Here's your daily BBC Proms digest from BBC Music Magazine. We're taking a look at the concert taking place today, Tuesday, 27 August 2024 at the Royal Albert Hall. It's something of an all-Czech evening, and it includes one of the most moving works in the classical music repertoire.
Don't forget to stop by at www.classical-music.com every day during the Proms, for in-depth guides, like this one, to each day's Prom. And why not also bookmark our 2024 BBC Proms guide, where you can find listings for all of the 2024 BBC Proms taking place both in London and elsewhere.
What's on at the BBC Proms today?
Today's Prom is an all-Czech affair. We begin with Dvořák's masterful Cello Concerto, one of two major works produced by the composer during his time living and working in the United States (the ‘New World’ Symphony is the other).
A big, melodic and deeply Romantic work, Dvořák's Cello Concerto has a sense of melancholy underpinning it. This sadness comes not just from Dvořák’s yearning for his Czech homeland, but also for his sister-in-law Josefina, who was dying at the time. She had been Dvořák's first choice as wife but had rejected him, whereupon the young composer turned to her sister Anna instead.
On hearing the work, Brahms (who served as a mentor and advocate for Dvořák) is reputed to have commented that, had he known that it was possible to compose such a work for the cello, he would have done so himself. It is undoubtedly a masterpiece, and was one of the first entries in our list of the greatest cello concertos of all time.
Tonight's other work bears a very close connection to Dvořák. The young Czech composer Josef Suk married Dvořák's daughter Otilie, and enjoyed a close relationship with his father-in-law and fellow composer (indeed, Dvořák sent his son-in-law on trainspotting errands).
Suk's marriage to Otilie resulted in the happiest period of Suk's life. All this was to come to a tragic end, however, in 1904 and 1905 when Suk lost both his mentor and father-in-law Antonín Dvořák, and his beloved wife Otilie. These events inspired Suk's best known work, and the piece you'll hear tonight: the nakedly emotional 'Asrael' Symphony of 1905-06.
Named after the angel of death in both the Jewish and Islamic traditions, this sorrowful and dramatic work was originally planned as a tribute to Suk's father-in-law and mentor. Tragically, it then took on even greater emotional weight when Otilie also passed away during its composition.
Composed of five movements, the 'Asrael' Symphony is an impassioned quest through grief, loss, and the search for emotional solace. It has a dark and brooding character, achieved through its powerful orchestration and richly complex, late Romantic harmonies reminiscent of Mahler and Strauss. There are moments of redemption and hope amid the loss, and the whole is a profound, moving work, one of the most emotional listening experiences in the classical canon.
Fun fact: Suk was also an Olympic silver medallist! He took silver for his music at the 1932 Games in Los Angeles, which uniquely awarded medals in five artistic categories (architecture, literature, music, painting and sculpture) for works with sport-related themes.
Who is performing at the BBC Proms today?
When we say that today's Prom is an all-Czech affair, we're not far off. Not only is the repertoire all Czech: the vast majority of the performers are too. Suk's 'Asrael' Symphony is something of a Czech speciality, performed by great Czech orchestras and conductors of the past including Vaclav Talich, Rafael Kubelik and, latterly, Jiří Bělohlávek.
Tonight continues that tradition: the performers are the legendary Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (one of the best orchestras in the world) and the Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša. It's the first of two successive all-Czech Proms from these forces, by the way: on Wednesday 28 August, for Prom 50, they perform works including Dvořák's Piano Concerto and Janáček's Glagolitic Mass.
They are joined by Russian cellist Anastasia Kobekina for the Dvořák Cello Concerto. You can see Anastasia performing the work with the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra in the top clip above.
