Thu, 21. 3. 2019, 7.00 p.m.

B5 INSPIRATION FROM FOLKLORE

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

In his orchestral ballad 'The Fiddler's Child', Leoš Janáček set to music themes from a poem by Svatopluk Čech about the poverty and despair of peasant farmers. It tells of a village fiddle player who dies leaving nothing but his orphaned child and his fiddle. After a time, however, the fiddler supposedly comes back to Earth to take both of them away with him to the other world, for the violin is nowhere to be found and the child is discovered dead. The work, with its mysterious not to say outlandish atmosphere in parts, was completed in 1913, but not premiered until four years later. It expresses Janáček's philosophy of compassion and also his belief in his own ability to rise above all the wretchedness of this world.

The Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian wrote his cello concerto in 1946 and dedicated it to the outstanding Russian cellist Sviatoslav Knushevitsky. The concerto is played tonight by the Leoš Janáček 2013 international competition laureate and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra member Eduard Šístek and the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra.

George Enescu is to Romanians what Bedřich Smetana is to Czechs. They consider him their national composer since his work makes abundant use of Romanian songs and folk melodies, and these strong influences are eloquently displayed in his first Romanian Rhapsody written in 1901.

Another composer with a keen fascination for authentic folk melodies was Zoltán Kodály who, together with fellow Hungarian composer Béla Bartók, collected and researched over 3,500 folk songs. In 1905 he began to collect tunes from the Galanta area, later using the material as the basis for his orchestral suite 'Dances from Galanta'. This Slovak town later made Kodály an honorary citizen for his efforts.

Tonight's concert is led by the talented conductor Robert Kružík.