concerti and this piece highlights why. It has the jauntiness of Mozart and the unexpected playfulness of Haydn and the je ne sais quoi of Brixi.

Wednesday, September 30th

Antonin Dvořák—Rondo in G minor, op. 94 (1891/1893)

Dvořák dedicated this work to the same cellist as his Cello Concerto, Hanuš Wihan (cellist of the Bohemian String Quartet/Czech String Quartet). It is a virtuosic concert piece that erupts into a dance-like middle section. The orchestration was completed during Dvořák’s time in the United States.

Tuesday, September 29th

Bohuslav Martinů—Symphony No. 2, H. 295: III. Poco allegro (1943)

Martinů’s Second Symphony had its premiere with the Cleveland Symphony and was commissioned by the “American Friends of Czechoslovakia” to celebrate the 25th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. In many ways, this bucolic and frolicsome work could be thought of as an ode to freedom and Czech heritage.

Monday, September 28th

Karel Husa: Pastorale (1979)

This neo-romantic piece for string orchestra, commissioned by the American String Teachers Association, is a warm and heartfelt exploration in expansive harmony. Karel Husa was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for his String Quartet no. 3 in 1969.  

Friday, September 25th

Jaroslav Doubrava—Don Quijote (Suite from the Ballet): Dance in a Tavern (1955)

 The first couple of seconds could pass as a movement from Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. Doubrava dedicates this ballet “to Don Quijote in each of us.”   

Thursday, September 24th

Jan Dismas Zelenka—Overture à 7 concertanti in F major, ZWV 188: Grave-Allegro-Grave (1723)

 This stately Baroque overture in a French style seems unassuming but wait for it…at the end there’s a glorious dissonant interruption that comes from nowhere that encapsulates Zelenka’s uniqueness as a composer.  

Wednesday, September 23rd

Leoš Janáček— From the House of the Death: Overture (1930)

 This opera is Janacek’s modernist take on the Dostoyevsky’s novel of the same name. The story grittily recounts the life of prisoners at a Siberian work camp through vignettes of murderous revenge, forlorn love, corporal punishment, and questions of authority. The opera makes clear the consequences of imprisonment and forced captivity.

Tuesday, September 22nd

Bedřich Smetana—The Secret (Tajemství): Overture (1878)

 Smetana’s opera is a comic opera filled with hush-hush love affairs, regretful gold-diggers, and a treasure hunt…only the treasure is “love.” This pompous and academic overture (listen for the fugues) seems almost out of place for such a comic opera.

Monday, September 21st

Josef Suk—Piano Quartet in A minor, op.1 (1891): II. Adagio (1891)

 Completed as an assignment for his teacher, Antonin Dvořák, Suk displays pure lyrism in the soaring melodies and mournful solos.

Friday, September 18th

František Škroup—String Quartet no.1 in F major, op.24 (ca. 1841): IV. Finale

F. Škroup, best known as the composer of the Czech national anthem, gives us a lighthearted and quirky finale movement with cheeky silences and flourishes.

Thursday, September 17th

Pavel Haas—String Quartet op. 3, no. 1 (1920)

This dramatic and cinematic single-movement quartet opens plaintively, landing briefly on colorful seventh chords, and then accelerates into a gruff middle section.

Wednesday, September 16th

Karel Kovařovic—String Quartet no. 1 in D major: I. Allegro moderato

If chamber music is said to be a conversation between the musicians, this quartet proves that idea. The uncomplicated and expansive melody in the violin is augmented by echoes in the second violin, substantial interjections from the viola, and tonal anchors in the cello.

Tuesday, September 15th

Zdeněk Fibich—String Quartet no. 1 in A major: II. Andante semplice (1874)

Fibich presents meandering and improvisatory melodies that are interrupted by jerking unison gestures in this movement.

Monday, September 14th

Carl Czerny—String Quartet in E minor: III. Scherzo

Czerny is mostly known for his compositions for piano, but he composed between twenty and forty string quartets. This scherzo movement is reminiscent of clarity and intensity of Mendelssohn string works.

 Friday, September 11th

Bedřich Nikodém—“Poustevník” from Pearls of the Deep (1965) 

Nikodém’s darling waltz from the absurdist 1965 film based on the short stories of Bohumil Hrabal.  

 Thursday, September 10th

Fran Lhotka—The Devil in the Village (ballet-1935): Act I, Scene 4 (Fair) 

Lhotka, a student of Dvořák, presents us with the capricious incidental music for The Devil in the Village, his most popular ballet.  

Wednesday, September 9th

Ondřej Soukup—Tmavomodrý svět (Dark Blue World) (1977) 

 Academy Award-nominated Czech composer, Ondřej Soukup, stirs up lamentation and intrigue in this score for the film “Dark Blue World.” The film tells of Czech fighter pilots in the Royal Air Force during WWII.  

Tuesday, September 8th

Luboš Fišer—Piano Sonata no. 1: 1. Allegro moderato (1955) 

Fišer is known for his film scores accompanying 1970s horror and sci-fi films like “On the Comet” and “Valerie and Her Week of Wonders.” In this Piano Sonata, we hear contrasts between undulating pianism and angular, weighty chords. 

