Based on a source not previously evaluated, Haig Utidjian has edited the organ version of Dvořák’s Mass in D major, complemented for the first time by the composer’s additional cello and double bass parts.

The circumstances under which Antonín Dvořák’s popular Mass in D major was composed are widely known. The work was written at the suggestion of the leading Czech architect and patron of the arts Josef Hlávka, later founder and first president of the Czech Academy of Sciences. In 1886 Hlávka had a new chapel built near his summer residence, a castle in Lužany, western Bohemia (present-day Czech Republic), and asked his friend Antonín Dvořák to compose a new mass for its consecration. Dvořák happily fulfilled this request and wrote a mass for soloists, choir and organ. Taking into consideration the occasion for which the mass was composed, and bearing in mind the limited performance options partly including the use of amateurs, he chose a simple formal structure and ensured that the vocal parts had a clear texture, as the solo passages were to be sung by members of the choir. Also, because of the small space in the chapel at Lužany, he restricted the instrumental accompaniment to just organ. But even with these modest resources he succeeded in creating an individual work which far exceeds the character of an occasional piece because of its exceptional musical qualities.

The consecration of the chapel, where the work was performed for the first time, took place on 11 September 1887. It was conducted by Dvořák himself, the soprano part was sung by Hlávka’s wife Zdenka, and the alto part by the composer’s wife Anna.

The first public performance took place in Plzeň (Pilsen), not in a church, but in the Municipal Theatre, where there was no organ. Instead, two harmoniums were made available, and so for practical reasons Dvořák wrote additional cello and double bass parts which were to replace the organ pedal part for this performance.

After the successful performance, the mass was also performed with the added string parts in the Rudolfinum in Prague, despite the fact that the hall had an organ with a stop at 16 foot pitch. This version of the work is found in a source previously overlooked by musicologists – the second copy by copyist Jan Elsnic with the low string parts added by Dvořák in his own hand. And it is this very copy which the composer presented to the London publisher Novello for publication. Even though Novello paid for the score, they ultimately did not publish this version and asked for an orchestral version from Dvořák, which was then published in 1893.

Haig Utidjian has chosen this copy, with Dvořák’s added string parts, from the Novello archive (now preserved in the British Library) as the primary source for a new edition, thereby changing previous perceptions of the chamber-like sound of this work. According to research by the noted Dvořák scholar David Beveridge, this is a version which Dvořák himself regarded as definitive before he began work on the orchestration in 1892. Utidjian worked on preparing a new version of the work as part of a doctoral project at the Charles University in Prague. He arrived at the conclusion that the organ version, published as part of the Dvořák Complete Edition (ed. Jarmil Burghauser and Antonín Čubr 1970, published by Supraphon), must be considered as disputed from now onwards, as the editors did not have available to them the copies authorised and amended by Dvořák. Although the newer edition by Michael Pilkington (Novello 2000) drew on the British Library copy, it was wrongly evaluated, so that the edition is unsuitable for practical use. Dvořák clearly gave preference to performances of the organ version with the accompanying lower string parts. Therefore all future editions and performances of this mass should take this fact into consideration.

In this new edition, as well as the London source, another newly-discovered source has been consulted: a complete set of four vocal parts which were found in the castle in Lužany. In the light of these sources, the editor has created a new edition of the chamber version which can either be performed just with organ – that is, as a “pure” organ version – or with the added cello and double bass parts. The edition as a whole offers the maximum range of possible practical uses – as well as the score, it also includes an organ part (without the string parts) and a chorus score, which are also compatible with the later orchestral version. The latest Urtext edition thus offers a unique opportunity for performing the work in three versions.

Eva Velická
(from [t]akte 2/2019 – translation: Elizabeth Robinson)