Thu, 18. 2. 2021, 7.00 p.m.

A4 WHIRLWIND OF RHYTHM

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

The tragic destiny of Francesca da Rimini, the daughter of the Ravenna nobleman Guida da Polenta, has been the inspiration for many artists in different fields. The story of her forbidden love for Paolo, which she took to her death, even found its way into Dante's Divine Comedy, and the same theme was adopted by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in his symphonic poem of the same name. The piece, written in 1876, is a representation in music of the ill-fated love affair between Francesca and Paolo, leading to the murder of the two lovers.

Sergey Rachmaninov wrote his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini for piano and orchestra during a stay at his summer residence in Switzerland. In terms of form, it is essentially a piano concerto comprising a set of 24 variations on themes borrowed from Paganini's 24 violin caprices. The Zlín Philharmonic is joined in its performance of this piece by the pianist Martin Kasík, a winner of the New York Young Concert Artist Competition, one of the most prestigious international competitions.

The second half of the programme features two orchestral works by Maurice Ravel. La Valse, as the name suggests, is the composer's idealisation of the imperial waltz. Commissioned by the celebrated Russian impresario Serge Diaghilev, it is Ravel's musical expression of the joy of the dance and of life more generally.

The concert ends with Ravel's no less impressive Bolero, an illustration of the composer's exceptional instrumentation skills and his uncanny knack of conjuring up the most diverse nuances of colour in his orchestration.

Wielding the baton tonight is the Slovak conductor Ondrej Olos, currently working with the Slovak National Theatre and the National Theatre in Brno.