Music for Meditation: Dvořák and the Dover Quartet

By Mark George, President and CEO

Normally, Music as Meditation is a weekly recommendation of music of a reflective nature. However, because there are so many graduations this week, I thought I would suggest something that is pure exuberance. Find an open space, stand up, turn on a smart speaker or put in earbuds, and congratulate the seniors!

My recommendation this week is the Finale from Dvořák’s Piano Quintet in A Major, Op. 81. I love this movement because it is fun and doesn’t take itself too seriously. Dvořák often highlighted his Czech heritage by using melodies and dance rhythms from the Czech folk tradition. In this case he uses a polka tune which is characterized by its fast “boom-chuck” rhythm. There are moments of grandeur and repose that complement the overriding vivacity. Having grown up playing polkas in the Pittsburgh area, I am especially appreciative of how towards the end of the movement, in a very rare occurrence, Dvořák uses the polka tune as the subject of a fugue. The piece, about eight minutes in length, was composed in 1887 and premiered the following year in Prague. Enjoy.

Piano Quintet No. 2 in A Major, Op. 81...............Antonin Dvořák (1841-1904)
        Finale: Allegro

Jeffery Kahane, piano
Members of the Dover Quartet:  Joel Link, violin | Bryan Lee, violin 
Milena Pajaro-van de Stadt, viola |  Camden Shaw, cello

Born in Bohemia (now the Czech Republic) in 1841, Antonin Dvořák is part of the European classical tradition of Mozart, Beethoven and Brahms. However, he was also part of a movement known as Nationalism, in which composers incorporated folk elements from their home countries into their otherwise classical compositions. Dvořák spent time in America, including an 1893 engagement as a conductor at the Columbia World’s Exposition in Chicago.

Pianist and conductor Jeffry Kahane is the Music Director of the Sarasota Music Festival and a faculty member at the University of Southern California’s Thornton School of Music.

The Dover Quartet, winner of the top prize at the 2013 Banff International String Quartet Competition, was recently named the winner of the Cleveland Quartet Award and is a recipient of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.