Wiener Philharmoniker | Slovenská filharmónia

Wiener Philharmoniker
Peter Schneider, conductor
Dagmar Pecková, mezzo-soprano

Krzysztof Penderecki
Antonín Dvořák
Josef Suk

Adagietto from the opera Paradise Lost
Biblical Songs Op. 99
Asrael, Symphony Op. 27

Penderecki’s intoxicating and beautiful Adagietto opening the concert will be executed by the orchestra renowned for its artistic qualities established by a long-lasting tradition, a peculiar concord, technical brilliance and by a whole spectrum of colour tones– Wiener Philharmoniker. The concert continues in an intimate atmosphere by Antonín Dvořák’s Biblical Songs setting the words from the Kralice Bible. They were composed in 1894 and by them Dvořák allegedly payed tribute to his exemplars Tchaikovsky and Charles Gounod, who had died in 1893. A monumental Symphony Asrael by Josef Suk, Dvořák’s son-in-law, is a demonstration of grief and piety. Mythical Azrael – the angel of death – hovered over Suk’s head in 1905, in the time of death of his wife, Dvořák’s daughter Otília.