Dvořák 7 & Liebrecht Vanbeckevoort plays Tchaikovsky

"Throw it away!" exclaimed the pianist and composer Nikolai Rubinstein when his friend Tchaikovsky played him his First Piano Concerto in 1875. A slap in the face for Tchaikovsky, who at the time was quite psychologically fragile. However, Tchaikovsky refused to change a note and managed to arrange a premiere in Boston, where Hans von Bülow played the piano part. Tchaikovsky's concerto with its characteristic opening bars soon became immensely popular and eventually Rubinstein was forced to revise his opinion. From 1878, he performed the piano concerto himself – so well that Tchaikovsky eventually dedicated his Second Piano Concerto to him.

Antonín Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony may not be his most famous work, but many consider it to be his best one. Commissioned by the London Royal Philharmonic Society, Dvořák abandoned overly Slavic-inspired melodies in this composition to embrace a more international style in the tradition of Beethoven and Brahms. The result: a work at times dark and dramatic in the key of D minor - the same key Mozart used in his requiem. The second movement—subtitled "From the Sad Years"—is imbued with the composer's grief following the deaths of his mother and eldest child. While the theme of loss resurfaces in the fourth and final movement, the symphony concludes with revolt and affirmation. More than in any other work, in the romantic and tumultuous Seventh Symphony, Dvořák dares to confront himself and seeks answers to life’s elemental existential questions.

Created with the support of the Belgian Tax Shelter through Casa Kafka Pictures..