Thu, 19. 10. 2023, 19.00 hrs
A2 GOGOL IN THREE DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES
Venue: Zlín Congress Centre | Organizer: Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů, o.p.s. |
MODEST PETROVICH MUSSORGSKY
Overture and Hopak from the opera Sorochintsy Fair
ALFRED SCHNITTKE / GENNADY ROZHDESTVENSKY
Gogol Suite
LEOŠ JANÁČEK
Taras Bulba, rhapsody for orchestra
ROBERT KRUŽÍK conductor, spoken word
BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Sorochintsy Fair, Dead Souls,Taras Bulba: the first is a realistic story, the second - a satirical novel, and the third - a historical novel. What links these three literary works is that they all came from the pen of the same writer, Nikolay Vasilyevich Gogol, the eminent writer and dramatist of Ukrainian descent, and they have all provided the inspiration for musical compositions, abeit somewhat different in form and scale.
It was Modest Mussorgsky who set about working Gogol’s Sorochintsy Fair - a tale replete with folk humour and Ukrainian local colour - into an opera, although it remained unfinished. Then Alfred Schnittke wrote the incidental music for a production of The Inspector’s Tale, an adaptation for stage of Gogol’s Dead Souls.His original score was subsequently adapted by the eminent conductor Gennady Rozhdestvensky to make up a multi-styled post-modernist suite full of parody, making fun of human stupidity and vulgarity.In contrast, Leoš Janáček was inspired by the inglorious fate of the old Cossack Taras Bulba and his two sons, which he set to music in his major orchestral rhapsody of the same name.
At the podium for tonight’s programme of Ukrainian-inspired music is Robert Kružík, not just in his customary role as conductor but also as narrator.