大象传媒

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.
Presented by Tom Redmond
First broadcast in March 2019.

Stravinsky: Orpheus
20.10 Dvo艡谩k: Cello Concerto in B minor

21.00 Music Interval
Previn: Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano
Stephen Taylor (oboe)
Dennis Godburn (bassoon)
Andre Previn (piano)

21.20 Martin暖: Symphony No 4

大象传媒 Philharmonic
Andrei Ionit膬 (cello)
John Storgards (conductor)

Having fled across the Atlantic to escape Nazi Europe, Martin暖 marked the defeat of his persecutors in 1945 with his Fourth Symphony. In this joyous and powerful work, we hear military sounds but also snatches of Czech folk song. The following year, in Los Angeles, Stravinsky finished his ballet 'Orpheus' which received its premiere in New York in 1948, with choreography by Balanchine, The music is translucent, lyrical and restrained; the dreadful moment when Orpheus turns back to see Eurydice is powerfully marked - by silence. Andrei Ionit膬 joins the orchestra for another work which marks the loss of a loved-one: fifty years before Stravinsky and Martin暖 made America their home, a home-sick Dvo艡谩k was teaching in New York, and his Cello Concerto is infused with a powerful longing for his homeland, and for his sister-in-law, Josefina. She had a particular fondness for one of his songs which appears in the slow movement. When she died a few years later, he revised the Concerto in homage to her.