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Better than Brahms

Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the LSO in Dvo艡谩k's Cello Concerto with Truls M酶rk and Josef Suk's 'Asrael' Symphony, Suk's moving response to his father-in-law Dvo艡谩k's death.

When Brahms heard Dvo艡谩k's Cello Concerto he famously said that if he'd known it was possible to write such a work, he would have had a go himself. But neither he nor anyone else has ever come up with a cello concerto more fresh-sounding, tuneful and expressive. Dvo艡谩k's sudden death in 1904, less than a decade after he had finished the concerto, was the original motivation behind a moving musical tribute by his son-in-law. Josef Suk named his 'Asrael' Symphony after the Hebrew Angel of Death who tragically struck again the following year, as Suk was composing. This time Suk's wife - Dvo艡谩k鈥檚 daughter Otilie - was his victim and Suk now reshaped the symphony as a tribute to father and daughter. For 20 years this extraordinary dual requiem has been on John Eliot Gardiner's to-do list and he conducts it for the first time tonight.

Recorded last month at the Barbican Hall and presented by Georgia Mann.

Dvo艡谩k: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op 104

8.25
Interval Music (from CD)
Jan谩膷ek: Ml谩d铆
London Winds

8.45
Josef Suk: Symphony No 2, 鈥楢srael鈥�

Truls M酶rk (cello)
London Symphony Orchestra
John Eliot Gardiner (conductor)

Photograph credit - Johs Boe

2 hours, 28 minutes

Last on

Fri 8 Nov 2019 19:30
蜜芽传媒 Radio 3

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Music Played

  • Anton铆n Dvo艡谩k

    Concerto In B Minor Op.104 For Cello And Orchestra

    Performer: Truls M酶rk. Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

  • Spain.Traditional

    El Cant Dels Ocells [catalonian]

    Performer: Truls M酶rk.

  • Leos Jan谩膷ek

    Mladi [youth] - Suite For Wind Sextet

    Ensemble: London Wind Soloists.
    • Twentieth-century Music for Winds.
    • Chandos.
    • 29.

  • Josef Suk

    Asrael (Symphony) In C Minor Op.27

    Orchestra: London Symphony Orchestra. Conductor: Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

  • Gustav Mahler

    Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (R眉ckert-Lieder)

    Singer: Jessye Norman. Performer: Irwin Gage.
    • Jessye Norman, Schubert & Mahler, Irwin Gage.
    • Philips.
    • 10.

Broadcast

  • Fri 8 Nov 2019 19:30
    蜜芽传媒 Radio 3

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