Wednesday, September 2nd

Otakar Zich—Elegie (1904) 

It begins with a hymn; you can almost imagine the words that would be sung. Otakar Zich (1879-1934) was a largely self-taught Czech composer, an aesthetic philosopher, and a musicologist.  

Tuesday, September 1st

Jan Kalivoda—Six Nocturnes, op. 186, no. 4: Allegretto, ma un poco vivo (1851) 

These Nocturnes, gems of the Romantic viola repertoire, were kept unpublished for 30 years. In this unpretentious and sweet allegretto movement, the deep registers of the viola shine. Why was Kalivoda so dedicated to the viola? 

Monday, August 31st

Karl Stamitz—Viola Concerto in D major, op. 1: III. Rondo (ca. 1774) 

 Hear the virtuosic rondo finale to this Classical viola concerto. Some of the technical fireworks prefigure innovations by Paganini, Sauret, and others.  

Friday, August 28th

Johann Nepomuk Hummel—Potpourri mit Fantasie, Op. 94 (1820)

“Potpourri” is a musical form— a medley made from the latest “hit tunes.” Hummel’s take on this potpourri shows the virtuosity of the viola by orchestrating melodies from popular Mozart (Don Giovanni, Marriage of Figaro, and Abduction from the Seraglio) and Rossini (Tancredi). Since the tunes were for keyboard and viola, amateurs could bring opera into their own homes.

Monday, August 17th

The twentieth week of From DAHA With Love is dedicated to the spirit, the beauty, and the music of Moravia:

Martinů, Songs on Two Pages, “The Moravian Girl”

Přiletěl ptáček z cizí krajiny,                            A little bird flew in from a foreign land,

donesl psaní, v něm pozdravení.                    Bringing a message with greetings.

Bych se podíval do země české,                     I should take a look at this Czech land,                     

že jsou tam taky děvčátka hezké.                   Because there are also pretty girls there.

Zůstanu radši v jihlavském kraji,                     I would rather stay in the Jihlava region

najdu si děvče hezké z Moravy.                      And find a pretty Moravian girl.

Moravka chodi přímo jak svíce,                      A Moravian girl walks straight like a candle.

každá má k chlapcům upřímně srdce.            Each one loves her swain with a pure heart.

Dvořák, Moravian Duet #1

Friday, August 14th

We end the week with a salute to Sir Charles Mackerras.  His recording of Jaromir Weinberger’s “Polka and Fugue” from Švanda the Bagpiper.

Thursday, August 13th

In honor of the Bard Festival’s now streaming production of Dvořák’s Dimitrij, the overture to Act 2.

Wednesday, August 12th

More from the wonderful Josef Suk.  The second movement of Janáček’s Violin Sonata.  Maybe his best tune ever in the middle.

Tuesday, August 11th

“Melody” by Joseph Kocian, played by Josef Suk. 

Monday, August 10th

William Warfield, an early DAHA supporter sings “Deep River” in Harry Burleigh’s arrangement.  This is one of the possible source tunes for the “New World” Largo.

Friday, August 7th

And to end the week a breathtaking (and breathless) performance by Antonín Kubálek of Martinů’s brilliant “Etude in F” from Book 3 of Etudes and Polkas.

Thursday, August 6th

Everyone knows the “Song to the Moon,” but the greatest treasure in Rusalka is this final scene.  Dedicated to all who have loved deeply during these months.

Wednesday, August 5th

One of Dvořák’s most beautiful and soulful movements.  According to documents the melody was one the composer wrote as a possible replacement for the “Star-Spangled Banner.”

Tuesday, August 4th

Ježek’s classic tune, “Svítá” (literally “shining” meaning the sun’s up).  You know it’s Czech jazz when the lyrics mention “the woods”…

Monday, August 3rd

We start off the week with the great Rudolf Firkušný playing Smetana’s exhilarating “Slepička” from the Czech Dances.

Friday, July 31st

Dvořák’s Slavonic Dance, Op.46, No.8…for trombone quartet!

Thursday, July 30th

A tribute to school music with a Middle School recording of an orchestral arrangement of the first of Dvořák’s Four Romantic Pieces.

Wednesday, July 29th

One of America’s great heroes, Paul Robeson, singing “Goin’ Home.”

Tuesday, July 28th

Kirsten Flagstad’s beautiful recording of Dvorak’s most famous song.

Charles Ives’ setting of the same text.

Monday, July 27th

The immortal Art Tatum with his ineffable reading of the famous “Humoresque.”

Friday, July 24th

Bohuslav Martinů “Loutkové divadlo”

The opening of Book II of Martinů’s Marionette collection, a perfect miniature with its tiny fanfare of a puppet show about to start. 

Thursday, July 23rd

“Dybych byla tak jak nejsu bohatá” (If I Were Rich)

A wonderful Moravian song, “If I were rich, which I am not, I would tie a golden chain around my beloved, so he would never leave me”.

