Daniel Hope is one of the most valued and versatile violinists of our time. A student of Yehudi Menuhin, he records for Deutsche Grammophon, often works written in the 20th and 21st centuries. Hope’s performance with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic will be no different, as then we will hear Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto. Hope has an excellent recording of this piece to his credit. The musicians will be led by Christoph Eschenbach. The extensive phonographic output of this acclaimed conductor includes the other piece featured in the programme – it is the well-known Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” by Antonín Dvořák, recorded twice by Eschenbach.

Benjamin Britten’s Violin Concerto was composed between 1938 and 1939, so it is one of the composer’s early works. Although it was first performed in 1940 at the New York Philharmonic by Spanish violinist Antonio Brosa and conducted by John Barbirolli, the composer was not entirely satisfied with his work and returned to it three times, each time introducing new corrections and revisions. This concerto is designed for a large orchestra – it includes an extensive percussion section. Its form is also unusual: instead of a dynamic and spectacular show of virtuosity, it ends with a serious, dark passacaglia, a stylisation of a Baroque dance. 

Symphony No. 9 “From the New World” by Antonín Dvořák owes its subtitle to the place of its creation. The Czech composer wrote it during his stay in the United States between 1892 and 1895. He was then offered the position of director of the National Conservatory of Music in New York and accepted. This period proved to be very inspiring, and Dvořák was keen to incorporate elements of Native American music and Negro spirituals into the pieces he composed there. The most famous of these is The Ninth Symphony. It was first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1893, and the composer admitted that his inspiration for the second and third movements was Henry Wadsworth Longfellow’s poem The Song of Hawaii. Dvořák’s work was a great success, and its cultural significance is emphasised by the fact that a recording of the symphony was taken by astronauts on the Apollo 11 mission, during which the Moon landing took place.