Overview

The charismatic violinist Ray Chen stars in Sibelius’s Violin Concerto, led by debuting conductor Tomáš Netopil. Full of fearsome runs, double stops, and nimble finger acrobatics, the work is a virtuoso’s rite of passage. But it’s never showy at the expense of songfulness. Dvořák’s exuberant Carnival celebrates songfulness, too. In Má Vlast (My Country) Smetana imagines the landscape, mythology, history, and future of his native land, the modern Czech Republic, then under the yoke of Austria. Today, the creation of an independent Bohemia seems inevitable; back then it seemed impossible. Má Vlast offers an endless bounty of optimism.