A7 Smetana. Glass. Dvořák

The year 2024 is not only the Year of Czech Music, but also the year in which we celebrate the bicentenary of the birth of Bedřich Smetana, the founder of the Czech musical tradition. We will hear Smetana’s music at the beginning of the seventh subscription concert: it will open with the energetic overture to his most famous opera, The Bartered Bride.

Smetana’s efforts to create a national Czech music were then naturally taken up by Antonín Dvořák. Dvořák’s musical language is often described as more spontaneous and less complex than that of Smetana.

The differences between these two composers led to the division of the musical community into the Smetana and Dvořák camps, which came into sharp (and absurd) conflict especially in the years after Dvořák’s death. The program of the concert will symbolically reconcile these groups: after all, time itself has shown that Dvořák and Smetana are absolutely equal in terms of their art.

A contrasting element to the music of the two Czech classics will be the Violin Concerto No. 1 by Philip Glass. This piece, with its extensive repetitions typical of Glass, will be performed by Anne Akiko Meyers. Her passion for contemporary music is also evidenced by a number of works written especially for her: let us mention compositions by Einojuhani Rautavaara and Arvo Pärt.