In the first of two concerts with the orchestra this Autumn, Aziz Shokakimov conducts music by two of the greatest melodists who ever lived.
Antonín Dvořák was asked to write a celebratory Cello Concerto just before leaving New York to return home to Prague, but instead delivered a deeply emotional one influenced by the grave illness of the sister-in-law who had once stolen his heart. When she finally died, the composer added an elegiac coda to the score that enshrines his grief.
Cellist of-the-moment Pablo Ferrández is the soloist in Dvořák’s concerto, after the work with which Serge Prokofiev returned to the symphony after 16 years. ‘I regard the Fifth Symphony as the culmination of a long period in my creative life,’ said the composer in 1945 on the eve of the work’s first performance. It proved not just his first symphony written on home soil, but his masterpiece - a celebration of resilience and optimism powered by Prokofiev’s unmistakable gift for melody and atmosphere.
Related concert recordings at Bergenphilive:
Antonin Dvořák: Symphony No. 7
Antonin Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 From the New World (BFUng)
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 3
Sergei Prokofiev: Piano concerto No. 5