Thu, 18. 10. 2018, 7.00 p.m.

B1 CZECH EVENING

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

Zdeněk Fibich wrote his symphonic poem 'The Tempest' in 1880 after Shakespeare's play of that name set on an imaginary desert island. Some 15 years later Fibich, a native of Všebořice near Zruč nad Sázavou, developed the dramatic and highly expressive piece into an opera of the same name.

The unfinished concerto for violin and orchestra called 'Pilgrimage of the Soul' comes from the pen of Leoš Janáček, who began composing the work in 1926 but soon afterwards abandoned the idea of the concerto. He went on to use some of its material later in his last opera 'From the House of the Dead'.

Ivana Kovalčíková, the outstanding musician and concert master of the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic, will be playing - in addition to Suk's 'Fantasie' - Antonín Dvořák's Romance for violin and orchestra, which was completed in 1877 and later dedicated to his friend, the virtuoso violinist František Ondříček. The piece, though only about 13 minutes long, quickly became part of the repertoire of the world's top violinists.

The finale of tonight's concert is Leoš Janáček's grandiose orchestral rhapsody Taras Bulba, whose basic inspiration was Nikolai Gogol's historic novel set in the 17th century, a time of constant Cossack hostilities with their Tatar and Polish enemies. This strongly dramatic musical picture from Ukrainian history is a scintillating example of Janáček's Russophile enthusiasm. The composition in three movements - The Death of Andrei, The Death of Ostap, and The Prophecy and Death of Taras Bulba - which goes beyond the realm of music to portray the three differing events, is unique in its contribution to the world's classical music canon.

The Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted by David Švec, permanent conductor at the Prague National Theatre.