I have a very quick note for you, a program note! Looking ahead to the first week of 2025 – Robin Ticciati is conducting the Los Angeles Philharmonic in a program of Beethoven's Violin Concerto (with Lisa Batiashvili as soloist) and Antonín Dvořák's Prague Waltzes from January 3-5.

I've written the program note for Prague Waltzes, which you can read in full on the LA Phil website. Here is the first paragraph of my note. Happy holidays and for those in LA perhaps I'll see you at Disney Hall for some Dvořák and Beethoven!

The moment is December 1879 and all eyes are on Bohemian composer Antonín Dvořák—the “newly awakened talent” who has “aroused widespread excitement in Germany with his Slavic Dances.” Dvořák’s first set of Slavonic Dances, premiered a year earlier, put him on the course for international fame after it received the golden stamp of approval from German composer and critic Louis Ehlert. When the committee of Prague’s prestigious Národní beseda ball decided to commission Czech composers to write new music for its 30th annual gala, rising star Antonín Dvořák was a clear choice, and Prague Waltzes were produced for the occasion....