Jakub Hrůša conducts Copland, Martinů and Mozart

Abo C
Bamberg, Konzerthalle, Joseph-Keilberth-Saal
20:00 Uhr

In this concert, we will be welcoming two notable soloists as our virtuoso storytellers! This year’s featured artist, Martin Fröst, will play the Clarinet Concerto by Aaron Copland – a key figure of American music, a music that always »speaks of the universal«. Listening to the luxuriant concerto, one can tell that Copland also wrote the scores for a number of films. This work was written for the legendary clarinettist Benny Goodman – and thus combines jazz elements with symphonic traits in a congenial manner. The Czech composer Martinů said of his Fourth Piano Concerto: »The artist is always searching for the meaning of life, that of his own life and that of humanity, searching for truth.« Martinů wrote this splendidly colourful work, which Ivo Kahánek will interpret for us, in 1956 during his exile in America. It bears the epithet »Incantation«, using magical spells to conjure up far-off worlds in its strikingly dramatic music. Martinů also said the following: »It is absolutely clear to me what our contemporary music is lacking: a Mozart!« We will conclude by paying tribute to Viennese classicism: Mozart wrote his three last symphonies in an incredibly brief period of just under ten weeks – a phase during which he was struggling with considerable financial difficulties. However, none of the works reveals much despair, and the »Jupiter« symphony was even praised as the »greatest triumph of instrumental composition«. Nobody really knows where its later title comes from, however. One biographer wrote: »Perhaps an excellent literary scholar – maybe even a journalist – gave it this name, which did not contain any kind of ‘programme’, of course, but referred to a characteristic. But why should we not be allowed to think of a god of the ancient world when entering this musical landscape?«

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Martin Fröst Clarinet
Ivo Kahánek Piano

Aaron Copland Konzert für Klarinette und Orchester
Bohuslav Martinů Konzert für Klavier und Orchester Nr. 4 »Incantation«
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 41 C-Dur KV 551 »Jupiter«