The final concert of our season is an evening of Eastern European inspired music:

Dvorak - Cello Concerto
Soloist: Jacob Shaw
Bartok - Concerto for Orchestra

Dvoraks stunningly beautiful Cello Concerto is full of joyous themes inspired by his Czech homeland. It is his last solo concerto and was written in 1894 for his friend, the cellist Hanu Wihan, but was premiered in London 2 years later by the English cellist Leo Stern.

Bartoks virtuoso orchestral showpiece is one of his best-known, most popular, and most accessible works. Bartk said that he called the piece a concerto rather than a symphony because of the way each section of instruments is treated in a soloistic and virtuosic way. It combines Western music with Hungarian folk melodies in a spectacular conclusion to the season.