Thu, 3. 10. 2024, 19.00 hrs

A1 SYMPHONIC VARIATIONS

Venue: Zlín Congress Centre  |  Organizer: Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů, o.p.s.  |  Price: 390,- 330,- 280,-

Antonín Dvořák once described the cello as "nasal in the high register and mumbling in the bass", showing a distinct lack of appreciation at first for the instrument, but this was a view that - fortunately - he later came to reconsider, as is shown by the two concertos he wrote for it. The more recent of the two, from 1895, is considered the finest solo concerto ever composed for the cello thanks to the work's rich and mellow sound and extraordinary musicality. Written during his time in America, the piece has no celebratory fireworks, boundless optimism or explosions of joy. It presents, instead, an intimate and melancholic musical narrative reflecting the sense of homesickness the composer felt during the last years of his stay there.

The second half of the concert opens with Bohuslav Martinů's Overture for Orchestra written in 1953 in five days while he was staying in Nice on the French Riviera, a favourite haunt. This lively piece takes the form of a concert overture in neoclassical style, in which Martinů applied his favourite concerto grosso Baroque technique.

In the final part of the concert we hear the Symphonic Variations on an original melody by Dvořák, in which he set to music Adolf Heyduk's poem 'I'm just a Poor Fiddler'. Dvořák originally wrote the tune as a song for male choir, but several years later reworked it into clear symphonic form, consisting of a theme and then a set of 27 short variations, with a final spectacular fugue that turns into a boisterous Czech polka. Present at a performance of this work in Vienna in 1877 was Johannes Brahms, who praised Dvořák's masterful working of the variations, and showed his appreciation by presenting Dvořák with "an exquisite cigar holder".