CANCELLED: Symphoniker Hamburg / Jacek Kaspszyk

In this concert, Polish chief conductor Jacek Kaspszyk turns his attention to 20th century works that have suffered from unjust neglect. To the oeuvre of the important Czech composer Bohuslav Martinů, for example, who was inspired by impressionism and neoclassicism, by New Music and jazz. His credo was: »The artist is always searching for the meaning of life, both of his own life and that of people in general; he is always searching for truth.«

Samuel Barber’s style, on the other hand, has sometimes been referred as neoromantic, though the composer was actually trying to establish his own (American) style. An important example is Barber’s Violin Concerto op. 14. The famous second movement is full of passionate yearning, while the last movement calls for the utmost virtuosity. This special work of violin literature is played by Akiko Suwanai, who is the subject of frenzied praise well beyond the confines of her native Japan.

In 1942 the occupying Nazi forces destroyed the little town of Lidice near Prague in an act of reprisal, killing the male inhabitants and sending most of the women and children to concentration camps. A year later Bohuslav Martinů, who was already in exile in the USA, wrote his one-movement piece »Memorial to Lidice«, which recalls the Nazi crimes and at the same time represents a manifesto for dignity and humanity.