Grażyna Bacewicz
Overture for Orchestra

Edward Elgar
Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85

Witold Lutosławski
Little Suite for Orchestra

Albert Roussel
Bacchus and Ariadne, Second Act of the Ballet, Op. 43

Johannes Moser – cello
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Anna Sułkowska-Migoń – conductor

Grażyna Bacewicz earned recognition not only as an outstanding violin virtuoso but also as a successful composer whose promising career was interrupted by the tragic events of the Second World War. She wrote her Overture for Orchestra in 1943, during the German occupation of her native Poland. Although the work was created in a dark and terrifying time, its vibrant and energetic music is filled with determination and an unshakable faith in victory.

The English composer Edward Elgar experienced the height of his fame in the first decades of the 20th century. When he composed his Cello Concerto in 1918–19, he was beset by fears of a creative crisis, despair over the war, and depression regarding his own health. Despite the deep melancholy and personal nostalgia that resonate throughout the concerto, Elgar succeeded in creating one of the finest works in the cello repertoire, which continues to enjoy enduring popularity to this day.

The Little Suite for Orchestra by the Polish composer Witold Lutosławski brims with infectious energy. In it, he made use of folk motifs he had collected in the village of Machowa in the Subcarpathian Voivodeship of southeastern Poland.

French composer Albert Roussel turned to mythology in his ballet Bacchus and Ariadne. He set the ancient myth of Ariadne and Theseus to music with gripping intensity, culminating in the tempestuous Bacchanale in a breathtaking sonic ecstasy.