20% for 4 different concerts / 30% for 5 / 40% for 6 / 50% for 7 and more
Event Details
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
Slavonic Rhapsody in D major Op. 45 No. 1
Slavonic Rhapsody in G minor Op. 45 No. 2
Slavonic Rhapsody in A-flat major Op. 45 No. 3
Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104
Laura van der Heijden violoncello
Filharmonie Brno
conductor Leoš Svárovský
When Antonín Dvořák (1841–1904) was composing one of his greatest and best known works, the Cello Concerto in B minor, he heard about the severe illness that afflicted the love of his youth and later his sister-in-law Josefina, the wife of Count Kounic. The composer responded by quoting one of Josefina’s favourite songs of his, ‘Leave Me Alone’ (from Four Songs, Op. 82), in the second movement. Following her death Dvořák decided to alter the concerto’s finale, quoting this theme once more and attaching one of his most moving musical farewells.
The Slavonic Rhapsodies (1878) are a loose triptych of contrasting pieces (not linked together by overarching ideas): an idyllic mood prevails in the first, the second is dramatic, the third joyfully exuberant. The composer premièred the first two himself with the Provisional Theatre orchestra in Prague in November 1878; the third was taken up a year later by Wilhelm Taubert and the Königliche Kapelle in Berlin. Even today, the Slavonic Rhapsodies are rarely presented together in a concert programme; indeed, the performance of any of them is lamentably rare.