Wednesday, July 22nd

Václav Kaprál, Nocturne

Kaprál was a student of Janáček’s and father of Vítězslava Kaprálová. In this piece we can hear a fusion of late romantic, impressionist and local compositional styles.

Tuesday, July 21st

Myslivecek - Mentre dormi 

An aria by the wonderful Josef Mysliveček from his opera Olympiade.

Monday, July 20th

Dvořák, Quartet in Ab, Op.105

The opening movement of one of Dvořák’s most transcendent works in a beautifully sensitive recording by the Prague Quartet from 1937.

Friday, July 17th

Jaroslav Ježek, Laďka Kozderková – “Život je jen náhoda”

One of the greatest Czech songs, the bluesy “Život je jen náhoda,” a hymn to the power of love with the chorus, “Life is but chance; sometimes you’re up and sometimes you’re down; life flows just like water flows; and death is like the ocean.”

Thursday, July 16th

Jožka Kubík and Slávek Volavý

This short clip features the great Romani musician Jožka Kubík, and commemorates the contribution of thousands of Romani musicians to the musical life of the Czech Lands.

Wednesday, July 15th

Karel Kovařovic, The Dogheads, Act 1, Scene 1

The opening scene of his opera Psohlavci has a remarkable folkloristic opening, with a soprano singing offstage.  Each iteration of the melody has a different harmonization, which owes something to the Russian romantics like Rimsky-Korsakov.  As the two male characters begin their scene, you can hear the legacy of Kovařovic's teacher Fibich.  The scene also contains most of the motifs found in the rest of the score. (Brian Locke)

Tuesday, July 14th

Josef Suk, String Quartet #1, Op.11, Intermezzo (Tempo di Marcia)

A wonderful and energetic scherzo/march movement from the 22-year-old Josef Suk.

Monday, July 13th

Dvořák, Rusalka, “Song to the Moon” Lei Xu

The most famous moment from Czech opera, and one of the world’s most beloved operatic arias.

Friday, July 10th

Pavel Bořkovec, Piano Concerto #1, first movement

DAHA’s President, Dr. Susan Lucak requested something by Bořkovec, and we have chosen the opening movement of his first piano concerto, played beautifully by the great Jan Panenka.

Thursday, July 9th

Two Wine Songs, arr. Michael Beckerman

Vínečko Bílé (White wine)

Pohár Vína Zaplatím (I’m buying a cup of wine)

Moravia is a wine-drinking region and I’ve arranged two of my favorite wine songs.  The first presents the classic dilemma: whether to drink white red wine, each coming from a different sweetheart.  The resolution: “I’ll drink both!”  The second song is famous for its multiple repetitions of “let us drink.”

Wednesday, July 8th

František Drdla, Souvenir (Eugene Ormandy)

Drdla was a composer of light music and this hit from 1940 is played by Eugene Ormandy and probably accompanied by his wife.

Tuesday, July 7th

Vitězslav Novák,  Vzpominky (Reminiscences) , Op. 6: III. Amoroso

This piece, was recommended by Czech scholar Brian Locke who said it reminded him of Rachmaninoff.

Monday, July 6th

Dvořák, Quintet in Eb, Op.97, 2nd movement

A fantastic movement from one of Dvořák’s greatest works.  The opening tune was borrowed from one of the African American tunes the composer was given shortly after he arrived in the United States.  The power of the movement lies in the deep contrast between the extroverted and almost wild dance and the desperately sad middle section.

Friday, July 3rd

Duke Ellington, “Black” from Black, Brown and Beige

This version was recorded in March of 1965 and only was released in 1985.When the great Czech novelist Josef Škvorecký was writing his novel Dvořák in Love he became convinced that the immortal Ellington had been influenced by the “New World” Symphony. And certainly, considering that Dvořák’s student Will Marion Cook was one of Ellington’s great influences, perhaps it is not too much of a stretch to consider Ellington one of the Czech composer’s musical offspring. We honor Ellington in light of current events and also acknowledge Ellington’s deep and enduring relationship with our own Maurice Peress.

Read more and listen: The Music Plays On - Ellington Black, Brown and Beige 

Thursday, July 2nd

Sylvie Bodorová Symphony #1

Sylvie Bodorová is one of the leading composers in the Czech Republic.   Her Symphony No.1 is subtitled “Con le campane” (with bells) and it is a powerful and joyous work.

Wednesday, July 1st

Martin Kaplan and Josef “Pepik” Fiala are two of the most gifted musicians in the Czech Republic, and their arrangements of South Bohemian songs are memorable.  This posting features three songs, “K Budějicům cesta,” (On the Road to Budějovice), “Jedou formani,” (The Carter’s Farewell), and Až Budou Lovit (Hunting Song).

Tuesday, June 30th

Jindřich Feld, Viola Sonata

Jindřich Feld (1925-2007) was an important and prolific composer spanning the last half of the 20th century.  And he was a man of the 20th century whose original and brilliant works draw on the spirits of Martinů, Bartók, Stravinsky as well as Debussy and French music.  Feld was an excellent violist and we can hear his sensitivity to the instrument in this wonderful sonata.

