Tamás Pálfalvi • Czech Philharmonic by Stravinsky, Srnka, Eötvös, hAo 13 Noll 2019, Ó (2019/2019), Seoltóir Peter Eötvös, Rudolfinum — Dvořák Hall, Prague, Czech Republic

Peter Eötvös named his composition Jet Stream after the natural phenomenon. In it, the solo trumpet is not the lead voice like in a classical concerto, but rather, as the composer puts it, the “eye of the storm”, to which all of the musical flow refers. At just twenty-five years of age, the soloist Tamás Pálfalvi is not only a world-class soloist and the holder of numerous awards for his recordings and solo performances; above all, he is a visionary musician elevating the art of trumpet playing to entirely new dimensions. Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements is one of the major works of the twentieth century. Thirty years after The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky again made intensive use of the rhythmic element, which firmly holds the whole symphony together. In the first movement, the most prominent instrument is piano, which gives way to harp in the Andante, which is freely inspired by Werfel’s novel The Song of Bernadette. The unrelenting rhythm is based on film footage of the Second World War, which deeply disturbed Stravinsky when he saw it. Framing the programme are two orchestral pieces by the successful Czech composer Miroslav Srnka. He wrote move 01 for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as a study for the opera South Pole, which he composed afterwards and which explores movement and the “temperature” of sound. He composed move 03 for the festival Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo. This orchestral work has an original structure and form, and it won the 2018 “Coup de Coeur” in France.