SEASON GUIDE

124th season 2019 / 2020

Semyon Bychkov Chief Conductor and Music Director

SEASON GUIDE

124th season 2019 / 2020

ESTABLISHED BY THE MINISTRY OF CULTURE OF THE CZECH REPUBLIC CZECHPHILHARMONIC.CZ FACEBOOK.COM/CESKAFILHARMONIE CZECH PHILHARMONIC

TABLE OF CONTENTS

5 Introduction by the Chief Conductor 8 Czech Philharmonic 13 Semyon Bychkov 16 Jakub Hrůša 18 Tomáš Netopil 20 Orchestra 22 Orchestral Academy of the Czech Philharmonic Concerts

25 A Subscription Series 43 B Subscription Series 61 C Subscription Series 73 K Subscription Series 83 M Special Non-Subscription Concerts CONTENT 96 Concerts for Other Presenters in 100 Tours 110 Broadcasts and Recordings 113 Education Programmes 116 Subscription Series for Children with Parents 125 Programmes for Adolescent and Adult Listeners 134 Romano Drom 2019 136 Information about Tickets 141 Transportation and Access to the Rudolfinum 144 Dynamic Club of the Czech Philharmonic 146 Partners of the Czech Philharmonic 149 Contacts 168 Calendar

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we have endeavoured to create a concert INTRODUCTION season which balances music that you both know and love with repertoire that may now be unfamiliar, but that we hope you Dear Friends, will grow to love equally over the coming years. You will instantly recognise the works What a remarkable year the first chapter by Smetana, Dvorak, Janacek, Martinu, in our life together has been. Very shortly Brahms, Mahler, as well as Beethoven’s the 2018/2019 season will come to a close, cycle of symphonies and concertos; at a season in which we have worked together the same time we are looking forward to to protect and reaffirm the unique identity introducing you to Dutilleux, Glanert, of the Czech Philharmonic – a tradition of Berio, Srnka, Teml, Eötvös, Reich. Whether heartfelt musicality, expressed through an already known or not, we believe in each of unmistakable sound quality. It is a quality the composers’ creativity and are looking that touches people and is admired forward to sharing their music with you. everywhere that the Orchestra performs. The silence that fell as we ended the two Fundamentally it is all about balancing the performances of Mahler’s Second Symphony old and the new. The old that remains ever at Vienna’s Musikverein said it all. And, it young when rediscovered, and the new that is this that is our mission everywhere, as we will hopefully never grow old. go from Bratislava to Vienna, from London Finally, I want to thank you our audience, to New York: to convey the spirituality that for the warm and generous welcome that is inherent in great music. Our orchestra you have given me personally and for being

relishes the privilege of being a cultural INTRODUCTION there with us and for us. I very much look ambassador for the Czech Republic, and forward to the coming seasons. bringing the world closer to the country’s vast treasure trove of musical masterpieces. Semyon Bychkov And, this is exactly what we shall continue to do for the coming 2019/2020 season in our travels to the BBC Proms in London, to Taiwan and Japan; and at our residencies at Vienna’s Musikverein and Paris’ Philharmonie where we will bring The Tchaikovsky Project, a series of concerts and recordings that needed four years to realise and which Decca will release as a complete set of discs at the end of summer 2019. But, before taking our music across the world, all our ideas begin in Prague where

