Tomáš Kačo
Piano Pieces (selection)

Tomáš Kačo
For Ludwig, Yours Elise with symphony orchestra

Edvard Hagerup Grieg
Peer Gynt, selection from suites

Tomáš Kačo – piano
Anna Bangoura – accompanying speech
in the second half of the concert the philharmonic ranks will be completed by pupils of the ZUŠ (basic art school)
Janáček philharmonic Ostrava
Stanislav Vavřínek – conductor

Tomáš Kačo is today not only a successful pianist who has given numerous recitals in the Czech Republic, Europe and the USA, but also a composer and arranger who collaborates with a number of Czech symphony orchestras. In addition to a selection of his piano works, he will present his composition For Ludwig, Yours Elise, in which he pays tribute to Ludwig van Beethoven, accompanied by the JPO orchestra. He was inspired by Beethoven’s famous piano miniature Bagatelle in A minor, WoO 59 “For Elise”, which has been with him since he was a child and the beginning of which he learned by heart when he did not know the notes.

The second half of the evening will be filled with a selection of suites from the incidental music to the drama Peer Gynt by Norwegian composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg. The composer set the famous playwright Henrik Ibsen’s work about the village youth Peer Gynt to music in 1874-1875. Grieg struggled with the composition at first; he found the theme of the play cumbersome and many of the parts he considered absolutely unsuitable for musical setting gave him nightmares. Grieg’s music, however, was a huge success when it was premiered, and he therefore composed two orchestral suites from it in 1888 and 1891. These too immediately won worldwide acclaim, and the music from them is still one of Grieg’s most popular compositions today.