Programme:
Bohuslav Martinů: Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2
Anton Bruckner: Symphony No. 5 in B-flat Major

Účinkující:
Tomáš Jamník – violoncello
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Eivind Gullberg Jensen – Conductor

Anton Bruckner was a fan of Wagner’s Romantic operas and tried to adapt their monumentality into symphonic form. Wagner’s ancient stories about honour, heroism, betrayal and love are replaced by Bruckner’s strong Christian faith and profound personal humility. He was the first composer after Beethoven who tried to develop the classical genre of the symphony into a spectacular masterwork. However, his orchestral language differs from Mahler’s later dramatism.
Bruckner strives for monumentality, beauty, and depth, and his music has a more contemplative potential. The Fifth Symphony, more than an hour in length and sometimes referred to as “Tragic” or “Temple of Faith”, is the composer’s own reconciled answer to life’s troubles.
The comprehensive, almost 40-minute long Second Cello Concerto by Bohuslav Martinů will be presented by the talented Czech cellist Tomáš Jamník, the winner of the Prague Spring international music competition in 2006. The piece was written during the war period, which the helpless Martinů spent in the USA. Homesickness and various forms of anxiety are characteristic of his music from this period. The first movement of the concerto reflects the atmosphere of a Czech Christmas, and the overall mood is lyrical, intimate, and without pomposity.