Monday, June 29th

Karel Husa, Music for Prague 1968

There are only a limited number of works of social protest in the classical music canon, but this is one of the most powerful, written by Karel Husa after the Invasion of Prague in 1968.  We dedicate it to those who have stood up for freedom at great risk to their own welfare. 

Friday, June 26th

Josef Suk, V nový život “Towards A New Life”

This march was written by Suk as part of a “musical competition” for the 1932 Olympics where it received the Silver Medal (no gold was given).  With its stirring opening fanfares it became a favorite, and eventually had a nationalist text put to it.  And who can object if, in Suk’s hands the march and the polka fuse as the main theme?

Thursday, June 25th

“Three Folksongs” arr. Michael Beckerman

Dr. Susan Lucak, DAHA’s President, requested that we feature some additional Czech folk songs on our series, and gave me a list of her favorites.  I’ve made arrangements of the following songs.  “Ach synku, synku,” “Aj, lasko, lasko,” and Teče voda, teče.“

Wednesday, June 24th

Vaclav Pichl (suggested by Marcus Pyle) String Trio in Bb, Op.7, no.3, Adagio

Václav Pichl was a prolific Bohemian Classical composer, educated at the University of Prague, and friends with Michael Haydn, Dittersdorf, and Mozart. Here, in this Adagio movement, Pichl explores intimate and heart-rending suspensions suggestive of Baroque counterpoint.  

Tuesday, June 23rd

Bloudění v rytmu (Wandering in Rhythm) Jiří Traxler singer, Inka Zemánková

I asked the noted scholar of Czech music, Prof. Brian Locke to select some music for us.  These are his comments: 

I chose Jiří Traxler's 1941 song Bloudění v rytmu (Wandering in Rhythm) for several reasons.  Traxler (1912-2011) was one of the most important Czech swing-era composers in the 1940s, who led a fascinating life in turbulent times.  As one of the most educated musicians in the popular music community of Prague, he was often called upon to assist others with harmonization, arrangement, lyrics, and translation. His main contract was with the publishing company of R. A. Dvorský, which stayed afloat even during the Nazi occupation--though at some risk, especially after Heydrich and the closure of dance halls.  Two of his other close colleagues are also featured in the recording of Bloudění v rytmu: the iconic vocalist Inka Zemánková (1915-2000) and the orchestra led by Karel Vlach (1911-1986): along with Traxler, these three represented the "hot" sound prefered by Czech youth in the occupation.  For these listeners--among them, the youthful Josef Škvorecký, entranced and empowered by this song in particular--Bloudění served as a generational anthem.

 As with roughly a quarter of his song output, Traxler co-wrote his own lyrics for Bloudění v rytmu (with Dvorský's staff lyricist Karel Kozel).  I translate it as follows:

I only have one desire,

I’ll give my life for it,

I wander in the rhythm of the melody

that I love so much.

And therefore all day

I only sing and dance.

I wander in the rhythm of the melody,

everything seems to me like a dream.

My heart beats in syncopation,

so I must dance on.

My body and soul

the rhythm of swing has taken, just like the devil.

Monday, June 22nd

Ivana Loudová (1941 –2017) Pozdrav slunci

Ivana Loudová was an important and versatile Czech composer.  A student of both Miloslav Kabeláč and Olivier Messiaen, in addition to her orchestral and chamber compositions she wrote important works for both wind ensemble and chorus.  This hauntingly beautiful work, Greetings to the Sun welcomes Week 12 of From DAHA with Love with a powerful modern reworking of both monophonic and polyphonic textures.

Friday, June 19th

Scott Jopin, Maple Leaf Rag, Maurice Peress and the Kansas City Philharmonic

We end the week by once again saluting one of country’s great African American composers. But also we salute the memory of the conductor, our very own Maestro Maurice Peress, who himself was a passionate advocate for African American composers, and also for freedom, fairness and respect for all people.

Thursday, June 18th

Fibich, Poem, Michaela Fukačková, Cello and Piano

Another gem by the Fukačková duo.  This time she plays the famous Poem of Fibich, a perfect composition for the cello.

Wednesday, June 17th

Copland, Fanfare for the Common Man

This piece is, after the ballets Appalachian Spring, Billy the Kid and Rodeo the most famous and often performed piece by Copland.  In a letter to composer Jerome Moross about another “American” work, Copland wrote, “those patriotic numbers are hard to do.”  But this is a stirring piece, with a combination of grit, regret and rebellion that can stand well in our current moment.

Tuesday, June 16th

Pavel Haas, String Quartet no.2 “From the Monkey Mountains”, mov’t 4

This exquisite movement is filled with surprises.  The obvious one is the presence of percussion in the original version, here restored.  But the most beautiful surprise is a reminiscence of a reminiscence of one of Haas’ own songs “When I Arrived My Sweetheart was Still Sleeping” at just about the “Golden Section” point of the movement.

