Concert Hall, Brighton Dome, Friday May 14
The Czech National Symphony Orchestra (CNSO) is widely regarded as one of the best in eastern Europe, even though it was only founded 11 years ago.
It makes its first visit to Brighton to celebrate anniversaries of two of the Czech Republic's most famous sons, Bedrich Smetana and Antonin Dvorak.
Smetana, born in 1824, will open the concert with his overture to The Bartered Bride, the work which heralded the birth of Czech opera.
He said he wrote The Bartered Bride after being accused of being a Wagnerian and incapable of writing anything light.
As the overture shows, he could and did write light music, with all the swirling sounds of his home country and its gipsy violinists.
Dvorak, born in 1841, was probably the finest example of a nationalist composer whose music shouts the very spirit of Czechoslovakia.
At this Brighton Festival concert, the CNSO will perform two of his most popular works, The Cello Concerto and his Seventh Symphony.
The young and passionate Jiri Barta is the soloist for the concerto, which was composed during Dvorak's stay in America. He was asked to write the piece by a friend of Wagner.
Full of rich inventiveness and deep feeling, the last movement was revised after the death of his wife and exactly fits the cello, which probably explains why it is so popular.
The Seventh Symphony is overshadowed by intimations of tragedy and was probably inspired by Brahms's equally bleak Third Symphony.
It easily qualifies as Dvorak's greatest symphony, although it is probably outclassed in popularity by his Ninth, "From The New World".
Conductor for this concert will be the charismatic Libor Pesek, a long-time principal conductor with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, who now runs this Czech orchestra with the fastest-growing reputation in Europe.
Born in Prague, Pesek has recorded prolifically and is renowned as an expert interpreter of all the Dvorak symphonies.
Sponsored by The Royal Bank of Scotland
Friday May 14, 8pm. Tickets £10 to £27.50.
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