Moldau

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider was born in Copenhagen in 1975 to Polish-Jewish parents. He has for years been renowned as one of the world’s great violinists; his career as a violinist began with victory in the Carl Nielsen Competition in Denmark when he was only 16, followed by third prize in Finland’s Jean Sibelius Competition three years later and first prize in the Queen Elisabeth in Brussels in 1997, and he nowadays appears in about 100 concerts a year. He is President of the Carl Nielsen Violin Competition and a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music in London. Szeps-Znaider last appeared as the soloist with the HPO in 2016, in the Beethoven Violin Concerto.

Over the past 15 years or so, Szeps-Znaider has been seen increasingly on the conductor’s podium. He knew even as a youngster that he one day wanted to conduct, and was personally coached by Sir Colin Davis and Daniel Barenboim. He fell in love with symphonic and operatic repertoire and Bedřich Smetana’s great Má vlast has long been one of his ‘signature’ works. It is one he has conducted with many orchestras in London, St. Louis, Oslo and elsewhere.

Saleem Ashkar

Born in Israel, Saleem Ashkar has come a long way from the son of a non-musical family to the ranks of the pianist elite. At home, he mostly heard Arab music, and learnt the rudiments of piano playing from his relatives in Lebanon. But realising that the boy had talent, his parents moved to Tel Aviv and enrolled him with the great piano pedagogue Arie Vardi. “In retrospect, my parents had to make a tough decision,” he says. “They let me reach out across cultural boundaries to get my musical education. It was hard for them, and being one of two Arab children at a Jewish boarding school wasn’t easy either.” Ashkar was only 17 when Zubin Mehta invited him to perform with the Israel Philharmonic and he made his Carnegie Hall debut at 22. He makes his HPO debut tonight but was the soloist in the same Tchaikovsky concerto in Tampere in 2015.

Saleem Ashkar has done much to promote opportunities for young musicians. He co-founded the Al-Farabi Academy in Berlin for young people who do not have access to a musical education and is Artistic Director of the Galilee Chamber Orchestra, formed of students and young professionals to encourage collaboration between the Arab and Jewish communities in Israel.

Pyotr Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1

Writing his first piano concerto had not been easy for Pyotr Tchaikovsky (1840–1893), so he was naturally proud when it was finished and wanted to play it through to Nikolai Rubinstein, to whom it was dedicated. Unfortunately, Tchaikovsky was not a very good pianist, and – so the story goes – Rubinstein was not impressed. The pianist-conductor even went so far as to say it was hardly worth even revising. Not surprisingly, Tchaikovsky was somewhat piqued and changed the dedicatee to Hans von Bülow, who premiered it in Boston. The concerto was an immediate hit and has remained firmly at number one in the world piano concerto charts. Whether or not Rubinstein really was so disparaging is open to doubt, since he did conduct the Moscow premiere only a few months later, and Tchaikovsky did revise the text several times.

The concerto begins with a long introduction presenting the main themes and the first solo cadenza. The soloist has plenty to say during the first movement, providing bridges from one episode to another. The second movement begins with innocent dreaming until a scherzo-like Prestissimo brings about a complete change of mood. The finale is a spirited Rondo based on a Ukrainian folk song and calls upon every trick in the pianist’s technical kit.

Bedřich Smetana: Má vlast (My Fatherland)

Czech music would not be what it is without Bedřich Smetana (1824–1884). Passionately patriotic, he was fired by the attempt to free Bohemia from the Austrian Empire and his early works, in the nationalist spirit of the times, later matured into a pride in his people that ultimately won him the label ‘father of Czech music’, even though Antonín Dvořák was actually more famous.

Smetana’s main work is the suite of six symphonic poems Má vlast (My Fatherland, composed in 1872–1879). It is a model example of the National-Romantic style, and each poem is a musical evocation of the nation’s history and scenery.

The first is Vysehrad and paints a picture of the castle (the oldest part of which dates from the 10th century) in the centre of Prague. Smetana wrote: “The harps of the prophets start it off, singing songs about the fame, tournaments, and battles of Vysehrad, all the way up to its decline and ruin. The composition ends in an elegiac tone…”

Vltava (also known by its German name Moldau) praises the mighty river. “The composition depicts the course of the river, from its beginnings where two brooks, one cold, the other warm, join a stream, running through forests and meadows and lovely countryside where merry feasts are celebrated; water-sprites dance in the moonlight; on nearby rocks can be seen the outline of ruined castles, proudly soaring into the sky. The river flows in a broad stream towards Prague, passing Vysehrad and disappearing into the distance.”

Sárka is based on the story of the female Bohemian warrior. Disappointed in love, she swears vengeance upon the whole male race. Ctirad takes the field against her, and as his warriors are advancing finds her bound to a tree. She cunningly pretends to have been maltreated by her sisters. Overcome by her beauty and desiring to possess her, he sets her free. While his men are carousing, Sárka gives a horn signal to call her companions, who slay all the drunken, sleeping soldiers.

From Bohemia’s Meadows and Groves tells of a maiden as she roams the beautiful Czech countryside. The midday sun is beating down from a clear sky, birds are chirping in the trees and she can hear singing and dancing in the distance as the peasants celebrate the harvest.

Smetana later added two more poems: Tábor, about the city in southern Bohemia, and Blaník, a legend telling of an army of knights.