Monday, June 15th

Ondřej Anton, Hunting Calls

Not much is known about Anton who died in 1831.  He was a trumpet player and composer of occasional songs and hunting music who worked for the Schwarzenberk family.

This week we echo Dvořák’s commitment to social justice for all people, and especially for African Americans, with a selection of music by Black composers who either studied with Dvořák or were inspired by his works.  All of these remarkable musicians deserve to be better known.

Friday, June 12th

Margaret Bonds (1913-1972), “Wade in the Water”

Bonds was an important African American composer, pianist and music director for the theater.  This is her own arrangement of the famous song. 

Thursday, June 11th

Samuel Coleridge Taylor, “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast”

Coleridge Taylor was one of the most important Black composers of concert music.  His biggest “hit” was the Song of Hiawatha, partly inspired by Dvořák, whose music he revered.  This selection is probably the most famous part of the work, “Hiawatha’s Wedding Feast.”

Wednesday, June 10th

Harry Burleigh sings “Go Down Moses”

Henry Thacker Burleigh was a student of Dvořák’s and one of the composer’s best friends in the United States.  This is the only recording of Burleigh’s voice, and while it may not be the singer at his best (he hated recording) it is a stirring rendition of Burleigh’s own arrangement.  

Tuesday, June 9th

Will Marion Cook, “Swing Along”

Cook was a brilliant violinist and composer who studied with Dvořák.  He was one of the creators of American musical theater with shows like Clorindy and In Dahomey.  This song is from his 1929 show of the same name.

Monday, June 8th

Florence Price (1887-1953), Symphony in E Minor, mov’t 3

Price was a pioneering African American composer.  Her Symphony in E minor was written in 1932 and premiered by the Chicago Symphony the following year.  This third movement uses the Juba rhythm and is filled with exquisite orchestral touches. 

Friday, June 5th

Martinů, Piano Concerto #3, mov’t 3, Moderato-Allegro, Rudolf Firkušný

We close the week with this astonishing movement.  The first third of the movement is a transparent and carnivalesque folk dance but, after a sudden crash we find ourselves in what is essentially a kind of bizarre fantasia, shifting from one idea to another, culminating in a powerful series of cadenzas, before returning, beautifully but almost half-heartedly to the opening strains. 

Thursday, June 4th

“Kneždub Tower Blues,” Michael Beckerman

There are two dedicatees for this piece.  The first is the composer Gideon Klein (1919-1945) who used this tune as the theme for the variations movement of his Terezin String Trio.  But I was also inspired by the great Swedish pianist Jan Johansson (1931-68) who brilliantly fused jazz and folk music.

Wednesday, June 3rd

Karel Kovařovic, Adagio from String Quartet #3 (unfinished)

Karel Kovařovic (1862-1920), former director of the Prague National Theatre, is largely known for his 7 operas, commissioning Dvorak’s opera Armida, and for his controversial revisions of Janáček's Jenůfa. Here we hear his charming and wistful Adagio from his unfinished String Quartet no. 3 in G major.  

Tuesday, June 2nd

Erik Entwistle, Six Variations on a theme by Vita Kaprálová

From the composer: “Kaprálová was 14 years old when she wrote a charming, untitled miniature in 1929.  In the style of a lullaby, the piece is so tantalizingly brief that I wanted to expand upon it with a set of variations, which I composed in 2018 as a tribute to Kaprálová’s extraordinary talent. The variations at times echo the impressionistic style of Kaprálová’s miniature, while also referencing other musical styles that could have been heard during the time of the composer’s youth.” 

Monday, June 1st

Agnes Tyrell (1846-83)  Die Könige in Israel - Overture in C-minor (Ca. 1880)

This remarkable work was posted by the scholar Karla Hartl last week and deserves a wider audience.  Tyrrell lived and worked in Brno for almost her entire career and despite a few mentions here and there is almost completely unknown.  The quality of this dramatic and triumphant work makes it clear that she merits rediscovery.

Friday, May 29th

Václav Karel Holan Rovenský: Již slunce z hvězdy vyšlo (The Sun has Come Forth From the Star)

This celebratory song by the great Rovenský (1644-1718) is beautifully performed by the Ritornello Ensemble. 

Thursday, May 28th

Janácek Sinfonietta, movement 2

One of the most exciting movements in the orchestral repertoire.  A folklike outer section builds dramatically to frame “motionless” fanfares in the middle.  In memory of Jiří Bělohlavek.

Wednesday, May 27th

“Louka zelena” the Green Meadow Waltz, Adolph Hofner

Adolph Hofner was sometimes called “The Bing Crosby of Country Music,” and in this recording we have a classic (and irresistible) “Czech-American” sound.

Tuesday, May 26th

Eugen Suchoň “Pictures from Slovakia

Eugen Suchoň (1908-1993) was one of the most important Slovak composers of the 20th century.  These “pictures” are based on folk music beautifully arranged for wind quintet.

