Thu, 14. 1. 2021, 7.00 p.m.

B3 SMRTIHLAV (premiéra)

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

Our third Subscription Series B concert presents a work by the contemporary young Czech composer Lukáš Sommer, entitled Smrtihlav, which draws its inspiration from the story 'The Sphinx' by the English Romantic poet and prose writer Edgar Allan Poe. The piece receives its world premiere tonight by the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, which also commissioned it.

This is followed by Camille Saint-Saëns's First Cello Concerto, written for the Belgian cellist and instrument maker Auguste Tolbecque. Finalised in 1872 and in the standard three movements, it was the composer's first significant success with the musical public, and indeed some musicologists have rated the work as the best cello concerto ever composed. It is played tonight by the South Korean cellist Mee-Hae Ryo, who graduated from the prestigious Juilliard School of Music in New York.

Known largely for his successful operas, the French composer Georges Bizet also composed notable works for orchestra. His Symphony in C-major was written in the course of one month in 1855 when Bizet was 17, as part of his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, although it was first performed only 80 years later. The work, written when Bizet was still a youth, nevertheless shows considerable maturity in terms of its structure and melodic invention.

Tonight's performance is conducted by the Philharmonic Orchestra's Chief Conductor Tomáš Brauner.