Edinburgh City Orchestra: Dvořák’s New World Symphony and Beethoven’s 3rd Piano Concerto

Identity is at the very heart of this powerhouse programme with the Edinburgh City Orchestra, beginning with the eerie forest world of Carl Maria von Weber’s Overture to 'Der Freischütz'. 

Folk traditions, mythology, literature and, above all, romanticism are what make up the opening to this fundamentally fairytale German opera, laying the ground for many composers in the operatic world of the nineteenth century.

Beethoven’s third piano concerto has been called, among other things, celestial; it is the only one of his concertos written in a minor key; and it was premiered by Beethoven without a written score, through a largely blank piano part. The driving force behind these three things is typical of Beethoven’s heroic middle period, characterised by his struggle with the now-unavoidable reality of his increasing deafness. Defiant, moody and central to his identity as a composer, the concerto’s stormy solo will be played by Scottish pianist Catriona Mackenzie, a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music, London and the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Glasgow.

For Antonin Dvořák, the New World is one of hope, tradition, and both Native- and African-American melody. His ubiquitous ninth symphony, 'From the New World,' was a landmark in America’s early musical identity. Written in 1893 as a commission for the New York Philharmonic, Dvořák was deeply inspired by folk melodies both from his new home and his native Czechia. For Dvořák, the soul of the new world—and indeed this symphony—was found in its diverse communities, cemented into history through the lionised melody in the symphony’s largo second movement.
Join the Edinburgh City Orchestra and conductor Peter Le Tissier for a programme of melodicism, rich romanticism and evocative imagery.