Thu, 15. 4. 2027, 19:00 hrs.

A6 The Power of Contrast

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

Tonight's concert under the musical director and chief conductor of the Poznań Philharmonic, Łukasz Borowicz, brings together works featuring the theme of fire in various forms, ranging from a playful and slightly ironic metaphor of heat through a distinctive concertante statement to a monumental musical image of primordial energy and the birth of light.

We open with Josef Strauss's short 1869 polka-française written as a promotional piece for the Viennese company Wertheim. The company produced iron safes which it proudly presented as fireproof. It even gave spectacular public demonstrations to prove that its safes could withstand intense heat without damage. To mark the sale of the 20,000th safe, Strauss composed this polka aptly named Feuerfest! ("Fireproof"), incorporating the characteristic clang of an anvil as a personal tribute to the blacksmith's craft.

Friedrich Gulda's Concerto for Cello and Orchestra is a work that deliberately transcends the traditional genre boundaries by blending the classical concertante form with elements of jazz, rock and dance music, with one of the movements overtly embracing the typical Austrian polka style. This links directly to Strauss's opening piece, though in the form of a distinctly personal and stylistically eclectic statement. Tonight's soloist is Jiří Bárta, a leading light of the Czech cello scene, who, in addition to performing the classical repertoire, has long been dedicated to historically informed performance and contemporary music.

We conclude with Richard Strauss's symphonic poem Thus Spoke Zarathustra, famous for its opening fanfare flourish in which the clearly articulated motif of a flash of sunlight gradually emerges from a dark soundscape. The monumental orchestral sound creates a musical image of extraordinary intensity which we can construe as an expression of primordial energy and the birth of light. At the same time, however, it is a work with a deep philosophical undertone, inspired by the ideas of Friedrich Nietzsche, raising questions about the meaning of human existence and humanity's place in the universe.