One of the most played and most popular romantic cello concertos, as well as one of the most important works of the symphonic repertoire, will be performed by young soloists. The program will include a composition by Edward Elgar and Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony. Students of the Zurich Music Academy will play the roles of conductors.

Edward Elgar
Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in E minor Op. 85

Antonín Dvořák
Symphony No. 7 in D minor, Op. 70, B 141

Lukáš Mareček – cello
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
conducted by students of the Zurich Academy of Music
under the direction of Christoph-Mathias Mueller
Jeanne Cousin (France)
Mario García Ramos (Spain)
Piotr Kościk (Poland)
Leonhard Kreutzmann (Germany)
Celia Llácer (Spain)
Kristoffer Wøien  (Norway)

British composer Edward Elgar met Antonín Dvořák in person in the 1880s. At that time, as a young violinist, he performed in an orchestra under Dvořák’s baton in British performances of the Sixth Symphony and Stabat Mater at the Worcester and Birmingham music festivals. Elgar was then captivated by the orchestral sound of Dvořák’s works, and this impression left a significant mark on his subsequent work.

We can only speculate how much Elgar was influenced by Dvořák when he began composing his Cello Concerto in E minor in 1919. In the shadow of the just-ended First World War, he created a composition filled with deep melancholy and personal nostalgia. Today this work ranks among the most performed and popular romantic cello concertos.

Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony is considered one of the composer’s most ambitious and expressively powerful compositions. Although Dvořák had already written several symphonies that were successful on European stages, it was only in the Seventh that his distinctive compositional style fully matured. Here Dvořák abandoned Slavic folklore and embarked on a path of drama and poignant personal testimony. The London premiere in 1885 gave the symphony the status of one of the most important works of the symphonic repertoire.