Monday, May 25th

Jarmila Novotna and Jan Masaryk perform Czech folksongs

These three charming folksong arrangements are performed by the opera star Novotná and Jan Masaryk.  The middle song, “Teče voda teče” was a favorite of the pianist’s father, Tomáš Garrigue Masaryk.

Listen here.

Friday, May 22nd

Jaroslav Ježek (1906-1942), “Bugatti Step”

The mostly blind “Czech Gershwin” had a double career.  He was a member of the European avant-garde and also the leading jazz musician in Czechoslovakia until he was forced to emigrate in 1938.  The effervescent “Bugatti Step” takes its inspiration from the Czech race car driver Eliška Junková who drove the car of the same name.  It opens with the sound of a car horn. 

Thursday, May 21st

Jan Dismas Zelenka (1679-1745), “Benedictus” from Missa Votiva, Collegium 1704

This very special section of Zelenka’s mass is written as if to depict the soaring of angels, and is angelically performed by Stanislava Mihalcová.

Wednesday, May 20th

Jan Novak, (1921-84) Sonata super Hoson Zes, I. Allegro moderato

Jan Novak was a brilliant and original figure whose music deserves to be known better.  He studied with Martinů and writes in a style which, like Martinů’s, is both edgy and traditional.  This composition is based on the oldest complete notated song, the so called “Seikilos Epitaph,” a Greek inscription with notation found in Southwest Turkey. The song can be heard in its entirely several times in the first movement and the performance features the composer’s daughter. 

Tuesday, May 19th

Antonín Dvořák Slavonic Dance in Ab, Op.46, Leslie Kinton and James Anagnoson

This is one of the greatest of Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances with an exquisitely mysterious middle section and a lovely reference to Smetana’s Bartered Bride dances.

Monday, May 18th

Antonín Dvořák (1841-1904)  Lullaby and Capriccio, Radoslav Kvapil, piano

These two rarely performed pieces date from Dvořák’s American period, and it is quite possible that the Lullaby is based on the place in Longfellow’s Song of Hiawatha when Nokomis lulls Hiawatha to sleep singing the words:

"Ewa-yea! my little owlet!
Who is this, that lights the wigwam?
With his great eyes lights the wigwam?
Ewa-yea! my little owlet!"

Friday, May 15th

Smetana, Trio in G Minor, mov’t 3, Josef Suk, Michaela Fukačová, Jan Panenka

We round out the week with Smetana’s powerful G minor Trio.  Written in response to the death of his daughter, and invoking the spirit of Clara Schumann who he had thought of as a model for his daughter, it is by turns assertive and reflective.  The presence of Michaela Fukačová bookends our week, as does the appearance of Josef Suk, grandson of the composer of Monday’s “Love Song.”

Thursday, May 14th

Variations on a Fake Moravian Folksong, Michael Beckerman, composer and pianist

From the composer/performer: When I lived in Brno in the 1970’s pub evenings would often end with folks sitting around and singing the old songs.  I grew to love many of them, and I offer this composite “made up” song as a tribute to all of those times in this kaleidoscopic variation set that explores and comments on the tune.

Tuesday, May 12th

Dvořák, Nocturne in B Major for Strings 

A very special little work by Antonín Dvořák, far removed in style and mood from his familiar Slavonic Dances and 'New World' Symphony, is his Nocturne for String Orchestra in B major—a work that caresses us with its heavenly calm in this troubled and stressful time. This music goes back to the period when Dvořák was a humble orchestra member totally unknown as a composer, as part of a string quartet whose score he apparently later destroyed, salvaging however this one section, adding an introduction and conclusion to form a separate piece, this exquisite gem.

Monday, May 11th

Suk, Píseň lásky (Love Song)Michaela Fukačová, cello and piano

The Song of Love is the first of Josef Suk’s Op.7 piano pieces, written at almost the same time as Dvořák’s “New World” Symphony.  But here there is a much more chromatic kind of musical thinking involved.  This gorgeous, melting performance by Michael Fukačová is based on the outer sections of the composition and wisely omits the middle section of the work, which is much too pianistic for the cello! 

Friday, May 8th

Zdeněk Fibich, Quintet for Piano, Clarinet, Horn, Violin and Cello in D Major, Scherzo

Fibich’s quintet is a genuinely original work.  The Scherzo is more like a large rondo, or one could call it a scherzo with two exquisite Trios.  In the first trio, the horn takes over, the second is one of the prettiest things in Czech music, or anywhere for that matter.  A delicate “Roma-inflected” furiant vies with sections recalling Mahler’s Symphony #1, written at almost the same time.

Thursday, May 7th

Alois Haba, Quartet No.6, Op.50, movements 2 and 3, Momenta Quartet playing in the Bohemian National Hall

A brilliant and influential musician, Alois Haba is most famous for his microtonal compositions, especially quarter-tones, which in the composer’s view make the music more expressive.  His string quartets are a body of work worthy of standing alongside those of Bartok and Shostakovich. 

Wednesday, May 6th

Cole Porter, "Use Your Imagination" performed by David Hoose and Amy Lieberman in their living room in March 2020.

