Le Loup [The wolf], a ballet by Henri Dutilleux, failed to win recognition during the composer’s lifetime. It was only in 2016 that the work became popular, when many French record releases were devoted to less well-known works by Dutilleux, who was born in 1916. This music was written in 1953 but can be found more often in recordings and concert halls than on ballet stages. This considerable interpretative challenge is taken on by the outstanding Belgian conductor Martijn Dendievel. He will be accompanied by the eminent Czech violinist Josef Špaček. Špaček will be performing the First Violin Concerto by his compatriot Bohuslav Martinů, composed in 1933.

Yet it is the musicians of Sinfonia Varsovia who will be to the fore during this concert. Besides the two works written in the mid-twentieth century, they will also have the chance to display their abilities in Johannes Brahms’s Third Symphony in F major, Op. 90. The three-note motif f–a flat–f that opens this composition is largely interpreted as a musical reflection of the composer’s life motto: frei aber froh (‘free, but happy’). That motto is subsequently developed into a glorious paean to freedom and to the joy of experiencing beauty in music.

Jan Lech