Austin Symphony Orchestra

Austin Symphony Orchestra: Dvorák's Symphony No. 9

Dell Hall at the Long Center

Jan. 15

Rarely do program notes breathe life into the human stories behind a piece of orchestral music. In pop, jazz, or rock music, the artist's life is key to the impact of his music. No one would

doubt that Billie Holiday or the Beatles made groundbreaking contributions to our musical heritage. Their cultural legacies, which defined both their art and their eras, however, surely rely on more than just the recordings.

This is a bit of a paradoxical challenge for the classical music world. The stories are there but rarely reach people through performance. Judging by the experience that the Austin Symphony Orchestra created this past Saturday night, the effort can be transformative.

In partnership with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra's media project Beyond the Score, the ASO presented a concert solely devoted to Antonín Dvorák's Symphony No. 9 "From the New World."

In the first act, the epic work was deconstructed. KMFA announcer and singer Dianne Donovan, pianist and UT professor Rick Rowley, and Austin actor Tom Byrne took the stage along with the ensemble to narrate and act out parts of the story. Bringing it all together was a large video screen, on which images and videos that supported the words were projected.

The story goes like this. In 1891, the world-famous Dvorák received a tempting offer from a wealthy New York arts patron: Become the director of our new National Conservatory, and we'll pay you 25 times what you make at the Prague Conservatory.

With some reluctance, Dvorák accepted. At the time, European aristocracy still looked on America as a wild and unsophisticated place. Upon his arrival here, however, Dvorák fell in love with New York and the tremendous energy that gripped his host country. From that spirit came his ninth symphony, a unique balance of material inspired by American culture, particularly American Indian culture and his reverence for Longfellow's poem "The Song of Hiawatha," as well as African-American spiritual music. Regardless of these influences, though, Dvorák's symphony is equally European in its style; direct references to Beethoven abound, as does his reverence for Wagner.

Though the images and videos helped to set the tone for the era in a manner similar to Ken Burns' documentary style, it was the conversations extracted from the time that truly cast a spell over the audience. Rowley played Dvorák with great confidence and believability throughout, reading snippets of the composer's notes from the time. This textural context was merely a setup for Maestro Bay's role, though, which was to conduct his ensemble in excerpts of the symphony in relation to the narrative. The effect was marvelous, lending great reverence to the connection between the piece and its inspiration.

By the time the second act began, the audience was primed for the full performance. And what a performance it was. The ensemble had all the energy of the young, boundless nation upon which the piece was based and, together with Bay, carried off a refined, tight, and inspiring concert. Particular kudos are due to flautist Rebecca Powell Garfield, clarinetist Stephen Girko, and English hornist David Herbert, who were just too good in the piece's many exposed, virtuosic woodwind sections. It would be wrong not to mention the French horn players, who deserve credit for a fearless, majestic performance. The thunderous, immediate standing ovation that followed the final chord was well deserved.

The Austin Symphony Orchestra is celebrating its 100th anniversary. Looking back to the year of its founding, when Austin had just more than 25,000 residents (smaller than the current size of Georgetown), it's natural to consider just how far we've come. If it was Bay's intention also to show us where the ASO is headed, there's ample reason to rejoice.