Jakub Hrůša / María Dueñas

»The best way not to think about your woes is to keep yourself busy.« This diary entry dates from a period when Beethoven found his life rather »detestable«: in 1812, he wrote his desperate letter to his »immortal beloved«, was almost completely deaf, and felt increasingly isolated. Nevertheless, with his Eighth Symphony, he created a shining example of humour – at least on the surface, for he himself spoke of »playful seriousness and serious playfulness«. Here he followed tradition whilst simultaneously overcoming it – thereby setting the bar enormously high for his successors, including Martinů: the Bohemian-born composer named his final work in the genre, begun during his American exile, »Fantaisies symphoniques«. It captivates with its ingenious development of motifs through constant metamorphoses. While composing it, he had Charles Münch in mind, who went on to conduct the world premiere in 1955: Martinů admired Münch’s »impulsive way of approaching the music, allowing it to take shape in a generous, flowing manner, freely following its inherent movement.« Also on the programme is Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1, which he completed in 1917 during the early turmoil of the revolution in his Russian homeland: it features many lyrical highlights, but also passages with dynamic energy, sharply accented rhythms and grotesque moments. Prokofiev played with listeners’ expectations at the time and once remarked that »a composer is a madman« who writes »things incomprehensible to his generation« – adding: »Only after a certain amount of time has passed does the world around him come to understand the paths he has laid out.«