Thu, 26. 9. 2024, 19.00 hrs

B1 SAINT WENCESLAS!

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

“Let us not perish, nor our progeny, Saint Wenceslas!...”

Celebrating the Year of Czech Music and the impending Czech Statehood Day, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic presents a programme featuring two different settings of the medieval St Wenceslas Chorale by two different Czech composers.

It was in 1914 that Josef Suk composed the opening Meditation on the Old Bohemian chorale ‘Saint Wenceslas’, through which many turned in hope to the patron saint of the Czech lands for help and protection. He wrote the piece, some seven minutes long, when he was second violinist in the prominent Bohemian Quartet, for which the Meditation was originally intended, and it was premiered in late September the same year. The version for string orchestra, first played in public two months later, is performed tonight by the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra.

The ensuing cycle of Biblical Songs composed to the text of the King James Bible is held by many to be Dvořák's finest work in song composition. Written in March 1894 during the composer's time in New York, the work was not the product of a commission, but arose spontaneously out of a feeling of personal exigency. Indeed, the time-honoured values of the Catholic faith with which he had been associated since early childhood, and his genuine, profound and unpretentious piety, were often reflected in his musical work, and the deep spiritual content and intensely intimate character of the Biblical Songs is a shining example of the composer’s sincere love of God. This remarkable ten-part vocal-instrumental cycle is performed by the baritone Roman Hoża accompanied by the Zlín Philharmonic.

Tonight’s concert concludes with Martinů's Rhapsody for baritone, mixed chorus, orchestra and organ composed in 1918, and marks the first time that it has been performed in Zlín, where we will hear the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra together with this evening’s soloist and the Czech Academic Choir of Brno.