West Side Story

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Image courtesy of l'Auditori.

The Cello concerto in B minor is the last work that Dvořák composed in the United States, in February 1895. Its initial symphonic exposition announces an orchestral grandeur to showcase the position of a soloist—in this case, Pablo Ferrández, an authority on the piece—which, in line with romantic tradition, is irrepressible. The slow movement evokes the memory of Josefina Cermakova, with whom Dvořák had been in love, in contrast with a military finale that calls for the heroic mobilization of physical and emotional energies, with the unmistakable sound of the triangle and the complicity of the first violin near the end, in a prodigious duet with the cello.

The spectacular nature of Dvořák’s compositions, which often include rhythms and melodies from his birthplace of Bohemia, can be found in Leonard Bernstein’s Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. After having discovered the jubilant, ironic overture from his operetta Candide, based on a satirical novel by Voltaire, it is time to enjoy the musical plot of a film that rewrites the impossible nature of Shakespearian love within the context of a multi-cultural metropolis.

Program

• Antonín Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor, op. 104 (1895) 40′
• Leonard Bernstein: Candide Overture (1956) 5′
• Leonard Bernstein: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. (1957) 23′

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