65th Concert Season Season 2020|2021 2021 | Season 2020 . A word from the Filharmonie Brno Managing Director Dear music lovers invite you to a social gathering over a glass Paľa. Leoš Svárovský is preparing for C. M. you! I am very happy that we enter the new of wine, from 6pm before the concerts at von Weber’s celebrated Bassoon Concerto season with the support of our exceptional You are holding in your hands our brand Besední dům (Filharmonie at Home series), with the virtuoso Guilhaume Santana and volunteers for the second time now, who new catalogue for the 2020/2021 sea- where you can learn plenty of interesting Roussel’s Le festin de l’araignée – with this help us with concerts and education – son: this time, it is not just the content that is facts about the programme and meet the concert, the former chief conductor of our thank you, everyone! new – the format is, too. We’ve aimed to evening’s artists in person. orchestra will celebrate an important anni- I am writing these words at a time when make the navigation easier, and to high- The new season is the work of the Filhar- versary in his life. Gerrit Prießnitz will focus we are all paralysed by the coronavirus light the unique characteristics of our sub- monie Brno chief conductor and artistic on the emotional topic of Hamlet in the pandemic and are not yet sure what the ul- scription concerts – each of them offers a director Dennis Russell Davies and the pro- works of Tchaikovsky and Walton. We’ve timate consequences will be for our lives, singular experience, worthy of individual grammer Vítězslav Mikeš, but the pre- also prepared a fresh look at one old piece including our cultural lives. Despite this, we presentation. I trust you’ll enjoy reading ferences of the orchestra itself have been – the Viennese musicologist Dagmar continue to work and are preparing eve- about our enticing new season and choose taken into account as well. Our Chief Con- Glüxam will guide you through Vivaldi’s rything in the form you are used to. Beyond those offerings that’ll best satisfy you. ductor writes about his concerts beautifully Spring and Summer from The Four Seasons, our new season, we are preparing four fes- With the 2020/2021 season, we return in his own piece, and we can be certain performed on this occasion according to tivals: the Exposition of New Music in No- to the original form of subscription series, that every one of them will be an event – as the principles of the period doctrine of the vember, the Easter Festival of Sacred Mu- which you got used to until three years ago, we are now used to. But I’d also like to affections, or Affektenlehre – that is, a sys- sic, the talent festival Mozart’s Children before our orchestra’s temporary refuge at point you to the concerts by other outstan- tem for translating passions into music. If and the summer Špilberk festival. the Stadion Hall. Thus there will be two se- ding conductors. Our permanent guest con- you thought that there was nothing new for ries of major symphony concerts, Filharmo- ductor Robert Kružík has prepared an ex- you in this music, you might be in for a sur- We are looking forward to interesting and nie at the Theatre I and II, and one series of ceptional, “dramatic” programme from prise. prestigious guest appearances and tours, Filharmonie at Home. You can also look for- works by Kabeláč and Shostakovich; Dvo- This brings me to our rich offer of educa- but, above all, to seeing you, our dear audi- ward to: a series of Special Concerts; the řák’s popular Requiem; a combination of tion of all kinds and for everyone. If you’d ence. Nothing can replace a live concert perennial favourite, Family Series; a cham- Rejcha, Saint-Saëns, Jan Novák and Mil- like to find out more, simply ask for our spe- – perhaps that is the precious takeaway ber series by members of our Academy, haud, in a French spirit; and for the New cial education catalogue More Music! That message from these present quiet days. Young Blood; the Jazz & World Music se- Year, a jazzy programme of Gershwin, caters to parents and carers with toddlers, ries; and the Concerts of Kantiléna. Shostakovich, Glazunov and Harle, with maternity and primary schools, parents Marie Kučerová In order to have all concerts start at the the young saxophonist Jess Gillam. Alexan- with children, children without parents and same hour and with the aim of offering you der Liebreich has opted for a rare offering parents without children alike. Our outstan- a more convenient time for returning home, of Mansurian (whose Requiem made a ter- ding tutors and empathetic musicians will all concerts in the new season will start at rific impression in Brno), Schnittke and make music accessible – nobody needs to 7pm (unless otherwise indicated for special Mendelssohn, and invited a violinist who be afraid of it – and in a form that you will and festival concerts). I would also like to can be described as a maximalist, Milan find congenial. We can even bring music to 2 3 A word from the A word from the Mayor of Brno Filharmonie Brno Chief Conductor Dear listeners Music lovers throughout Europe have been wonderful French violinist Renaud Capuçon for years learning about the vibrant cultural and the inspired German tenor Christoph In the increasingly globalised world of the The Filharmonie Brno ranks among the in- scene in Brno through radio broadcasts fea- Prégardien. 