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The Czech Philharmonic’s extraordinary Project, a cycle of recordings for the Decca in 1919 and, its detailed inventory of Czech Czech and proud history reflects both its location label. music, undertaken by Václav Talich included at the very heart of Europe and the Czech the world premières of Martinů’s Half Throughout the orchestra’s history, two Republic’s turbulent political history, for Time (1924), Janáček’s (1926) Philharmonic features have remained at its core: its which Smetana’s Má vlast (My Homeland) and the Prague première of Janáček’s championing of Czech composers and its has become a potent symbol. The orchestra Taras Bulba (1924). Rafael Kubelík was belief in music’s power to change lives. “The Czech Philharmonic is among the gave its first full rendition of Má vlast also an advocate of Martinů’s music and Defined from its inauguration as ‘an very few orchestras that have managed to in a brewery in Smíchov in 1901; in 1925 premièred Field Mass (1946) and Symphony organisation for the enhancement of musical preserve a unique identity. In a music world under Chief Conductor Václav Talich, Má No. 5 (1947), while Karel Ančerl conducted art in Prague, and a pension organisation that is increasingly globalized and uniform, vlast was the orchestra’s first live broadcast the première of Martinů’s Symphony No. 6 for the members of the National Theatre the orchestra’s noble tradition has retained and, four years later, the first work that Fantaisies symphoniques (1956). Fantaisies Orchestra in Prague, its widows and authenticity of expression and sound, making the orchestra committed to disc. During symphoniques has also featured twice in orphans’, the proceeds from the four it one of the world’s artistic treasures. When the Nazi occupation, when Goebbels the orchestra’s programmes at the BBC concerts that it performed each year helped the orchestra and Czech government asked me demanded that the orchestra perform in Proms, first in 1969 under Chief Conductor to support members of the orchestra who to succeed beloved Jiří Bělohlávek, I felt deeply Berlin and Dresden, Talich programmed Václav Neumann and then in 2010 under Sir could no longer play and the immediate honoured by the trust they were ready to place in Má vlast as an act of defiance; while in 1945 John Eliot Gardiner. family of deceased musicians. me. There is no greater privilege for an artist than Rafael Kubelík conducted the work as a Prague has long attracted composers, and to become part of and lead an institution that ‘concert of thanks’ for the newly liberated As early as the 1920s, Václav Talich (Chief W. A. Mozart was one of them. After the shares the same values, the same commitment Czechoslovakia. 45 years later, Má vlast was Conductor 1919–1941) pioneered concerts great success of his opera The Marriage and the same devotion to the art of music.” Kubelík’s choice to mark Czechoslovakia’s for workers, young people and other of Figaro here, he wrote first free elections and, this year, Decca voluntary organisations including the Red Semyon Bychkov, and specifically for Classics released Jiří Bělohlávek’s recording Cross, the Czechoslovak Sokol and the Chief Conductor and Music Director Prague. He conducted the premieres of of Má vlast made at the time of the 2014 Union of Slavic Women and, in 1923 gave both operas himself in 1787 and 1791 at the Prague Spring Festival to mark the 100th three benefit concerts for Russian, Austrian Nostitz Theatre. Five years later, Beethoven anniversary of Czechoslovak independence. and German players including members CZECH PHILHARMONIC The Czech Philharmonic gave its first made two trips to Prague returning again CZECH PHILHARMONIC of the Vienna and concert – an all Dvořák programme which The opening of the ‘Centenary Season’ was in 1798 to give the première of his Piano Orchestras. The philosophy continues included the world première of his Biblical marked by Semyon Bychkov’s first concerts Concerto No. 1. His Seventh Symphony was today, and is equally vibrant. In addition Songs, Nos. 1–5 conducted by the composer as the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and composed in the spa town of Teplitz (now to a recently launched Orchestral Academy, himself – in the famed Rudolfinum Hall Music Director. Opening his tenure with Teplice). Mahler’s ties ran even deeper. Born a comprehensive education strategy engages on 4 January 1896. Acknowledged for a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. in the Bohemian village of Kaliště, now part with more than 400 schools bringing all its definitive interpretations of Czech 2 Resurrection, the following subscription of the Czech Republic, he was 23 when he ages to the Rudolfinum – some travelling as composers, whose music the Czech concerts featured Berio’s Sinfonia and conducted the Royal Municipal Theatre in many as four hours – to hear concerts and Philharmonic has championed since its Dvořák’s Symphony No. 7. The celebrations Moravia and first came to Prague to conduct participate in masterclasses. An inspirational formation, the orchestra is also recognised continued with a single concert in London the Neues Deutsches Theatre before giving music and song programme for the extensive for the special relationship it has to the followed by an extensive 13-concert tour of the world première of his Symphony No. 7 Romany communities within the Czech music of Brahms and Tchaikovsky – friends the US and a week-long residency in Vienna. with the Czech Philharmonic. Republic and Slovakia has helped many of Dvořák – and to Mahler, who gave the During the rest of the season, the orchestra socially excluded families to find a voice. Mahler, however, was not the first non- world première of his Symphony No. 7 with and Semyon Bychkov also toured Germany Czech composer to conduct the Czech the orchestra in 1908. and Belgium, gave another series of concerts An early champion of Martinů’s music, the Philharmonic. Edward Grieg conducted in Prague, and completed the Tchaikovsky orchestra premièred his Czech Rhapsody

