Jakub Hrůša, Jan Bartoš

Fascinating expedition: Thanks to Jakub Hrůša, we and our audience regularly get to enjoy gems from the rich treasure trove of Bohemian music repertoire. He loves to bring the stories to the stage that the composers from there have set to music so ingeniously. Smetana in particular was a master of symphonic poems, and in this programme we play no fewer than three of them. They were all composed decades before his famous cycle »Má vlast« and are far too rarely heard in Germany. Based on literature by Shakespeare, Schiller and Adam Oehlenschläger, they revolve around different characters: »Richard III«, »Wallenstein’s Camp« and »Haakon Jarl«. They were inspired around 1860 by an encounter with Franz Liszt – who once praised Smetana with the words: »Here you have the composer with the true Bohemian heart, the artist gifted by God.« To set the mood for these dazzling tone poems, we also present two richly nuanced works: firstly Stravinsky’s magnificent wind symphonies, in his words a »ceremony in which different groups meet in short litany-like dialogues«. Our Chief Conductor has chosen these pieces, first performed in 1921, because he loves the sound of our wind section so much – and is thus able to present them in a perfect light. There is also a work from the pen of the Czech modernist composer that Jakub Hrůša has long been fond of and therefore always wants to draw attention to: together with the accomplished pianist Jan Bartoš, we will perform Martinů's imaginative fifth and final piano concerto from 1958 – a charming example of the emotional power of his music.