Dvo?ák at Palace of Arts

The three concert overtures composed by Antonín Dvo?ák in 1891 (In Nature's Realm, Carnival and Othello) were not intended to open larger works for the stage, but were conceived in series as a musical triptych which Dvo?ák gave the subtitle of “Nature, Life and Love.” The Carnival Overture was premièred at the composer’s farewell concert at the Rudolfinum in Prague on 28 April 1892, prior to his departure for the United States, with the composer himself conducting the orchestra of the Czech National Theatre. Commenting on the structure of the work, consisting of rapid, slow and rapid passages in turn, Brahms said: “It is happy music! Concert directors may be grateful for it!”
Dvo?ák wrote his sole piano concerto in the summer of 1876 for the pianist Karel Slavkovsky, who premièred the work in Prague on 24 March 1878. The influence of Beethoven’s concertos can be detected in the style of the piece. Its piano part is extremely complex and demanding, and for this reason is rarely performed in concert. At the same time it is not exactly showy, as the composer’s own comments demonstrate: “"I see I am unable to write a concerto for a virtuoso; I must think of other things." The first movement, written in the form of a sonata, is followed by a melodious and contemplative slow movement, before the humorous, capriccio-like sonata rondo of the finale.
In November 1889, after some two and a half months’ work, Dvo?ák completed one of his best-known and most frequently performed symphonies (whose popularity would be surpassed only by the opus which followed it, the Symphony No. 9 “From the New World”). Dedicated to the Bohemian Academy, the Symphony No. 8 draws extensively from Bohemian folk music – a fact likely attributable to the location of its composition in the pastoral calm of Vysoká. Compared to the wild romanticism of the Symphony No. 7, this composition is far more pared-down musically with a dominant lyrical tone. The world première was conducted by Dvo?ák himself in Prague on 2 February 1890.
Nicolas Namoradze was born in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi in August 1992. He began playing piano at the age of seven in Budapest. In 2004 he was admitted to preparatory classes for extraordinary young talents at the Liszt Academy of Music in Budapest, and in 2007 became a member with distinction of the UK’s Royal Schools of Music. He is currently a third-year student at the Academy of Music. In November 2010, he won a scholarship to study in a talent-nurturing programme financed by the EU, helping young musicians launch their international careers.