Thu, 4. 12. 2025, 19.00 hrs

B3 PROMENADE THROUGH THE CENTURIES

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

"From her first note to the final reverberation, she captivated us with her breathtaking lightness, rich sound and inexhaustible musicality". That was how Mexico’s El Universal assessed the performing skills of the Prague-born Olga Arribas Quintana, winner of the Prague Spring Competition and one of the most compelling young violinists of her generation, whom we welcome to Zlín at the beginning of December to join the Orchestra in a performance of Henryk Wieniawski's Second Violin Concerto – a beautiful romantic work full of eloquent sentiment and emotional depth.

Before Wieniawski's Violin Concerto we hear Witold Lutosławski's short Symphonic Variations from 1938. This work is the first significant attestation to the extraordinary talent of the composer, who considered the first public performance of this work in April 1939 as his debut as a composer. Although the influence of Karol Szymanowski and Igor Stravinsky is evident in the Symphonic Variations, the fresh inventiveness and masterful composition of Lutosławski's piece is astonishing.  The harmonies have not yet abandoned tonality, and the main features are the work’s colour, orchestral virtuosity and constant capricious movement.

The second half of the concert presents a musical journey through the world of colour and fantasy as Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, brilliantly orchestrated by Maurice Ravel, guides us through a gallery of sound in which each image is brought to life in music – from the majestic Promenade that connects the individual paintings, to the mysterious Old Castle, the exuberant Tuileries Garden, the dramatic Catacombs and the terrifying Hut on Chicken’s Legs to the monumental Great Gate of Kiev, in which the music lights up in all its power. Ravel's masterful instrumentation transforms what was originally Mussorgsky's piano suite into a colourful orchestral spectacle that takes us into a world of musical imagery full of energy, emotion and  unique atmosphere.