Débuts with the OBC

Apart from being vehicles of technical virtuosity, the concerto was the ideal genre for concentrating the aesthetic ambitions of Romanticism: the contrast between the forces of the soloist and the orchestra has a metaphorical correlation evident in the expression of the conflict between the freedom of the individual —capable of becoming a hero or a genius— and the constrictions of social order.

Antonin Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7 is, together with the Ninth, or From the New World, the best known of his production. With an ambitious structure and colossal dimensions, the composer draws on incipient Bohemian patriotic fervour to compose a masterpiece of Czech nationalism. The symphony was premiered in 1885 in London and was conducted by the composer himself.