The Brno Philharmonic Orchestra will celebrate Beethoven’s anniversary in two “Hommage à Beethoven” concerts this weekend, on Friday and Saturday. Both concerts will begin at 7pm at the Janáček Theater. Tickets are available in the Philharmonic pre-sale, at the venue 45 minutes before the start of the concert and also online. Credit: Filharmonie Brno.
Brno, Jan 19 (BD) – The two concerts will not feature works by Beethoven himself, but works by other composers that took strong inspiration from him, including Franz Liszt, Paul Hindemith and César Franck. The presented works also honour the tradition of ostentatious German Romanticism, according to Vítězslav Mikeš, artistic director of the Filharmonie Brno.
The evening will be opened by Liszt’s Les Préludes (d‘après Lamartine), which premiered in 1854, the first work to be described as a ‘symphonic poem’. These forms, which gave rise to the search for new musicality, drawing inspiration from poetry and literature, better suited romantic aesthetics and allowed their authors to break out of “Beethoven’s shadow.” The second featured composer, Hindemith, initially made a living playing in dance ensembles. He completed his violin studies by performing Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D major. The work he later composed himself is remarkably similar to Beethoven’s tympanic introductions and other contact features. The solo part will be performed by Arabella Steinbacher, currently one of the world’s leading violinists.
The second half of the evening is devoted to Franck, who also composed symphonic poems, but whose most famous work is considered to be the Symphony in D minor. “Like Liszt, he was a wonderchild, and was also one of Antonín Rejcha’s students. After all, meeting Liszt was one of the most important moments in Franck’s life, and Liszt became a personal and artistic role model for him,” said Marie Kučerová, director of the Filharmonie Brno. Despite a mixed reception by the audience at its premiere in 1889, the symphony has entered the international orchestral repertoire, and about 70 recordings of this composition have been made until today.
The performance will go ahead on Friday, and again on Saturday. Tickets are available in the Philharmonic pre-sale, at the venue 45 minutes before the start of the concert and also online. Anyone attending over the age of 12 must provide proof of completed vaccinations or illness, or a negative test for specified exceptional cases, to enter the concert. The exact conditions of entry can be found here.
