Silent Woods Op.62 No.5

Dvorák’s title for this idyllic little piece is Klid, which is the Czech for “peace” or “silence.” When it was published in Berlin however – in its original form as the fifth of six pieces From the Bohemian Forest Op.62 for piano duet – it was given the German title Waldesruhe, which is where our Silent Woods comes from. Seven years later Dvorak arranged the Klid piano duet for cello and piano as something he and his cellist friend Hanus Wihan could play in their concerts together. In that version, which is so much more effective in reflecting the beauty of its melodic line, it completely eclipsed the piano-duet original.

Dvorak’s title for this idyllic little piece is Klid, which is the Czech for “peace” or “silence.” When it was published in Berlin however – in its original form as the fifth of six pieces From the Bohemian Forest Op.62 for piano duet – it was given the German title Waldesruhe, which is where our Silent Woods comes from. That was in 1884, the year in which it was written. Seven years later Dvorak arranged the Klid piano duet for cello and piano as something he and his cellist friend Hanus Wihan could play in their concerts together.

Klid was a felicitous choice for cello-and-piano treatment since it made the melodic beauty of the piece so much clearer than in the somewhat confused textures of the original version. Given a distinct cello line, the supple rhythmic shape of the syncopated main theme is so much clearer. Content at first to supply D flat major harmonies in regular 4/4 time, the piano later adopts the syncopated rhythms in counterpoint with the cello before leading the way, by means of a short cadenza, into a rather quicker but no less melodious middle section in C sharp minor. After a passionate climax involving both instruments, the opening tempo and harmonies are recalled molto tranquillo in preparation for a brief memory of the main theme and a still briefer one of the middle section just before the end.