10/15/2016

Slavic Dance by Dvorak

When I was in the 2nd grade of a elementary school, I got fracture on a leg while playing in a woods with friends. With that leg casted rigidly, I could not go for school for a few weeks. I have spent all day alone at home. It was a small and simple home which our parents had built in a suburb of Tokyo after an exodus from the countryside, that is, this place we are living right now.

Late in the afternoon, I was listening to radio at a small room exposed to the afternoon sun. There was a program which always aired the same music. Later, I knew it was a famous tune from the Slavic Dance OP46 by Dvorak. It is a kind of sentimental but still beautiful melody. It might be in '50s or '60s when Szell conducting Cleveland S.O. recorded this piece. It was the time when I used to listen to it everyday waiting for the family members to come home.




This piece will be the encore at a concert of Fukushima University I am going to play with. It would be a memorable concert for me.

2 comments:

  1. Shin
    That piece also brings back memories for me. I lived in a small town in UK for a while as a young boy and my mother would put an LP of that Dvorak on the gramophone and we would open the French windows and drink lemonade on the lawn on summer afternoons, listening to those lush romantic themes.
    Those were much simpler times weren't they?
    You are so fortunate to be able to play cello in that piece.

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    Replies
    1. John,

      You may remember of the taste of lemonade your mother used to serve for you in the afternoon when you listen to this or the other Slavic dances. It must be a warm and fond memory for you.

      In my case, it is a bit lonely and sad memory. But after listening this title music in a radio program, I might have had the joy seeing my mother and the other family members then.

      Such music as this one we knew in the young days leaves us explicite memories like the afternoon sun ray through the window and the feeling I had those days. It is a fortune for us to have such music. Music is really associated with the deepest emotion in our life. If music could be replaced to Creator in this holy words, it might be right;Remember your Creator in the days of your youth.

      I guess it won't be too long before you leave for UK and have the pleasant reunion with your family members. However old they might be, presence of your parents must be precious and irreplaceable for you. Have a pleasant trip and stay with them.

      Shin

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