The evening will feature the premiere of Splendor solis by Jan Ryant Dřízal, Mieczysław Weinberg’s Violin Concerto performed by Austrian virtuoso Benjamin Schmid, and the majestic First Symphony by Johannes Brahms — a work that crowned his long quest for musical perfection.

Jan Ryant Dřízal
Splendor solis (world premiere, commissioned by the JPO)

Mieczysław Weinberg
Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in G minor, Op. 67

Johannes Brahms
Symphony No. 1 in C minor, Op. 68

Benjamin Schmid – violin
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Daniel Raiskin – conductor

Jan Ryant Dřízal is one of the outstanding voices in contemporary Czech music. His new composition, commissioned by the JPO, bears the title Splendor solis (Sunlight), a reference to the famous alchemical treatise attributed to the legendary Renaissance alchemist Salomon Trismosin.

The artistry of acclaimed Austrian violinist Benjamin Schmid, playing his 1718 Stradivari violin known as “ex Viotti,” will be showcased in Mieczysław Weinberg’s Violin Concerto in G minor. This Russian composer of Polish-Jewish descent wrote the concerto in 1959 for the great violinist Leonid Kogan. In this work, Shostakovich’s musical influence brilliantly intertwines with echoes of Jewish folk music, providing the soloist with the opportunity to display both dazzling technical brilliance and a rich, lyrical tone.

The origins of Johannes Brahms’s First Symphony can be traced back to 1854, when the composer was twenty-one years old. However, it would take another twenty-two years for the work to be completed. Perhaps Brahms’s efforts to meet the towering ideal of Beethoven delayed its final form until 1876. In the First Symphony, Brahms ultimately succeeded in creating a grand and majestic work that, much like Beethoven’s Ninth, culminates in a joyful, hymn-like finale leading to a triumphant conclusion.