The Bohemian Reformation by Various, -tól (2017/2017), Karmester Jakub Hrůša, Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

Tonight’s all-Czech programme opens with a Hussite war song, whose melody reappears in Dvorák’s Hussite Overture (depicting the struggles of Czech Reformation pioneer Jan Hus), Smetana’s symphonic poems from Má vlast and Martinů’s elegiac Field Mass, composed as a prayer for his homeland after the German invasion in 1939. Rising star conductor Jakub Hrůša presents an all-Czech concert with the BBC SO and the BBC Singers. Smetana’s evocative tone-poem Ma vlast sits alongside Martinů’s Field Mass and Suk’s Prague. This is music of protest, anger and national pride.