Symphony concert 8

»I'd give all my symphonies if I could have invented the locomotive!« the railroad buff Antonín Dvořák is supposed to have said. Music lovers, on the other hand, would no doubt rather forego the railway than Dvořák’s Ninth Symphony. It is known as »From the New World« because Dvořák composed it while he was director of the National Conservatory in New York – embarking at the same time on the search for his very own special American inflection. African-American music has since inspired numerous composers; ultimately, the sheer magnitude of the country has helped several of them to a new and different way of thinking about music. Dvořák’s compatriot Bohuslav Martinů also settled in America, where he composed his second violin concerto – a 20 th century masterpiece that is too little known finds a new interpreter in Carolin Widmann. America was also a decisive period in his development for the Finnish tone mystic Einojuhani Rautavaara. Debuting with the Gürzenich Orchestra Cologne, Pietari Inkinen will bring his last work, one he completed shortly before he died in 2016. Appropriately, it’s about the »beginning«. A programme not just for lovers of the Statue of Liberty.