Review of subscription concert 3.11.2008
THE CELLO CANTILENA AND RADIANCE OF THE VIOLINS The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra gave another of its subscription concerts, held in the Dvořák Hall on 3 November with a programme of works by Gioacchino Rossini, Viktor Kalabis and Antonín Dvořák: a classically structured repertoire with two celebrated works to open and close the evening, and a piece by a contemporary composer in the middle.
The Radio Symphony Orchestra presented itself in the very best light right at the beginning: they perform famous overtures to 19th century operas frequently and extremely well. This was also the case with the overture to William Tell, Rossini's last opera, whose Paris premiere signalled the end of the composer's twenty years of full dedication to the operatic genre; the orchestra performed the work with everything its audience would expect from the opera: enchanting cantilena from the cellos and the beautiful solos in the cor anglais and flute in the first part, then the central section with its gradual increase in intensity, and the wonderful festive fanfares and victory march at the end. If only our theatre orchestras performed operatic works to such a high standard as well!
The next part of the concert, which was given over to Viktor Kalabis's Concerto for Violin and Orchestra No. 1, Op. 17, was also a great success. Vladimír Válek, renowned for his masterful performances of contemporary music, drew out all the nuances of the concerto and showed humility towards soloist Miroslav Vilímec, who impressed his audience not only with his softness and brilliance of tone, but also his technical assurance.
Thanks to the well thought-out conception of the solo part, the concerto performance showed that, forty-seven years later, the piece is still able to capture the imagination of its audiences and that, after Václav Snítil, who premiered it in 1961, Miroslav Vilímec proved to be a true master of its interpretation.
And which work was chosen to end the concert on this occasion? Dvořák's magnificent Symphony No. 8 in G major "English", Op. 88, during which the radio orchestra demonstrated not only its wide range of tonal colours and superb solos but also its sense for detail and overall compositional structure.
