Thu, 25. 4. 2019, 7.00 p.m.

B6 IGOR ARDAŠEV

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

Wojciech Kilar is one of the 20th century's leading Polish avant-garde composers. Born in Lviv in Ukraine, it was in 1974 that he completed his poem 'Krzesany', which was premiered that same year at the prestigious Warsaw Autumn festival. Much of the composer's inspiration came from original dance tunes in the Podhale region in the foothills of the Tatra mountains, and also from Goralian folk songs. The piece is being performed again by Zlín's philharmonic orchestra almost 30 years after it was last heard here in the 1989-90 season.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote 27 piano concertos and the 14th in E-flat major, which we hear tonight, was completed in February 1784. In the more than 230 years since then, it has been performed on innumerable occasions by many different orchestras and musicians. Tonight music-goers in Zlín have the chance to hear the concerto played by the renowned and internationally acclaimed soloist Igor Ardašev.

Sergei Rachmaninov's last orchestral work, his 'Symphonic Dances', was written in New York three years before his death. The work was originally scored for two pianos, and was played in that form for the first time by Rachmaninov himself and the brilliant pianist Vladimir Horowitz. Only later did the composer arrange the work for symphony orchestra. He first gave the dances the movement titles Noon - Twilight - Midnight, but later opted for a more neutral title. Interestingly, the work is also scored for the alto saxophone, an instrument that did not normally feature in symphony orchestras at the time.

The Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra is conducted tonight by the current musical director of the Ostrava-based Moravian-Silesian National Theatre Opera Jakub Klecker.