Schroeder Premieres
Antonin Dvorak
Waldesruhe, Op. 68, No. 5, for cello and orchestra
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Dvorak had made a version of Waldesruhe (Silent Woods) for cello and piano that he and Schroeder's exact contemporary Hans Wilhan performed on Dvorak's farewell tour of Bohemia before the composer left for a stint as director of the National Conservatory in New York City (1892-5). In 1894 Dvorak's orchestration of the piano part was published, and Schroeder was perhaps the first cellist to perform the new version in the US when he paired it with an orchestrated version of Klengel's Capriccio, Op. 3, on March 1/2, 1895 with the Boston Symphony. “Dvorak’s “Waldesruhe,” is a beautiful adagio, flowingly melodious in its themes, and marked by a frank simplicity that is rare in the composer. It was played by Mr. Schroeder with a tender warmth of feeling and a largeness of style that won for him long continued applause." (Boston Herald, March 3, 1895, p. 7)
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Schroeder subsequently played Waldesruhe with orchestra on BSO concerts in Brooklyn, Cambridge, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. He also played Waldesruhe with piano, on Kneisel Quartet concerts and for appearances as assisting soloist, most notably during his fall 1913 tour of the Western US with soprano Geraldine Farrar. The cello and piano version of Waldesruhe is included in volume 4 of Alwin Schroeder's Concert Repertoire, published in the year of Schroeder's death.