Baldur Brönnimann, conductor
Santiago Cañón, cello

• Cometa: Commissioned from Octavi Rumbau. World premiere
• Alberto Evaristo Ginastera: Variaciones concertantes, Op. 23
• Antonín Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104

TALKING WITH… Baldur Brönnimann and Santiago Cañón
Sala Mozart, 7:45 p.m.

The season comes to a close with Octavi Rumbau’s Cometa, which sheds light on Ginastera’s Variaciones concertantes, written by this composer passionate about folklore and the avant-garde, amid conflicts with Perón’s government. Premiered in 1953, these Variations elevate Argentinian popular music to new artistic heights. That same love for folk influences resonates in Czech composer Antonín Dvořák’s Cello Concerto, composed in New York during his tenure as director of the National Conservatory. The work pulses with his deep spirituality and faith in humanity. The concerto shares with his Stabat Mater, written after the loss of his first three children, a spirit where tragic sorrow ultimately yields to hope. There could be no more fitting conclusion to a season that has offered us so many stories.