During the concert with the NFM Wrocław Philharmonic, the Danish conductor Thomas Dausgaard will conduct two compositions. The first will be a concerto for cello and orchestra by a contemporary a Danish composer. The second is a lesser-known symphony written by an excellent Czech composer from the Romantic era.

The author of the first of the works featured in the programme is a Danish artist born in 1969, Thomas Agerfeldt Olesen. He is a composer with strong ties to Poland. One of his composition teachers was Henryk Mikołaj Górecki. In his youth, Krzysztof Penderecki’s music made a strong impression on Olesen, and he described the oeuvre of Witold Lutosławski as his “aesthetic compass”. Olesen believes that the achievements of previous generations cannot be ignored and undermining them is pointless. In his own work, he engages in a creative dialogue with tradition, focused on discovering new qualities. During the concert at the National Forum of Music, the acclaimed Danish cellist Jakob Kullberg will perform a new composition by Olesen, the Cello Concerto No. 2.

Antonín Dvořák’s Symphony No. 6 in D major is not as popular as some of his other compositions, but certainly deserves our attention for its quality. It was one of the works that helped establish the international reputation of the Czech composer. It was also the first of his symphonies to be published, and thus more popular and performed than his other early works. It is a joyful and energetic work, in which Dvořák’s individualism was just taking shape. We can still find echoes of the influence of Brahms, so highly valued by him, but the narrative is also made more attractive by quotations from Czech folk music, and the third movement is a temperamental furian – a Czech folk dance. The attractiveness of the symphony is enhanced by the great beauty and catchiness of Dvořák’s melodies.