The song first appeared in a 1950 Broadway flop called “Out of this World,” despite the fact it had one of Porter’s loveliest scores.  In the last seventy years the song has become one of the most beloved standards.

Tuesday, May 5th

Dvorak Slavonic Dance, Op.46 No.8 in G minor

Dvorak’s famous Slavonic Dances were originally written for piano four-hands and later orchestrated by the composer.  Number 8, the finále of the set, not only oscillates between major and minor, but also between syncopated two-against-three “furiant” rhythms and a gentle middle section.  Today’s From DAHA with Love offers both a wonderful brotherly reading of the original piano score, and Barenboim’s rugged reading of the orchestral version.

Monday, May 4th

Martinů Arabesques #5, Michaela Fukačová, cello and piano

This is one of many performances responding to Covid. Pianist Michaela Fukačová accompanies the great Czech cellist Michaela Fukačová in this lovely “living room” performance of the fifth movement from a seven-part set written in 1931.

Friday, May 1st

Janacek, “Intimate Letters” Momenta, Mov’t 3

One of the most exciting movements in one of the most exciting string quartets ever written.  In a letter to his lover Kamila, to whom the quartet is dedicated he said that this movement “will be very cheerful and then dissolve into a dream that resembles a painting of you." He also referred to a place in the movement "where the earth moved" and we can hear the powerful erotic passion in the very middle of the movement as the upper strings, playing together, go "outside the frame." 

Thursday, April 30th

Viktor Kalabis, Spring Whistles for wind quintet

For the premiere of this wind octet (2 oboes, 2 clarinets, 2 French horns, 2 bassoons), which took place on March 15, 1980 at the Prague Rudolfinum, the composer wrote a short poetic introduction:

„The sound of wind instruments perfectly corresponds to my spring inspirations, which have been steadily accompanying me for several years. Spring whistles awaken nature from the lethargy of winter, they awaken a person's faith in life. They wake up the branches of trees and shrubs, raise the sun above the horizon, raise the lark above the field and throw the silver rays of the sun into a small stream in the solitude of Kunějov. If a person hears their whistle, he too will quicken his step and his heart will be filled with a warm feeling of joy, an echo of youth. “

Wednesday, April 29th

Vitězslava Kaprálová, April Preludes, Virginia Eskin, piano

Kaprálová's story is as beautiful and stirring as it is tragic.  Primed for greatness, as both a composer and a conductor she was struck down by tuberculosis at the age of 25 during the Second World War.  Her four April Preludes were composed for the great Czech pianist Rudolf Firkušný, and it may well be that his elegance and depth inspired aspects of this deeply original set, along with the music of Janáček, Martinů, Debussy, and Moravian folk music.

Tuesday, April 28th

Piano Trio 333, by Aleš Březina, Guarneri Trio, Prague

The piano is a small orchestra, and in conjunction with the chamber orchestra offers an inexhaustible number of sound possibilities. That is why I gladly and gratefully accepted Karel Košárek's commission to write a composition for this ensemble for the Musica Holešov Festival. I replaced the classic three-movement form of the concerto with a four-movement form, in which each movement is named after one season. The final movement - Winter - ends with a coda that references the material of the first movement. This creates an architectonic arc for my composition, which I named after the most typical feature of my favorite season, Falling Leaves. The performers are Karel Košárek (piano), PKF_Prague Philharmonia and Gaetano d’Espinosa (conductor).

Monday, April 27th

Smetana, Polka in A Major, András Schiff, piano

This is one of Smetana's most delightful piano compositions.  The outer parts are pure carnival, filled with jokes, accents and strange syncopations.  The middle is something else altogether.  Here, a kind of recitative introduces ever-longer melodic fragments which eventually become a touching song.  

Friday, April 24th

Dvořák, “American Quartet” Finale Dvorak Trio + Laura Goldberg

Happy Friday!  Along with the “New World” Symphony and the Gb Humoresque, the “American” quartet is Dvořák’s most famous work from the American period. Today we feature the work’s finale, a movement of extraordinary charm and vitality.  While not a “dumka,” it alternates between a kind of “barn dance” opening and an exquisite lyrical passage. 

Thursday, April 23rd

Today’s two selections are by Czechoslovak composer Bohuslav Martinů (1890-1959), comments by Jack Meadow.

Martinu “Breakfast of the Virgin Mary,” from Four Songs of the Virgin

The first selection is “Maps,” the third tableau from Martinů’s mechanical ballet “without characters,” The Marvelous Flight (Le Raid merveilleux). This ballet, one of Martinů’s numerous efforts in the genre, was completed in September of 1927 but not performed until 1994. The  title liberally refers to the mysterious and tragic May 8, 1927 attempt by French aviators Nungesser (pilot) and Coli (navigator) to fly from Paris to New York. “Maps,” a string-heavy tableau, begins in a “learned” contrapuntal manner and soars to rarefied spaces. 

