A3 Haas. Martinů. Dvořák

The third concert of the orchestral subscription series is devoted exclusively to Czech composers: Pavel Haas, Bohuslav Martinů and Antonín Dvořák. However, only one of the compositions which you will hear this evening was written in the Czech lands, and then under tragic circumstances. 

It was composed by Pavel Haas, a pupil of Leoš Janáček, in 1943 when he was a prisoner at the concentration camp in Terezín. Unfortunately, his story did not have a happy ending and a year after writing the composition Pavel Haas died in Auschwitz.

Then only two years later, though under totally different circumstances, Bohuslav Martinů wrote his Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 2. He composed this charming, melodic work in the USA when he knew that the Second World War was finally over.

The USA was also the setting for Dvořák’s Symphony No. 9 in D minor “From the New World”. Dvořák created his most famous symphony while working at the New York Conservatory. Incidentally, a great future was predicted for Dvořák by a loyal friend of his in later years, Johannes Brahms, whose work is one of this season’s focal points. It was Brahms who recommended Dvořák to his own publisher Simrock, stating that he would be glad if “he could invent even one main theme which Dvořák appears to casually trot out”. 

The programme of works by our national composers will be performed by interpreters who can be considered locals: the Chief Conductor of the orchestra, Emmanuel Villaume, and the PKF — Prague Philharmonia’s cello concert master Lukáš Pospíšil.