The Hallé in Nottingham: September 2018

Nottingham’s season begins with a gallop, which marks the homecoming of the shaman hero of Finland’s epic poem, Lemminkäinen, whose excitement Sibelius captures in music of unstoppable momentum. Its powerful sense of anticipation is matched by the famous opening of Tchaikovsky’s First Piano Concerto, which heralds a titanic face-off between soloist and orchestra. Dvořák’s reputation was riding high in 1884, so much so that the Royal Philharmonic Society commissioned him that year to write his Seventh Symphony. Inspired by the example of Brahms’s Third Symphony but also showing the strains of the death of Dvořák’s mother and the demise of his composer friend, Bedřich Smetana, the Seventh is his darkest yet most compelling symphony. Beginning with smouldering intensity, it shows Dvořák’s Slavic lyricism at its very best, dramatic and poignant by turns. The concert will be conducted by Karl-Heinz Steffens.

Free pre-concert talk, 6.30pm in the auditorium: Jonathan James on Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony.

(Image credits: Marco Borggreve)

*The Hallé Concerts Society is very grateful to Alexander Gavrylyuk for replacing Yulianna Avdeeva, who has had to withdraw.