Brahms & Dvořák

Overview

While writing his Cello Concerto, the Czech composer Dvořák received word that a dear friend was dying. He immortalized her with a musical quotation of her favorite song, one of his own tunes, in the concerto’s second movement, one of music’s great love letters, and perhaps the most popular cello concerto in the repertoire. The acclaimed Canadian conductor Peter Oundjian conducts this program, which opens with a brand new orchestral work by the Grammy-winning American composer Joan Tower and concludes with Brahms’ second symphony, a work so sunny and pleasant that Brahms — always the prankster — joked to his publisher, “I have never written anything so sad.”

BACHTALES WITH BUDDY | 1 Hour Before Concert

Before each symphonic concert, FWSO Principal Keyboard Buddy Bray offers a pre-concert lecture to dive deeper into the works, their history, and other fun concert-related facts. Bachtales with Buddy is free for all ticket holders.