Season Launch 1
Dvořák Violin Concerto and Beethoven 5

Dvořák began learning the violin in early childhood and the promising young musician earned his living as a viola player for years in Prague’s Interim Theatre. But composing soon prevailed, and it was only natural that Dvořák’s music publisher would ask for a violin concerto, “quite original, rich in cantilenas and for good violinists.” This is precisely what makes Dvořák’s only violin concerto so irresistibly appealing. The eminently emotionally-charged score in which folksy, songlike dance tunes mix to great effect with subtle echoes of Brahms ultimately earned Dvořák the flattering title of the “Bohemian Brahms”. However, you first have to be able to play it! There is no doubt that the Dvořák concerto is in the best of hands with María Dueñas, the young Spanish violin prodigy. Since winning the First Prize and the Audience Prize at the Menuhin Competition last year, the Spanish violinist has been in demand worldwide as a soloist and chamber musician. And it is not only violin playing that she has mastered to an almost miraculous extent. She is also a composer, and during lockdown even made a short film. Not only multitalented, she is also an irrepressible optimist: “I am convinced that music has great power and can make the world a better place.”