The expressiveness of Furioso for two string orchestras by the Brazilian composer Marlos Nobre, commissioned for the 21st Biennial of Contemporary Brazilian Music in Rio de Janeiro and first performed in 2015, is suggested by its title. This work begins with an impassioned moto perpetuo, followed by a section featuring repeated distinctive rhythmic figures (reminiscent of the beginning of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring). In the middle section, the movement calms down, but not the mood – full of anxiety and even horror. The lively, chromatic movement returns in the final section. This seven-minute piece makes bold use of a rich palette of textures and string articulation.
Piotr Maculewicz
‘A cheerful, sun-filled work ripened in warm southern climes’ – that was the enthusiastic reaction of one Belgian musicologist to the Concerto for Oboe and Small Orchestra by Bohuslav Martinů, a Czech composer who settled at the start of the 1950s on the Cote d’Azur. This work was written at the request of the outstanding oboist Jiří Tancibudek, who lived far from his homeland.
The notions of energy and light can also be referred to Ludwig van Beethoven’s Third Symphony, written at the very start of the nineteenth century – in the era of Napoleon Bonaparte’s political successes. As a revolutionary work composed in ground-breaking times, Eroica is not infrequently regarded as the first fully Romantic symphony.
Bartłomiej Gembicki
