Dvořák, Krása, Klein, Janáček

I only recently added Antonín Dvořák’s Evening Songs to my repertoire. Although I already knew them from the conservatoire, until now I haven’t had the opportunity to begin performing them regularly. The reason why the Evening Songs are less well known than other Dvořák songs is apparently that they vary in quality. Among them are some real pearls along with some less distinctive numbers. From the several opuses into which the songs are divided, I have chosen the songs that seem to me to be the most interesting and the strongest musically. First I performed them with piano, then later I asked the excellent Czech composer Jiří Gemrot to orchestrate them. The result is the collection to be heard at these subscription concerts, to which we have also added two songs from Opus 2, which are also exceptionally effective. I hope they will reach a far wider range of listeners thanks to the orchestral arrangement. Firstly, song recitals have always been something of a minority genre, and secondly, many singers around the world will certainly want to choose this arrangement because they will be able to sing Dvořák’s Evening Songs with orchestra.

Hans Krása belongs to a group of Jewish composers whose works were preserved only in archives and have never been published. That is also how we discovered the score of the Four Orchestral Songs, which to the contrary do not exist in a piano version. Completing the evening’s musical spectrum is Gideon Klein’s Lullaby, also orchestrated by Jiří Gemrot. I’m really looking forward to the concert because unlike my husband, I don’t hear music immediately just from looking at the score. I’m very curious about what the songs will sound like and how the audience will like them.