Lovely Czech Landscapes

The concert on 6 March 2010 featured a first half of unusual Czech works (Dvorak's The Wood Dove and Martinu's Violin Concerto No 2) but was balanced with Dvorak's great Symphony No 8 in the second half. The concert opened with a rarely played tone poem by Dvorak - The Wood Dove. The Wood Dove has a casual, unhurried majesty, tensions and textures whose occasional modulations even recall Tchaikovsky. Congratulations to Flor for choosing to educate us on the beauties of unusual Dvorak, of which conductors like Sir Simon Rattle and Nikolaus Harnoncourt are also making recent recordings with the BPO and RCOA respectively. Next up, was Isabelle Faust to play the Martinu Violin Concerto No 2 (which was written for Mischa Elman). It was a good performance but ultimately, this concerto was not entirely memorable for the reason of a lack of good tune.

In the second half, we witnessed a superb performance of Dvorak's Eighth Symphony that far surpassed any other interpretation of the same piece at DFP by the MPO (especially by previous MD Bamert). There was dramatic playing in the outer movements, with every nuance given full meaning and colour. The third movement with its delicate string portamentos was brilliantly played by the MPO upper strings. Maestro Flor really excels in the great classical masterpieces and I hope that he re-visits the major compositions in the Romantic era in the seasons to come.