2024-07-05 19:38:50
Not only the composers Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák, but also other famous natives will be remembered at this year’s Dvořák Prague festival. On Friday, September 6, it will be opened by Dvořák’s New World Symphony at the Rudolfinum. It will be performed by the Bamber Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its chief conductor Jakub Hrůš. German-born Julian Steckel will be the soloist in Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in B minor.
The same orchestra, but with a different program, will be heard again on September 9, when the works of Bedřich Smetana will be complemented by Symphony No. 5 called Osudová by Ludwig van Beethoven.
The 17th edition of Dvořák’s Prague will join the Year of Czech Music. The name covers the cultural event commemorating important anniversaries of musical personalities every ten years, such as, in addition to Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů and Josef Suk this year.
Jan Simon has been managing Dvořák’s Prague since 2019. | Photo: Josef Horázný
“We will commemorate the year of Czech music not only with the works of the most famous Czech jubilants, but we will also give space to local successful natives such as Gustav Mahler or Erich Wolfgang Korngold. We will dedicate a special concert to Mahler by the combined orchestras of the Czech Philharmonic and the Bamber Symphony in the open air on September 11 at the Prague Exhibition Center, ” announces the director of the festival, pianist Jan Simon.
It is at the Exhibition Center that listeners will be able to experience Jakub Hrůša with the Bamber Symphony for the third time in one week, who will be joined by the Czech Philharmonic at an open-air performance on September 11. The aim of the evening, called Connected by Mahler, is to commemorate the world premiere of Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony in 1908. Under the composer’s baton, the orchestras of the Czech Philharmonic and the former New German Theater in Prague performed at that time. Its members decades later, after being expelled from Czechoslovakia after 1945, laid the foundations of today’s Bamber Symphony Orchestra.
This year, Dvořák’s Prague will also welcome other world orchestras, led by the Vienna Philharmonic conducted by Christian Thielemann, who will perform on September 18. London’s Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, one of the most filmed chamber ensembles, known not least for its work on the film Amadeus by director Miloš Forman, will also return to Prague. On September 21, his players will accompany the famous violinist Joshua Bell.
American violinist Joshua Bell will perform at the festival. | Photo: Benjamin Ealovega
On September 10, the Opera in Concert program series will offer a concert performance of the opera Dead City, an early work by Brno native Erich Wolfgang Korngold. The Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK will be conducted by Tomáš Brauner.
Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 under the direction of Václav Luks are preparing the Seventh Symphony by another Czech native, Jan Václav Kalivoda, on September 15. It will be complemented by Dvořák’s Concerto for Piano and Orchestra in G minor, which will be played on the period instrument by Eric Guo, the last winner of the Chopin Competition in Warsaw.
In the program series called Dvořák Collection, a three-year chamber cycle will culminate this year with Dvořák’s string quartets under the tutelage of the Pavel Haas Quartet. The traditional home ensembles, i.e. the Bennewitz, Sedláček and Zemlinsky Quartet, will be complemented by the Italian Cremona Quartet and the American Dover Quartet.
The program series For the Future will offer, among others, the final round of the Concertino Praga 2024 competition and chamber music masterclasses with members of the Vienna Philharmonic. On September 24, under the slogan “the youngest orchestra and the most classic program”, the festival will close with a performance by the Czech Student Philharmonic, which will play works by Antonín Dvořák and Ludwig van Beethoven under the baton of Ingo Metzmacher from Germany.
This year, the organizers manage approximately 74 million crowns. Compared to last year, the budget increased by approximately ten million crowns, it was increased, among other things, by the costs of the project Spojeni Mahlerem. The price of tickets has risen slightly, the most expensive ones for the Vienna Philharmonic’s performance cost up to 5,690 crowns.
According to the organizers, last year’s edition of Dvořák’s Prague was visited by almost 17,000 spectators, 2,000 more than the year before. Another thousands of interested people were attracted by the digital work Dvořák Dreams by the artist Refik Anadol, which was placed in front of the Rudolfinum.