Programme:

Leoš Janáček
The Cunning Little Vixen, suite from the opera

Jean Sibelius
Concerto for violin and orchestra in D minor, Op. 47

Béla Bartók
The Wooden Prince, suite from the ballet

Cast:
Miriam Magdalena Haniková – violin
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Nuno Coelho – conductor

Two days before Christmas Eve in 1919, Rudolf Těsnohlídek and his friends rescued a year and a half old baby girl who was abandoned in a forest by Bílovice. This fortunate coincidence allowed her to find a new family. The incident was perhaps adopted by the sensible writer as one of the themes for his story about a little fox, its capture, escape and a newfound home. The Cunning Little Vixen also inspired Leoš Janáček to compose an opera.

Jean Sibelius, similarly to Janáček, looked for his themes in folk music. His Violin concerto is an example of an effective virtuosity based on folklore. “I have not seen more original, better executed and cheerful piece since Mendelssohn and Schuman,” commented the British musicologist D. Tovey.

The concert began with a suite from the opera and it will conclude with a suite from the ballet. Russian ballet hosted Stravinsky’s Petrushka in Budapest in 1913. M. Bánffy, the opera’s director, asked the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók for a similar piece. As a result, the ballet The Wooden Prince was created, which later premiered in a Budapest opera on May 12, 1917, recording remarkable success to the point the audience called Bartók back on stage.