2024-05-23 02:23:52
The orchestra of the Nationwide Academy of St. Cecilia underneath the baton of Jakub Hrůš had so as to add twice when it carried out on the Prague Spring competition this Saturday. He beforehand provided a unique trio of songs in a packed Municipal Home.
Firstly, the Frescoes of Piero della Francesca by Bohuslav Martinů had been carried out. They had been created when the creator was working in Rome, with this composition he expressed his admiration for the frescoes of the Renaissance painter. The second quantity was George Gershwin’s Concerto for piano and orchestra in F main, performed by the frequent visitor of Prague phases, the American-Russian pianist Kirill Gerstein. The 44-year-old musician residing in Berlin, who first studied jazz at Boston’s Berklee School of Music, obtained appreciable applause. On the finish of the primary a part of the night, he performed as an encore a jazz commonplace by Gershwin’s pal Oscar Levant known as Blame It On My Youth in his association.
After the break, Sergei Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances for Giant Orchestra was performed. The viewers applauded two encores, dances from The Bartered Bride by Bedřich Smetana, whose start 200 years have handed this 12 months. On the finish, Jakub Hrůša thanked the viewers for his or her assist and slowly wished them a pleasant summer time.
“What appears a little bit bit like possibly an excessive amount of distinction – the American piece earlier than the break and the Russian piece after it – truly offers a sure connection,” the conductor stated earlier than the live performance. “To begin with, we affiliate Gershwin with a dance efficiency, and secondly, Rachmaninov composed this final work of his in America. So right here we meet two nice masters of musical artwork, each of whom had been in some way lively in america. It is sort of the intention that the Italian orchestra with carried out by a Czech conductor in a program that was utterly sudden,” added Hrůša.
The Orchestra of the Nationwide Academy of St. Cecilia returned to the competition after 5 years. At the moment, underneath the management of chief conductor Antonio Pappano, he performed the works of Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky, Béla Bartók and Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov.
The historical past of the Italian ensemble dates again to 1908. It was performed by, for instance, Gustav Mahler, Leonard Bernstein and Herbert von Karajan. The orchestra doesn’t solely deal with instrumental music, it additionally has many operas to its credit score. He carried out within the main live performance halls of Europe and the USA and recorded a number of award-winning CDs for EMI Classics.
Hrůša has been its most important visitor conductor since 2021. On Could 28 and 30, he’ll conduct a live performance efficiency of the opera Libuše by Bedřich Smetana at Prague Spring, carried out by the Czech Philharmonic and main singers, led by Kateřina Kněžíková and Adam Plachetka. Hrůša can even be one of many most important audio system on the convention that Prague Spring has ready for the 12 months of Czech Music. It is going to happen on the morning of Wednesday, Could 29, and competition director Pavel Trojan or journalist Petr Fischer will converse.
Hrůša prolonged his tenure as chief conductor of the Bamber Symphony Orchestra final 12 months. He’ll stay on the head of the main German orchestra, which he has been conducting because the 2016/2017 season, till 2029. As well as, he’s the designated director of London’s Royal Opera Home, Covent Backyard, an honorary member of the Royal Academy of Music, or the latest recipient of the Bavarian State Prize for deserves in elevating the repute of symphonists there .
This 12 months’s Prague Spring within the Municipal Home opened on Could 12 with Bedřich Smetana’s Má vlast carried out by the Berlin Philharmonic. The Czech Philharmonic performed by David Robertson will carry out on the closing live performance of the 79th version on June 3.