December 23, 2025 | Zaryadye Concert Hall
Conductor — Arif Dadashev
Lilia Chistina, sand art
Antonín Dvořák. Tone poems «The Water Goblin», «The Noon Witch», «The Golden Spinning-Wheel» and «The Wild Dove»
On December 23 in the Zaryadye Concert Hall, Arif Dadashev with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia will present a new program aimed at audiences of all ages. A fabulous night for families will plunge you into the world of Czech folklore and the art of the great Czech classic composer.
The program features four Tone Poems by Antonín Dvořák («The Water Goblin», «The Noon Witch», «The Golden Spinning-Wheel» and «The Wild Dove») inspired by the poetry of Karel Jaromír Erben — Czech writer, translator and folklorist. His collection «A Bouquet of Folksongs» containing 13 ballads was based on Czech folktales and popular beliefs. During his whole life, Dvořák addressed epic folk poetry and Erben’s Collection was within his scope of interest, for instance, when composing his songs «The Orphan», «Rosemary» and cantata The Spectre’s Bride (or «The Wedding Shirts»). In 1896, Dvořák wrote four symphonic poems using the ballads of the same Collection expertly creating images and threads of the well-known Slavonic tales.
Dvořák’s Poems will be performed by the National Philharmonic Orchestra of Russia under the baton of Arif Dadashev and illustrated with Lilia Chistina’s visual sand paintings on a big screen. The treacherous Water Goblin enticing the girl into his domain, the cunning Noon Witch bringing death to children left without care, an unlucky King and a good Fairy, the suffering widow with a golden spinning wheel who had killed her husband transformed into a dove — all these characters and many others will come alive in the unity of music and sand painting.
Arif Dadashev, graduate of the NPR’s conductor-training program, is currently the conductor of the Moscow Stanislavsky and Nemirovich-Danchenko Theater and the Moscow Operetta Theater, a guest conductor at the Mariinsky Theater and the Azerbaijan State Academic Opera and Ballet Theater in Baku. In 2024, he debuted in the Alisher Navoi Grand Theater in Tashkent, and in 2025 — at the Giuseppe Verdi Theater in Trieste (Italy) and the Mongolia National Opera and Ballet Theater in Ulan-Bator.