Performance on 3 - 18/12/2007

Petroc Trelawny introduces a concert given at the Barbican, London, with Ivan Zenaty (violin) and the BBC Symphony Orchestra under its chief conductor Jiri Belohlavek performing music from his native Czechoslovakia. Smetana's popular opera The Bartered Bride is represented by the Overture and three folk dances. Dvorak played the viola in the first performance of the opera, and 20 years later composed his Eighth Symphony, brimful of Bohemian flavour. There's the UK premiere of a concerto from a generation later – Foerster's Violin Concerto No 1 - which is performed by Czech violinist Ivan Zenaty. Smetana: Overture; Three Dances (The Bartered Bride) Foerster: Violin Concerto No 1 (UK premiere) Dvorak: Symphony No 8 in G.