Musical elegance from the New World: US-American Joshua Weilerstein made his debut conducting the Staatskapelle Dresden. His interpretation of Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, entitled "From the New World" and written during Dvořák's time in the USA, was particularly well received.
Weilerstein (38) replaced Herbert Blomstedt at short notice. The 97-year-old honorary conductor of the Staatskapelle Dresden had fallen ill with an ear infection and was unable to travel to his former place of work as planned. Blomstedt was chief conductor of the Dresden orchestra from 1975 to 1985.
Another American, pianist Emanuel Ax, completed the Staatskapelle's 8th symphony concert. Ax - 75 years old and an audience favorite in Dresden - played Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 4 and thanked the audience for their bravos and applause with an encore.
The concert opened with a work by the Czech composer Gideon Klein, who was deported to the Nazi concentration camp Theresienstadt in 1941 and died in a branch of the Auschwitz extermination camp in 1945.
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