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the orchestra in 1906; Stravinsky performed his Capriccio for Piano and Orchestra under Václav Talich in 1930; conducted the European première of Aaron Copland’s Symphony No. 3 at the Prague Spring in 1947; Arthur Honegger conducted a concert of his own music in 1949; Darius Milhaud gave the première of his Music for Prague at the Prague Spring Festival in 1966; and, in 1996, Krzysztof Penderecki conducted the première of his Concerto for and Chamber Orchestra. During the past seasons, the Czech Philharmonic has continued its tradition of inviting composer-conductors – in 2016 Peter Eötvös conducted his composition Speaking Drums at the Rudolfinum, and in 2018 Thomas Adès presented his Totentanz. Their names are joined by the many luminaries who have collaborated with the orchestra over the years: Martha Argerich, Claudio Arrau, Evgeny Kissin, , Leonid Kogan, Erich Leinsdorf, Lovro von Matačić, Ivan Moravec, Yevgeny Mravinsky, ČESKÁ FILHARMONIE ČESKÁ CZECH PHILHARMONIC David Oistrakh, , Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Gennady Roszhdestvensky, , Wolfgang Schneiderhan, Georg Szell, Henryk Szeryng, Bruno Walter and Alexander Zemlinsky.

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followed in August 2017 by the release of SEMYON the Manfred Symphony. The Tchaikovsky Project culminates in August 2019 with BYCHKOV Decca’s release of all Tchaikovsky’s symphonies, the three piano concertos, Chief Conductor and Music Director Romeo & Juliet, Serenade for Strings and Francesca da Rimini, followed by residencies in Vienna, Paris and in the autumn. “A new Chief Conductor and a new friendship: the Czech Philharmonic and Semyon Bychkov won the Rachmaninoff Semyon Bychkov understand each other... ” Conducting Competition when he was 20 years old. Two years later, having On 3 October 2018, Semyon Bychkov started been denied his prize of conducting the his tenure as Chief Conductor and Music Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, he Director of the Czech Philharmonic with a left the former Soviet Union where, from concert that celebrated 100 years of Czech the age of five he was singled out for an Independence. Further celebratory concerts extraordinarily privileged musical education. were given by Bychkov and the orchestra in Starting with piano, Bychkov was later Prague, London, New York, Washington and selected to study at the Glinka Choir School Vienna in the autumn. For the remainder of where he received his first conducting lesson the 2018/2019 season, in addition to further aged 13. Four years later he was accepted at performances in Prague, they embarked on the Leningrad Conservatory as a student of a European tour to Germany and Belgium. the legendary Ilya Musin. Born in St Petersburg in 1952, Bychkov SEMJON BYČKOV SEMJON BYČKOV

By the time Bychkov returned to St Petersburg BYCHKOV SEMYON emigrated to the United States in 1975 in 1989 as the Philharmonic’s Principal and has been based in Europe since the Guest Conductor, he had enjoyed success mid-1980’s. In common with the Czech in the US as Music Director of the Grand Philharmonic, Bychkov has one foot firmly Rapids Symphony Orchestra and the Buffalo in the cultures both of the East and the Philharmonic. His international career, which West. Following his early concerts with began in France with Opéra de Lyon and at the orchestra in 2013, Bychkov devised the Aix-en-Provence Festival, took off with The Tchaikovsky Project, a series of a series of high-profile cancellations which concerts, residencies and studio recordings resulted in invitations to conduct the New which allowed them the luxury of exploring York Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic Tchaikovsky’s music together, both in and Royal Orchestras. In Prague’s Rudolfinum and abroad. 1989, he was named Music Director of the The first fruit of The Tchaikovsky Project – Orchestre de Paris; in 1997, Chief Conductor a recording of Symphony No. 6 coupled with of the WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne; the Romeo & Juliet Fantasy-Overture – was and the following year, Chief Conductor of released by Decca in October 2016, and was the Dresden .

