Thu, 18. 3. 2021, 7.00 p.m.

A5 ROMANIAN SPIRIT

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

Folk music and folklore in general has always been a source of fascination for many composers, and the Hungarian-origin composer György Ligeti was no exception. Born in Transylvania, he was an avid collector and researcher of folk songs as a young man, and his interest in folklore carried through into his own work at one stage of his life. Ligeti completed his Romanian Concerto for orchestra in 1951, its name and style harking back to the composer's musical experience in his youth spent in the Romanian countryside.

Dmitry Kabalevsky wrote two cello concertos, the first of which was completed in 1949 and premiered in the same year by the illustrious cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky, to whom it was dedicated. Taking the stage tonight in Zlín to perform the concerto is the young Romanian cellist Andrei Ioniță, whose accolades include winning the prestigious International Tchaikovsky Competition.

Johannes Brahms wrote his Serenade in D in 1858, at the age of 25. Originally written as a small chamber music piece, the work was later revised on the advice of the distinguished violinist Joseph Joachim into a version for full orchestra. The work, in six movements, has been seen by some as a precursor to Brahms' later symphonies, but it is by no means a juvenile piece and fully deserves its standing as a concert work in its own right and an interesting example of the composer's early work and subsequent development as a master of composition.

The Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic is conducted by its Chief Conductor Tomáš Brauner.