The 2001: A Space Odyssey by Stanley Kubrick made history primarily as the first masterpiece in the history of the science fiction movie genre. In addition to the visual layer what draws attention is the awesome soundtrack masterfully selected by the director. This evening, we will hear two works included in Kubrick’s space story: György Ligeti’s Atmospherès and Richard Strauss’s Also Sprach Zarathustra. The orchestra and soloists will also perform Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante in E flat major for violin and viola.
 
The Atmospherès – Ligeti’s orchestral work, composed in the early 1960s, premiered at one of the most prestigious annual festivals of new music in Donaueschingen. However, the composition gained real fame only years later, in 1968, when it was used by Stanley Kubrick, considered one of the greatest filmmakers of all time. Even though Ligeti himself did not hide his dissatisfaction with the fact that the director used the piece in the soundtrack of the film – today a considered a masterpiece of all time – thanks to which it became known to audiences all over the world. The symphonic poem Also Sprach Zarathustra by Richard Strauss isa musical illustration of a book by Friedrich Nietzsche. At first, the work, like the composer’s other poems, was not widely recognized. Today, however, it is one of the most eagerly performed and listened to pieces by Strauss, and a fragment of Sunrise can also be heard in Kubrick’s film.

In the first part of the concert we will hear the Sinfonia concertante in E flat major for violin and viola KV 364 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. This work, once rarely played, was restored to favour on the 200th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The perfection of form, expression and creative inspiration to this day delight both audiences and musicians reaching for this score.