The blend of passionate lyricism and Czech national feeling in Dvořák's Cello Concerto speaks open-heartedly to audiences everywhere.
Antonin Dvorak in 1882 Photo: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons
Even critics, who don’t put Dvořák in the top echelon of composers, make an exception with this piece.
Brahms was heard to grumble, “If I’d known it was possible to write a cello concerto like this, I’d have done it years ago”.
Antonín Dvořák’s genius tells him that all truly great music-making is a conversation among the family of instruments - which after all is what an orchestra really is. So flute, oboe, clarinet, horn and violin all have their say in proceedings.
But the work is dominated of course by the voice of the solo cello - at times nostalgic, at times imperious, and always emotionally-charged.