21 st century, music is emerging as a uni- stitutions without which I could not imagi- turing the Filharmonie Brno. This season, On a personal note I am looking for- versal means of communication among ne our city and its cultural life. I am glad audiences in Seoul, Graz, Salzburg, ward as pianist to two chamber music eve- people, because it works even without you cannot imagine your lives without mu- Bayreuth, Cologne, London, Cardiff, Bir- nings together with the Filharmonie Brno‘s words. It can easily transcend the boun- sic either. mingham, and Edinburgh, among several fine wind soloists, as well as a special eve- daries of space and time, and span age, others, will experience in person the vibrant ning with my wife and piano-duo partner and cultural and social differences. One Markéta Vaňková music making that is the hallmark of our Maki Namekawa in a special program of the few demands music places on its musicians. with works by Mozart and Shostakovich. fans is openness and perspicacity. Only We continue our special Beethoven ce- then can it exert its beneficial influence in lebration by presenting at our first subscrip- This promises to be a great season and full. tion concert in Besední dům this great com- I look very much forward to welcoming our I trust that the Filharmonie Brno has poser‘s three ouvertures to his opera very special Brno audience to our concerts. prepared for its open and perspicacious Leonore as a framework to special works audiences a season that will appeal to by Dvořák and Arvo Pärt. Our season Dennis Russell Davies them, enrich them, link them with compo- Opener, this year in the magnificent sers and performers and invite them into Cathedral of St. Peter & St. Paul , will also their world. The season presents works by feature Pärt in celebration of his 85th birth- past titans, such as Ludwig van Beethoven day, together with Bruckner‘s mighty 5th and Dmitri Shostakovich, as well as more Symphony. recent 20th-century figures, such as Arvo I am delighted to be able to conduct this Pärt and Miloslav Kabeláč. It will also fea- season in Brno Czech premiers of sympho- ture lesser-known composers, such as nies by two very close friends who happen Erich Wolfgang Korngold, an Academy to be among the very most successful and Award winner for film music and a native prominent living composers, Thomas Lar- of Brno. The season searches for links cher from Austria, and the American Philip among the various poles of the musical Glass. Orchestras world wide are perfor- planet, such as those bringing together ming works by these unusual musicians classical music and jazz. who also happen to be great mutual col- leagues and friends. I am also excited to continue in Brno my collaborations with the 4 5 Dennis Russell Davies Artistic Director and Chief Conductor Dennis Russell Davies’ activities as Since 2018 Dennis Russell Davies is works by Mozart, Beethoven, Shostakovich, opera and orchestral conductor, and as Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of Philip Glass, and Stravinsky (original pianist and chamber musician, are the Filharmonie Brno. In Autumn 2020 he four-hand versions of “Le Sacre de characterized by an extensive repertory assumes the position Chief Conductor of Printemps”, “Firebird”, and “Petrouchka”). stretching from pre-Baroque to the latest the MDR-Sinfonieorchester Leipzig. Born in Toledo, Ohio in 1944, Davies music of our time. Widely considered to As guest conductor in the USA, he has studied piano and conducting at the be one of the most innovative and appeared with the orchestras of Chicago, Juilliard School in New York. From adventurous conductors/programmers Philadelphia, San Francisco, Boston, New 1997–2012 he was professor for in the classical music world, Davies has York and Cleveland. In Europe he has orchestral conducting at the University successfully challenged and inspired worked regularly with the Gewandhaus- Mozarteum Salzburg; beginning audiences on both sides of the Atlantic as orchester Leipzig and the Concertgebouw in September 2020 he will be guest well as in Japan.