Thu, 6. 3. 2025, 19.00 hrs

A5 EROICA

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

Terezie Fialová, Tomáš Brauner, and the Bohuslava Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra take the stage in the fifth of our concerts in this cycle presenting works by German and Czech composers.

The evening opens with a concert overture by Max Reger, an important composer and promoter of organ music, whose musical expression was perceived by some critics at the start of the 20th century as too complicated and modern, only to become the target of renewed criticism a few years later, this time for alleged excessive conservatism. The composer's late romantic overture, composed in sonata form, was written in May 1911 and dedicated to the Austrian conductor Ernst von Schuch. Its popularity at the time is shown by the fact that it was performed at least 46 times in the 1911-12 season alone.

This is followed by Petr Eben's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra performed by pianist Terezie Fialová, who says the following: "Petr Eben's Concerto for Piano and Orchestra dates from 1961 and Eben dedicated it to his piano professor at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, the eminent pianist František Rauch. The concerto was premiered a year later in March 1962 in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, accompanied by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Karel Ančerl. Petr Eben held František Rauch in high esteem and it was a great honour for Rauch to agree to premiere Eben’s graduation composition. The concerto has had only sporadic performances since then and has been neglected, which is a great pity. Although the piano repertoire includes many famous concertos, there is very little in the Czech repertoire from the 19th century to the present day. I learned the concerto at the request of Petr's wife, Šarka Ebenová, and performed it for the first time in 2019 at the Prague Spring Festival. Eben's work deserves attention and a place in the limelight of (not only) 20th century Czech piano concertos."

Our concert concludes with the Orchestra playing Beethoven's illustrious Eroica Symphony, which the composer called “a symphony composed in honour of a great man". It was written in 1804 for the then consul Napoleon Bonaparte. After Napoleon declared himself emperor and his subsequent conquest of Europe, however, an angry Beethoven erased the name and re-dedicated the work "to the memory of a hero", yet the Napoleonic spirit and the flaming torch of the Bastille still hovers imaginarily over the entire symphony. Above all, however, the Eroica is an expression of the immense power of the spirit of an individual who, through music, sought to discover the supreme truth and move towards new certainties.