Martinu, “The Amazing Flight”

The second selection is “Our Lady’s Breakfast” (“Snídaní Panny Marie”), the third song from Martinů’s Four Songs about Mary for mixed (SATB) chorus. Martinů completed these Czech-language a cappella choruses in Paris in the winter of 1934, and the pieces premiered in Prague in 1935. “Our Lady’s Breakfast” is an at times ludicrous tale of the Virgin Mary and her newborn son searching for food, encountering strangers, and waiting for the sun to come out. The words of “Our Lady’s Breakfast,” as is the case for the collection’s three remaining songs, are taken from František Sušil’s massive collection of Moravian folk poetry. These choral pieces will sound like nothing you have ever heard before, and Martinů, who noted in an unpublished essay that he composed the Four Songs in “my own way,” would have concurred.

Wednesday, April 22nd

Bach Prelude in E Major, Iskandar

This recording by Iskandar Widjaja was performed at a DAHA concert in November of 2019.  The sparkle, power and downright chutzpah of Bach’s solo violin works never ceases to amaze.

Tuesday, April 21st

We have two selections to share with you today!

Adam Michna, “The Friendship of Angels”

Some of the most beautiful treasures of music in the Czech Lands come from the 17th century.  Adam Michna’s Czech Lute is a meditation on the spirit and the flesh, and its most famous song is “The Friendship of Angels,” using a melody that may have inspired Papageno’s aria from The Magic Flute.

Holan Rovensky, “Ach můj nejsladší Ježíši”

Rovensky was a follower of Michna’s who compiled a vast hymnal featuring music of all kinds.  This duet, beautifully performed by boy sopranos Adam Otta and David Cizner, gives a sample of the composer’s musical gifts.

Monday, April 20th

Humoresque #1, Moshe Knoll, DAHA

Welcome to week 3 of From DAHA with Love.  Dvořák was not known primarily as a composer for piano, but the Humoresques are an exception to this, particularly the most famous one in Gb.  The whole set is put together as a series of musical vignettes of a particularly American character.  This first one of the set alternates a passage probably inspired by Native American music, with a softer, lyrical interior.

Friday, April 17th

Martinů, Who is the Most Powerful in the World

The ballet Who is the Most Powerful in the World is the breakthrough moment in the stage works of Bohuslav Martinů. In it the composer finally left the dark sounding worlds of late romanticism and the shimmering sounds of impressionism and wrote a piece free from all the complications of earlier styles and influenced partly by jazz. This piece which Martinů called "a ballet about mice" is very funny and is an easy listening work that immediately caught the attention of the audience. The basic idea of the libretto, written by a composer (based on an old fairy tale known in many European and Asian countries) expresses the belief that the most powerful person in the world is not the one who think himself the strongest (or permanently tweets it). Ultimately, the strongest are those who seem weakest--when they work together. And these are the chipper little mice in this case. In this respect, the ballet is perhaps even more topical today than it was when it was created in 1920's.

Thursday, April 16th

Moravian Folk Song and variants “Široký potoček”, Broln Ensemble

Michael Beckerman DAHA, Fugue for Koto on Široký potoček

Michael Beckerman DAHA, The Little Brook is Wide

These pieces are dedicated to all those separated from their loved ones during this moment.  The first clip is the wonderful Moravian song “Široký potoček” (The Wide Brooklet) followed by a fugue for koto on the opening of the song. This is followed by a short composition that combines this tune with the famous “The Water is Wide,” as a fantasy of diminutions and augmentations for marimba and clarinet.

Wednesday, April 15th

Dvořák, Sonatina Op.100, Mov’t 1, Laura Goldberg, DAHA violin; David Oei, piano

Dvořák dedicated his Op.100 “to my little children”.  Written in his “American style” of pentatonic scales and the sharp “Scotch snap” accent just before the premiere of his “New World” Symphony, this was one of his attempts to capture something peculiarly American. We dedicate it to all the children who are living through this unusual time.

Tuesday, April 14th

“Balm in Gilead”, Harry Burleigh. Performed by Marti Newland, soprano; Moshe S. Knoll, DAHA, piano.

Henry Thacker Burleigh was a friend an informal student of Dvořák’s at the National Conservatory.  Dvořák learned an enormous amount from Burleigh’s renditions of African American songs, and Burleigh incorporated Dvořák’s sense of harmony into his compositions.

Thursday, April 9th

“L’cha dodi” František Škroup (1801-1862)

Škroup is well-known as the composer of what is today the Czech national anthem.  Less known is the fact that he served as organist and wrote music for the Prague synagogue.  This hymn for Shabbat eve was originally composed for a boy’s choir. This is one of the two only known recordings of Škroup's synagogue compositions and features a female choir from the University of Ostrava. This selection is specially chosen in honor of the Passover holiday.

Wednesday, April 8th

Dvořák Terzetto, mov’t 1, Martinu Quartet

The Dvořák Terzetto was composed in 1887 as a kind of occasional piece, with the composer himself as violist.  The “Introduction” from the Terzetto for strings is one of Dvořák’s most transparent compositions, with a simple radiance, and it serves to “introduce” a touching romance and also our series From DAHA With Love.