Liszt – Ravel – Beethoven (O)

Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform two short but expressive concertante pieces for solo piano and Beethoven’s iconic *Fate Symphony* under the baton of Jonathan Darlington, British music director of the Nuremberg Symphony Orchestra and former chief conductor of the Duisburg Philharmonic and the Vancouver Opera in Canada. Franz Liszt, piano virtuoso and innovator in conducting and composition, bridged musical epochs. In Vienna he was taught not only by Beethoven’s pupil Carl Czerny, but also by Beethoven’s teacher Antonio Salieri. He also studied privately with Antonín Rejcha in Paris. He has written thirteen symphonic poems, a new musical form he coined. Even his piano compositions were visionary, both in the field of piano technique and musical forms. They are extremely demanding to play, monumental in sound, but they subordinate virtuosity to content. Liszt was obsessed with religion, heaven and hell, and fascinated by death. His *Totentanz,* or *Dance of Death,* is a paraphrase of a Gregorian chant melody set to the text of the *Dies irae,* the *Last Judgement* – the modernist character of the piano part is clearly an innovative aspect. No less inventive is Maurice Ravel’s *Piano Concerto for Left Hand and Orchestra,* a work from the early 1930s. It was commissioned by the Austrian pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who lost his right arm in the First World War. There is also an arrangement for piano for two hands, but Ravel did not approve of it and forbade its performance.

**Programme:**
- Franz Liszt: *Dance of Death for Piano and Orchestra,* 17 min.
- Maurice Ravel: *Piano Concerto for Left Hand and Orchestra,* 19 min.
- Ludwig van Beethoven: *Symphony No. 5,* 31 min.

**The public dress rehearsal will take place on 21 October 2024 at 10:00.**