Extraordinary Concert with Alexander Liebreich

The attractive programme began with Study for Strings, which Pavel Haas – probably Leoš Janáček’s most famous pupil – composed in Terezín in 1943. (Karel Ančerl, a future principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, also performed it there.) We enjoyed Alban Gerhardt’s cello virtuosity on Concerto no. 1 in E-flat major by Shostakovich, which was written for the legendary Mstislav Rostropovich and became one of the pillars of the cello literature. The special concert at the Rudolfinum’s Dvořák Hall ended with Brahms’ Fourth Symphony, a classic of German Romanticism.