Czech Philharmonic ⬩ Alisa Weilerstein

“I know that music is progressing, and it must do so, always becoming more complex. But often it also becomes less listenable and harder to perceive. The public can’t keep pace with the composers who are always experimenting without taking people’s taste into consideration. There are even composers who claim that they don’t care at all about the public. But that’s not me. I want people to listen to a composition to the end and to accept it. So, I have to go back and correct certain things to make them comprehensible.”

– Jiří Teml (*1935) in an interview for KlasikaPlus

With its world premiere delayed due to the pandemic, it’ll be interesting to finally hear Teml’s The Labyrinth of Memory in the context of Debussy’s La mer. Impressionism, after all, is one of the most loved styles of music, and Teml has not only claimed that as something he values but has also repeatedly utilised it in his works.

The second world premiere on the programme is a new Cello Concerto commissioned by the Czech Philharmonic from the British composer Richard Blackford. 

The soloist for Blackford’s new work is Alisa Weilerstein who views performing new music as an important part of the life of an artist. She has already premiered new concertos by Joan Tower, Matthias Pintscher and Pascal Dusapin. The American cellist has also enjoyed many years of musical collaboration with the Czech Philharmonic including a 2014 recording of Dvořák’s Cello Concerto with Jiří Bělohlávek, and joint appearances with Semyon Bychkov at New York’s Carnegie Hall four years later.

“Underlying my cello concerto is the story about how people from the small town of Paradise, California, came together to help those whose homes were destroyed by the wildfires known as The Devil Winds of Santa Ana in 2018. The cello and orchestra firstly evoke the power of the firestorm, then an elegy for the destruction caused by it, a movement in praise of rain, and finally a hymn to celebrate a community helping those who lost their homes to climate change to rebuild and start again. Their story of compassion and resilience motivates the four movements.”

– Richard Blackford