Thu, 19. 11. 2015, 7:00 p.m.

A2 WE LOVE MARTINŮ

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

Paul Dukas, whose symphonic scherzo inspired by Goethe's ballad was written in 1896-1897, is one of the Romantic composers who took up the symphonic poem. This work, his best-known, tells the story of an apprentice who, left alone in the sorcerer's cave without his teacher, succumbs to the temptation to try out some sorcery of his own.

Tchaikovsky's Second Symphony was greatly admired by Balakirev's "Mighty Five" circle of composers for the way it draws on three Ukrainian folk songs, and it is for this that it is called the "Little Russian" symphony, written during the composer's summer holiday in Kamianka, Ukraine.

The youngest composer in tonight's concert is Bohuslav Martinů. In the programme on its premiere Martinů acknowledged that it was modelled on Joseph Haydn's Sinfonia Concertante, Martinů tried for some considerable time to locate Haydn's score, eventually tracking it down in the Library in Princeton in 1948. He was struck by its simplicity and perfection, joy and humility which, he said, were the signs of a modest and great man. In his own composition, Martinů set himself the task of including this notion of affirmation of a calm and happy life, and Ivana Mikesková Kovalčíková, Alžběta Jamborová, Martin Bzirský and Michal Kubáč, who play in this orchestra of ours which bears the composer's name, join with us in paying tribute to him tonight.