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Notes from the New World

The Â鶹ԼÅÄ Philharmonic in music by Martinů and Stravinsky written in 1940s America. Andrei Ionita joins the orchestra for Dvořák's Cello Concerto, a work begun in America.

From the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester.
Presented by Tom Redmond
First broadcast in March 2019.

Stravinsky: Orpheus
20.10 Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor

21.00 Music Interval
Previn: Trio for oboe, bassoon and piano
Stephen Taylor (oboe)
Dennis Godburn (bassoon)
Andre Previn (piano)

21.20 Martinů: Symphony No 4

Â鶹ԼÅÄ Philharmonic
Andrei Ionită (cello)
John Storgards (conductor)

Having fled across the Atlantic to escape Nazi Europe, Martinů marked the defeat of his persecutors in 1945 with his Fourth Symphony. In this joyous and powerful work, we hear military sounds but also snatches of Czech folk song. The following year, in Los Angeles, Stravinsky finished his ballet 'Orpheus' which received its premiere in New York in 1948, with choreography by Balanchine, The music is translucent, lyrical and restrained; the dreadful moment when Orpheus turns back to see Eurydice is powerfully marked - by silence. Andrei Ionită joins the orchestra for another work which marks the loss of a loved-one: fifty years before Stravinsky and Martinů made America their home, a home-sick Dvořák was teaching in New York, and his Cello Concerto is infused with a powerful longing for his homeland, and for his sister-in-law, Josefina. She had a particular fondness for one of his songs which appears in the slow movement. When she died a few years later, he revised the Concerto in homage to her.

2 hours, 28 minutes

Music Played

  • Igor Stravinsky

    Orpheus

    Orchestra: Â鶹ԼÅÄ Philharmonic. Conductor: John StorgÃ¥rds.
  • Antonín Dvořák

    Cello Concerto in B minor Op.104

  • Johann Sebastian Bach

    Sarabande from the Cello Suite No 1

    Performer: Andrei Ioniţă.
  • André Previn

    Trio for Piano, Oboe, and Bassoon

  • Bohuslav Martinů

    Symphony No 4

  • Alwynne Pritchard

    nearly, very nearly

    Performer: Philip Walton.

Broadcast

  • Thu 9 Jul 2020 19:30

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