Ludwig van Beethoven
Triple Concerto for Piano, Violin, Cello and Orchestra in C major, Op. 56

Josef Suk
Ripening, Symphonic Poem for Large Orchestra, Op. 34

Lobkowicz Trio:
Lukáš Klánský – piano
Jan Mráček – violin
Ivan Vokáč – violoncello
Concert Choir Permoník
Martina Juríková – choirmaster
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Petr Popelka – conductor

Beethoven’s Triple Concerto was premiered in 1808 in Vienna. The violoncello part, which is probably the most significant of the solo instruments, was taken by the Czech native Antonín Kraft. The interconnection of the three solo instruments and the orchestra refers to the musical tradition of the past, but at the same time in the hands of the music innovator, it aims to symphonize the solo concert. “A song with three concerts is something new,” Beethoven was aware. The first movement of the Triple Concerto is the most extensive sentence of Beethoven’s cycle compositions.

“It is a work of happy inspiration, great creative rebellion, magic colour,” wrote composer Vítězslav Novák about Suk’s Ripening. The work is part of Suk’s autobiographical tetralogy, along with the mourning symphony of Asrael, the musical poem Fairy of the Summer and the symphonic poem Epilog. Maturation matured in the author’s mind for five years (1912–1917). The name was borrowed from the poem of the same name by Antonín Sova. “What was strong had to be wired to the light (and had to grow and take the grain) and live fully in ripening.”