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 JPO)

Mieczysław Weinberg
Violin Concerto 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 leading voices of contemporary Czech music. His new composition Splendor Solis (“The Radiance of the Sun”), commissioned by the JPO, takes its title from a legendary Renaissance alchemical treatise attributed to Salomon Trismosin.

The artistry of renowned Austrian violinist Benjamin Schmid, playing the 1718 Stradivari “ex Viotti,” will be showcased in Mieczysław Weinberg’s Violin Concerto. Composed in 1959 for violinist Leonid Kogan, this work masterfully blends Shostakovich’s influence with echoes of Jewish folklore, offering the soloist a rich space to display both brilliant technique and lush, lyrical tone.

The origins of Johannes Brahms’s First Symphony trace back to 1854, when the composer was just twenty-one years old. However, it would take another twenty-two years for the work to reach completion. Perhaps it was Brahms’s desire to measure up to Beethoven’s monumental example that led him to strive so long for perfection. In the First Symphony, Brahms succeeded in creating a grand achievement — a work that, like Beethoven’s Ninth, culminates in a radiant, triumphant finale.