Czech National Symphony Orchestra

From the Old World to the New – Europe and the Americas represented by a century of orchestral masterpieces.

Smetana, Czech musical patriot, looked to his homeland for inspiration. His folk‑tinged opera on village life has an overture that dazzles as surely as any wedding finery.

Tchaikovsky, Russian cultural figurehead, draws on Ukrainian traditional tunes for his famous piano concerto. Dvořák, newly arrived in New York, produced a memorable symphonic synthesis of central European folk music and American spirituals – without quoting an actual tune from either continent.

Skip forward to the 1970s and nothing sounds quite like the sultry lyricism and hypnotic rhythms of the ‘new’ tango of Astor Piazzolla. An Argentinian musician who spent time in Paris and the US, writing orchestral music based on a fusion of South American street dances imported from Europe and Africa, played by a Czech orchestra – it’s difficult to imagine a greater transatlantic cross‑cultural mix.

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