Programme
Lukáš Hurník
Radio, a symphonic documentary for the 100th anniversary of Czech Radio, world premiere, commissioned by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Edvard Grieg
Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in A minor, Op. 16
Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82
The programme featuring the leading Estonian conductor Olari Eltse will open with the world premiere of a new piece by Lukáš Hurník. The composer, who for many years worked as the editor-in-chief of the Czech Radio Vltava station and now heads its D-dur station, named his composition Radio with the subtitle “a symphonic documentary” to pay tribute to Czech Radio and its century-long history. The soloist of the evening will be the pianist Marianna Shirinyan, born in Yerevan, Armenia. Accompanied by Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, she will perform one of the most popular works in her instrument’s repertoire, the dramatic and lyrical Concerto for Piano and Orchestra by the Norwegian composer Edvard Hagerup Grieg. We will stay with Scandinavia after the break, when Symphony No. 5 by Jean Sibelius will be performed. The Finnish composer, popular mainly for his Violin Concerto and symphonic poem Finlandia, noted in his diary that one of the main themes of the three-movement symphony was inspired by the flight of sixteen swans he observed in the Nordic sky.