Matinee: Dvorák 8
PROGRAMME NOTES
written by AURÉLIE WALSCHAERT
Richard Wagner Siegfried Idyll, WWV 103 (1870)
Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 (1889)*
*discover this symphony also on Saturday evening, 23.05: Dvořák 8
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24.05.2026 FLAGEY BRUSSELS
Imagine this: it is your birthday, and in the early morning you are awakened by warm musical sounds. At first they seem distant, as though drifting from a dream, yet gradually the music draws nearer. This is precisely what happened to Cosima Wagner on 25 December 1870. To mark the occasion, Richard Wagner (1813-1883) had composed a symphonic birthday greeting. To make the moment even more special, he assembled a small orchestra on the staircase of their home. A truly romantic gift.
Antonín Dvořák’s (1841-1904) Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 likewise owes its origins to a joyful occasion. The Czech composer wrote the work to celebrate his appointment to the Bohemian Academy of Science, Literature and Arts. During the composition process, he was staying at his beloved country house in Vysoká, just outside Prague, and that atmosphere of serenity permeates the entire symphony. It is music filled with optimism and joy, revealing Dvořák’s deep admiration for the beauty of nature and for Slavic folk music.
An intimate idyll
Wagner composed his Siegfried Idyll during what he described as one of the happiest periods of his life. On 6 June 1869, he became a father for the third time, this time to a son: Siegfried. Later that summer, he married the child’s mother, Cosima Liszt. Such happiness called for an extraordinary gift. Wagner conceived the idea of a ‘symphonic birthday poem’. For the performance, he enlisted around fifteen musicians from the Zurich orchestra; on the morning of Cosima’s birthday, they quietly gathered on the staircase of the family home to wake her in unforgettable fashion.
The original title of the work was ‘Tribschener Idyll mit Fidi-Vogelgesang und Orange-Sonnenaufgang, als Symphonischer Geburtstagsgruss. Seiner Cosima dargebracht von Ihrem Richard’. The elaborate title refers to the birdsong and radiant sunrise surrounding the birth of their son Siegfried—nicknamed Fidi—at their beloved villa in Tribschen. Echoes of birdsong and a gentle lullaby can indeed be heard throughout this romantic score. Wagner later incorporated several fragments from the idyll into his opera Siegfried, the third instalment of his operatic tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen.
A radiant ode to life
In Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, the orchestra unfolds in all its richness. Dvořák composed the work in the autumn of 1889 while staying far from the bustle of Prague, surrounded by the Bohemian countryside. His eighth symphony, he wrote, would differ from the earlier ones, ‘with individual ideas worked out in a new way’. Themes and melodies follow one another in quick succession and, through their fragmentary character, break away from the traditional four-movement symphonic structure.
The entire symphony unfolds as an exuberant and richly coloured ode to life, perhaps inspired by the many honours the composer had recently received. Emperor Franz Joseph had appointed him to the Bohemian Academy of Science, Literature and Arts, while the universities of Prague and Cambridge had awarded him honorary doctorates. Dvořák’s love of the natural world is also present throughout almost the entire work. It can be heard, among other things, in the many imitations of birdsong, from cooing doves to a skylark heralding the dawn. From sunlit rural scenes, the music gradually moves towards a grand folk celebration that culminates, in the finale, in a whirling dance dominated by the brass. Of the trumpet fanfare that opens the final movement, the Czech conductor Rafael Kubelík famously remarked: ‘In Bohemia, the trumpets never call to battle – they always invite people to dance.’
