Thu, 24. 11. 2022, 7.00 p.m.

A2 ŽENATÝ/ FBM

Venue: Zlín Congress Centre  |  Organizer: Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů, o.p.s.  | 

Tonight's programme consists of three works written by the pre-eminent composers of their time in their native countries.

Jean Sibelius is surely one of the most eminent composers that the Land of a Thousand Lakes has given to the world, and the symphonic poem Finlandia, which originally came into being as a musical manifesto of Finnish resistance to Russian hegemony, is certainly one of his most notable works. Drawn from folk music, the piece depicts the distinctive beauty of the countryside in Finland with its snowy plains, magnificent natural lakes and dense forests. A symbol of Finnish nationalism, it was subsequently revised in 1900 and became extremely popular not only in Finland but far beyond.

Danish musical culture has never excelled in terms of the number of its composers who have achieved world fame for their work, but one of that country's most illustrious sons is Carl Nielsen, whose violin concerto is played tonight by Ivan Ženatý. Nielsen wrote his Opus 33 in 1911 for his son-in-law, the Hungarian violinist Emil Telmányi, in Bergen, Norway, where he was staying at the invitation of Edvard Grieg's wife, Nina. This two-movement work in the Neo-Classical style stands out for its wonderful melodies and even today is a staple in the repertoire of many international violin virtuosi.

Hungarian music in the first half of the 20th century is dominated by Béla Bartók, who achieved world fame not only because of his exceptional ethnomusicological research, but above all through his musical composition. It was in 1943 that Bartok wrote one of his best-known orchestral works, the five-movement Concerto for Orchestra. The work is not formally a conventional concerto, but Bartok chose to call it that because each instrument section is treated in a solo virtuoso manner. Tonight's performance is conducted by the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra's Chief Conductor Robert Kružík.