Prague Spring underway
2004 is the Year of Czech Music and the Prague Spring International Music Festival has taken that into account, concentrating on the world-renowned Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. During the festival Prague audiences will get to hear all nine of Dvorak's symphonies, including the rather underestimated first four symphonies. The festival always concludes with Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 but this year's closing concert on June 2nd will feature Antonin Dvorak's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World" instead.
Dvorak's rarely played Symphony No. 6 in D major was performed on Thursday by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under the baton of the American conductor Leonard Slatkin.
Before the concert Mr Slatkin met with journalists and said it was a privilege to play Dvorak in the composer's home country. He also said a few words about Czech music.
"Looking back you hear the influence of Bohemia as being specific to Smetana, you hear the influence of different parts for Dvorak, different parts for Janacek, different parts for Suk. It was a very national kind of music for the different regions of the area at the time.
"These composers reflected their heritage, their upbringing, the folk music of the time, the dancing of the time. Since the folk music and the dancing haven't changed too much, except the contemporary culture which is more influenced by the western cultures, I suppose if was to go to a programme of the contemporary Czech composers I probably wouldn't be able to say where they are from, because the times have changed.
"In the States it was always interesting because a composer like Aaron Copeland could write on one hand the ballet called "Billy the Kid" which was about the West but he could also write "Appalachian Spring" which is about the mountains in the East." So we didn't have these regional distinctions in our classical music. You have them here."
"My grandparents on both sides of the family came to the United States from Odessa in 1904. Russian was spoken in our house when I was little but I don't remember much of it. Clearly, there is no such name as Slatkin in Russian. Because when people would arrive near the Statue of Liberty the immigration officer would ask the name, he would write something down, he would give the paper to the officers.
"In our case my grandfather must have said something and the man thought it sounded like Slatkin and he wrote down Slatkin. And whenever we would ask our grandmother what was our name in Russia, she would say: 'Our life began when we came to the United States. We are Slatkin.' But that being said, I've always felt very close to this repertoire, anyway. I do a lot of the Russian and Slavic material with my one teacher being from Prague, actually, Walter Susskind, and my other teacher being from Paris, his name was Jean Morel.
"Just because of their influence I felt very comfortable with all this music. I'm never sure why I got interested in English music because I don't have anybody in my family who was from England. Maybe I just love the music. I love most music, there's not so much that I don't like."
The BBC Symphony Orchestra's chief conductor Leonard Slatkin is a staunch advocate for music education and a champion of American music and musicians. He says that the changing world is reflected in contemporary music, especially through the combination of different influences.
"I think we can fairly safely say the way the world has changed will affect how music is changed. With the borders becoming obsolete, the borders disappearing we'll probably see more music that reaches from one culture into the other, trying to find ways to mix that.
"In the United States for most of the 20th century we saw influences coming from the Slavic countries and Europe. Now we see the influences coming from Asia and from the Latin countries because that's where our new immigrants have come. And they are bringing their cultures and combining it with what they've heard in the States.
"I think the same will happen and is happening in parts of Europe as different people come from different places. They will bring their traditions but try to find a way to integrate it into the existing culture. So I think it is actually a very exciting time for music and the arts because we'll probably see the creation of whole new ways of thought from these collaborations."
