Classical Music Diary No. 12
This month, within six days and 20 miles of each other, the Pioneer Valley Symphony and the Musicians of the Springfield Symphony Orchestra both gave incomplete performances of Antonín Dvořák’s “From the New World” (Symphony No. 9, 1893).
The abridgment, at least in one case, was born of necessity. MOSSO had just one afternoon to rehearse with its conductor, and wanted to play portions of several other pieces. It played only the outermost movements of the Dvořák, skipping the second and third.
PVS centered its program on the symphony, applying the idea of a new world to a planet upended by pandemic. Nonetheless it skipped the third movement.
Both performances were forward-looking in an optimistic way. And both were lovely renditions. One couldn’t help but notice, though, that something was missing.
And that’s as it should be. There is in fact a lot missing from this new world — foremost the 4.5 million people (that we know of) who have succumbed to the disease so far. It’s a bit hard to sustain optimism in the face of a reminder like that. But there is still music.
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