Dresdner Philharmonie

Programme: Jean Sibelius "Finlandia" Edward Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor Antonín Dvořák Symphony No. 9 in E minor "From the New World" Perhaps one can best gauge the significance of "Finlandia" for the Finns by comparing it to the importance of Schiller's Ode "To Joy" in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony for us. Sibelius created with it a symbol of freedom in a time of oppression, and to this day it serves as a sort of national anthem for the Finns. Elgar's Cello Concerto, on the other hand, took a long time to gain acceptance with the audience. It failed at its premiere, and it was only through the performance of the then just 20-year-old Jacqueline du Pré, who now ranks among the cello legends of the 20th century, that it became world-famous. One can confidently attest to the worldwide fame of Dvořák's Ninth Symphony. And even beyond that: Neil Armstrong took a recording of the symphony as a symbol of his homeland with him on his flight to the moon in 1969. However, Dvořák did not intend to write American music; although he used melodies from indigenous and African American inhabitants, he transformed them into his own unique music, incorporating his homesickness for his native Bohemia.