Dmitri Shostakovich. Symphony No. 3 in E flat Major (The First of May)
Witold Lutosławski. Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
Antonin Dvořák. Cello Concerto No. 2 in B Minor
Maurice Ravel. La Valse
Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B Minor is one of the greatest masterpieces in the romantic repertoire. The Concerto was written during the third and final year that the composer spent in New York at the National Conservatory and it was completed on 9 February 1895. It was first performed on 19 March 1896 in London by Leo Stern, though it had initially been intended for Czech cellist Hanuš Wihan to perform it. Two years after writing his Second Symphony (October) Shostakovich paid tribute to another major Soviet celebration – the First of May. In summer 1929 he composed the Third Symphony, which was entitled The First of May. Like the October symphony it has one movement and ends with a choral apotheosis to words specially written by the young Soviet poet Semyon Kirsanov (1906–1972). | Witold Lutosławski was an acclaimed Polish composer and conductor. Unlike many contemporary composers, Lutosławski always tried to make the listener feel at home and at ease with his music. “I always feel a passionate desire to be close to other people through art. But I do not make it my task to win over as many listeners and admirers as possible. I don’t want to win people over, but I do want to find those listeners who feel the same way I do. How can I achieve this task? I believe only through the utmost artistic integrity and sincerity of expression on all levels – from technical details to the hidden, intimate depths themselves…” the composer said. Witold Lutosławski’s music stands out for its concert-style brilliance and elements of virtuoso performance are clearly expressed. Unsurprisingly, outstanding musicians were keen to collaborate with the composer. The first interpreters of his music included Mstislav Rostropovich (Cello Concerto), Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau (Les Espaces du sommeil), Georg Solti (Third Symphony) and Krystian Zimerman (Piano Concerto). The Piano Concerto is one of the composer’s greatest works. Lutosławski interpreted the genre description of “concerto” in accordance with its fundamental definition, meaning a kind of competition between the soloist and the orchestra which presupposes that the soloist has “sportsmanlike” valour (in the noblest sense of the word). Ravel’s famous choreographic poem La Valse was completed in 1920, though in letters Ravel first referred to La Valse in 1906. At that time, he saw La Valse in the following light: “The work which I am now undertaking is not a miniature; it is a grand waltz, after a fashion it is a tribute to the memory of the great Strauss, but not Richard, the other one – Johann.” In a short autobiography from 1928, the composer wrote that “I conceived this work as a kind of apotheosis of the Viennese waltz, the whirling impression of which is fantastic and fatal. I have set this waltz in an imperial palace, close to 1855.” |