The Hallé: Dvorak's Seventh Symphony

Brahms Piano Concerto No.2  (48′)
Dvorak Symphony No.7  ( 41′)

Sofya Gulyak returns to our Opus One Series with Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto, one of the greatest of all piano concertos. The work has both heroic bravura and the intimacy of chamber music; its slow movement is a tender musical love letter, its finale a joyous celebration of song and dance. Dvorak’s highly dramatic, and at times tempestuous, Seventh Symphony owes a stylistic debt to his great friend Brahms, yet it is also a distinctly Czech symphony. As Dvorak said during its composition, ‘what is in my mind is Love, God and my country.’ Karl-Heinz Steffens will draw out all its dark-hued grandeur and passion.

* The Hallé Concerts Society is very grateful to Sofya Gulyak for replacing Simon Trpceski, who has had to withdraw.