Heroic Monuments: Dvorák Symphony No. 7

Thomas Guggeis, conductor
Marc-André Hamelin, piano
San Diego Symphony Orchestra

BRAHMS: Piano Concerto No. 1, in D minor, Op. 15
DVORÁK: Symphony No. 7, in D minor, Op. 70, B. 141

Music and memory have always been close companions; you cannot have one without the other. Brahms’s First Piano Concerto, a work of symphonic vastness and one of its composer’s greatest masterpieces, was written out of his burning grief at the early death of his mentor Robert Schumann and his desire to write a piece that would preserve the older composer’s memory for ever. Dvorák’s Seventh Symphony sprang from his intense longing for the freedom and independence of his native Bohemia (now the Czech Republic), and his passionate desire to commemorate those brave spirits who sacrificed so much in the cause of their beloved country.