Thu, 15. 12. 2022, 7.00 p.m.

B3 VONDRÁČEK / FBM

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

Lukáš Vondráček and Tomáš Brauner sharing the stage with the Zlín philharmonic in our December Subscription Series B concert promises to be a great experience, and features works by Wojciech Kilar, Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky.

The evening opens with the Polish composer Wojciech Kilar's Orawa, a work for string orchestra, whose name refers to the region of northern Slovakia and southern Poland. This spirited piece, written in 1986, is a fusion of minimalist style, folk elements and strong rhythmic features and has been performed by many orchestras around the world since its debut in Zakopane, Poland.

Rachmaninov wrote his concertante Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra at his summer residence in Switzerland. In terms of form, it is effectively a piano concerto comprising a set of 24 variations on a theme taken from Paganini's 24 violin caprices. Tonight the Orchestra accompanies the star pianist Lukáš Vondráček, laureate of the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels.

Tchaikovsky wrote seven complete symphonies, and the fifth, which was actually his sixth in order of composition, was written in 1888 at his summer home in the village of Frolovskoye. At the time, the composer was undergoing something of a creative crisis and found central themes for his work difficult to come by. His Fifth Symphony was thus initially born out of great pain, and even if its final version did not immediately satisfy him, the work nonetheless finds its place in the treasure chest of both Russian and world symphonic music. Dedicated to the German writer and musical critic Theodor Avé-Lallemant, it has the conventional four movements, all of which are linked by a basic musical motif - that of fate. As the composer himself wrote for its introduction, "complete resignation before Fate, or, which is the same thing, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence"..