Dvořák Beethoven Aadland Gimse

This program replaces the concert "Genesis" with Martin Fröst, which is postponed indefinitely due to illness.

Ludvig van Beethoven had become Vienna's major musical star when he played the solo part of his own new piano concerto in the Theater an der Wien in 1803. He had been too busy to write down much of his part – the theatre’s conductor was supposed to turn the pages and struggled to follow the music. However, it amused the composer, who fortunately knew the concert by heart.

Piano Concerto No. 3 opens in a serious mood, but it soon gives way to lighter touches. After a very subdued and evocative second movement follows a sparkling and virtuosic third movement.

Antonín Dvořák was director of the US National Conservatory in New York from 1892 to 1895. He was interested in both Native American music and Afro-American spirituals, and built on that inspiration when he wrote his ninth symphony – commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, who premiered it in 1893.

The American influence is perhaps particularly audible in the second movement, where the famous English horn solo resembles a spiritual. In both the second and third movement he also fetched inspiration from the story of the Indian legendary figure Hiawatha, the third movement depicting a dance at his wedding.