NSO: Ring, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky

National Symphony Orchestra
Patrik Ringborg conductor 
Camille Thomas cello
 
Judith Ring Everything was asleep as if the universe was a vast mistake
Dvořák Cello Concerto 
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5

Affairs of the heart are to the fore in two compelling masterpieces. Dvořák’s passionate Cello Concerto fits the instrument’s voice like a glove. The tragic force of Tchaikovsky’s dark and dramatic Fifth Symphony is matched by his gift for melody.

Judith Ring’s first full orchestral piece, Everything was asleep… is a startling depiction of nature recovering from a man-made catastrophe to reclaim and repair the environment. The work was developed during Composer Lab 2022 and first performed by the NSO in 2023.

Did you know?

The title of Judith Ring’s piece is borrowed from a quote by the Portuguese poet Fernando Pessoa featured in Jean-Luc Godard’s film Hélas pour moi.

Dvořák’s Cello Concerto was actually his second such, the first left unfinished, and his last concerto for a solo instrument.

Composed a decade after his Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky initially regarded his Fifth as ‘repellant’ before ‘warming to it’.

Listen out for…

In Judith Ring’s work, the ‘creeping of various forms of plant life’ and ‘big chords in the brass’ as buildings are consumed by nature in a post-apocalyptic world.

The echoes of Dvořák’s song 'Leave Me Alone' woven into the Cello Concerto, achingly so in the slow second movement.

The solo clarinet voice that lends a haunting presence throughout Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony, and the second movement’s striking horn solo.

Presented by NCH