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- Fibich, Zdenko
Duration: 16 minutes
Description: Zdeněk Fibich (1850–1900) composed Am Abend (At Twilight; V podvečer), Op. 39, H 306, an idyll for orchestra, in 1893, during the early years of his relationship with his pupil and eventual librettist Anežka Schulzová, and the work is generally understood as an evocation of the quiet evenings Fibich spent with her and her family. One of the last symphonic poems Fibich completed, At Twilight belongs to the intensely autobiographical period that also produced his vast piano diary Nálady, dojmy a upomínky (Moods, Impressions and Reminiscences), and at the heart of the orchestral work Fibich incorporated the lyrical melody associated with No. 139 of that collection, a theme subsequently made internationally famous as the independent Poème, particularly through violinist Jan Kubelík’s arrangement and performances. The work received its first performance in 1894; early editions variously describe it as an “Idyll,” while its Czech title V podvečer has been translated as At Twilight, In the Evening, Summer Evening, and the German Am Abend. Scored with characteristic late-Romantic warmth for a substantial orchestra including expanded woodwinds, four horns, harp, percussion, and strings, the approximately sixteen-minute work unfolds less as a dramatic narrative than as an atmospheric and intimate musical reminiscence. Today, Am Abend (At Twilight), Op. 39 remains less familiar internationally than the symphonic poems of Fibich’s Czech contemporaries Smetana and Dvořák, but it retains a place in the Czech and Central European orchestral repertoire and has been preserved in numerous recordings; its central Poème melody, however, has far surpassed the complete work in popularity and remains one of Fibich’s most widely recognized creations. Instrumentation: 3.2+1(EH).2+1(BCl).2: 4.0.0.0: Timp.Perc(2): Hp: Str (9.8.7.6.5 in set). Reprint edition.