Thu, 22. 9. 2022, 7.00 p.m.

MUSIC FROM THE MOVIES

Venue: Zlín Congress Centre  |  Organizer: Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů, o.p.s.  |  Price: 490 / 420 / 360

Our opening concert of the 2022–23 season is also the inaugural concert of the 20th Harmonia Moraviae festival and it presents a fascinating combination of music and film in a nod to the rich tradition of Zlín's film industry. The Orchestra under its Chief Conductor Robert Kružík will be featuring alongside the acclaimed pianist Karel Košárek, himself a native of Zlín..

Fittingly, the first piece in our new season comes from the pen of Bohuslav Martinů, whom the Bat'a company asked in 1935 to write some music for their advertisement called Střevíček or Ladies' Shoe, which was to tell the story of their women's shoe from the original design via the shoemaker's last and first prototype through to its serial production and handover to its first customer. The result was a nine-minute feature with Martinů's music, which was evidently one of the composer's few direct contacts with the Bat'a company and the town of Zlín. This almost 90-year-old piece of film history will be shown at the start of the concert, with the music played live by the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra.

Next we'll hear Gershwin's 1924 piece for piano and orchestra, his well-known Rhapsody in Blue, which some 20 years later inspired a film by the same name which was nominated for an Oscar and for a Palme d'Or at the Cannes film festival. The piece, featuring an original combination of symphonic and jazz elements, was the start of Gershwin's orchestral compositions and stamped his mark on the world's symphony orchestra repertoire.

The finale of our gala evening consists of tunes from West Side Story, one of the most iconic musicals of all time, produced in 1957 and turned into a successful movie in 1961, winning 10 Oscars including the award of best music to Leonard Bernstein, whose Symphonic Dances represent a cross section of the musical in the form of an orchestral suite in nine sections played without pauses featuring, for example, the Mambo, the Cha-Cha, and the famous song "Somewhere".