Czech National Symphony Orchestra

Steven Mercurio conductor

Mark Bebbington piano

CoplandAppalachian Spring

BeethovenPiano Concerto No 5 ‘Emperor’

SmetanaVltava

DvořákSymphony No 8

What a way to end the Season; with a concert of symphonic blockbusters. In music of their homeland, the Czech National Symphony Orchestra will bring out the sights and sounds of Smetana’s colourful river journey as the Vltava winds its way through the Bohemian countryside, from trickling stream to mighty river. There’s a strong nationalist flavour, too, in Dvořák’s Symphony No 8, and it’s coupled with an irrepressible joie de vivre. This genial and much-loved symphony is packed with folk melodies, bird calls and the sounds of nature that filled the forests around the country home where he wrote this work.

A former pupil of Leonard Bernstein, the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor Steven Mercurio took over the baton from Libor Pešek in 2019. Conductor and orchestra are joined in Beethoven’s pivotal ‘Emperor’ Concerto by soloist Mark Bebbington, a musician of the rarest refinement and maturity and “truly a remarkable pianist” in the words of The Times. With its mighty orchestral and piano writing, and a sublime slow movement that plunges into the rhythmic energy of the rondo finale, this is Beethoven at his finest.