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Bychkov’s symphonic and operatic the Leipzig Gewandhaus, the Orchestre with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne – repertoire is wide-ranging. He conducts National de France and the Accademia include a complete cycle of Brahms in all the major houses including La Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; in the US, he can Symphonies, and works by Strauss (Elektra, Scala, Opéra national de Paris, Dresden be heard with the New York Philharmonic, Daphne, Ein Heldenleben, Metamorphosen, Semperoper, Wiener Staatsoper, New Chicago Symphony, Los Angeles Symphony, Alpensinfonie, Till Eulenspiegel), Mahler York’s Metropolitan Opera, the Royal Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. In (Symphony No. 3, Das Lied von der Erde), Opera House, Covent Garden and 2019/2020, in addition to his commitments Shostakovich (Symphony Nos. 4, 7, 8, 10, 11), . . While Principal to the Czech Philharmonic in Prague, Rachmaninoff (The Bells, Symphonic Dances, Guest Conductor of Maggio Musicale Moscow and Nanking, in residence in Symphony No. 2), Verdi (), Detlev Fiorentino, his productions of Janáček’s Paris and Vienna, as well as on tour in Glanert and York Höller. His recording of Jenůfa, Schubert’s Fierrabras, Puccini’s La Taiwan and Japan, Bychkov will conduct Wagner’s Lohengrin was voted BBC Music bohème, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Philharmonic and the Royal Magazine’s Disc of the Year in 2010; his Mtsensk and Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov Concertgebouw. He will conduct Parsifal at recording of César Franck’s Symphony in each won the prestigious Premio Abbiati. Bayreuth, Elektra at the Vienna Staaatsoper D minor was the Recommended Recording In 2018, he conducted Wagner’s Parsifal and Tristan and Isolde at the Royal Opera of BBC Radio 3’s Record Review’s Building both at the Wiener Staatsoper and Bayreuth. House, Covent Garden. a Library; and his recent recording of Other new productions in Vienna include Schmidt’s Symphony No. 2 with the Vienna Recognised for his interpretations of the Strauss’ and Daphne, Philharmonic was selected as BBC Music core repertoire, Bychkov has worked closely Wagner’s Lohengrin and Mussorgsky’s Magazine’s Record of the Month. with many extraordinary contemporary Khovanshchina; while in London, he made composers including Luciano Berio, Henri Semyon Bychkov was named 2015’s his debut with a new production of Strauss’ Dutilleux and Maurizio Kagel. In recent Conductor of the Year by the International Elektra, and subsequently conducted new seasons he has worked closely with René Opera Awards. productions of Mozart’s Così fan tutte, Staar, Thomas Larcher, Richard Dubignon,

SEMYON BYCHKOV SEMYON Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten and BYCHKOV SEMYON Detlev Glanert and Julian Anderson, Wagner’s Tannhäuser. conducting premières of their works On the concert platform, the combination with the , New York of innate musicality and rigorous Russian Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and pedagogy has ensured that Bychkov’s the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the BBC performances are highly anticipated. In . UK, in addition to regular performances Bychkov’s recording career began in with the London Symphony Orchestra, his 1986 when he signed with Philips and honorary titles at the Royal Academy of began a significant collaboration which Music and the BBC Symphony Orchestra – produced an extensive discography with with whom he appears annually at the the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio, BBC Proms – reflect the warmth of Royal Concertgebouw, Philharmonia, the relationships. In Europe, he tours London Philharmonic and Orchestre de frequently with the Royal Concertgebouw Paris. Subsequently a series of benchmark Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic and recordings – the result of his 13-year Munich Philharmonic, as well as being collaboration (1997–2010) an annual guest of the Berlin Philharmonic,

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Viktoria Mullova, Anne Sofie Mutter, JAKUB Josef Špaček, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Daniil Trifonov, Simon Trpčeski, Mitsuko Uchida, HRŮŠA Klaus Florian Vogt, Yuja Wang, Frank Peter Zimmermann or Nikolaj Znaider. Principal Guest Conductor As an opera conductor, he has been a regular guest at the Glyndebourne Festival, Born in the Czech Republic, Jakub Hrůša is conducting Vanessa, The Cunning Little chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony, Vixen, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, and principal guest conductor of the Carmen, The Turn of the Screw, Don . He is a frequent Giovanni, and La bohème. He has also guest with many of the world’s greatest served as music director of Glyndebourne orchestras, and in addition to his titled on Tour for three years. Elsewhere he has led positions, he enjoys close relationships productions for the Royal Opera House in with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Covent Garden (Carmen), the Vienna State the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale Opera (a new production of The Makropulos di Santa Cecilia, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Case), L’Opéra National de Paris ( Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and The Merry Widow), and the Frankfurt the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Opera (Il trittico), among others. Berlin, the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester As a recording artist, his most recent Berlin, L’Orchestre Philharmonique de releases are Smetana’s Má vlast with the Radio France, the Cleveland Orchestra,

JAKUB HRŮŠA JAKUB Bamberg Symphony (Tudor) and the the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago Concertos for Orchestra by Bartók and Symphony Orchestra, and the Tokyo Kodály with the RSB Berlin (Pentatone). Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra. In the He has also recorded Berlioz’s Symphonie 2018/2019 season he made his debuts with fantastique, Strauss’s Eine Alpensinfonie, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio and Suk’s with the Tokyo Symphony, L’Orchestre de Paris, and the Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra (Octavia NHK Symphony. Records); the Tchaikovsky and Bruch violin His relationships with leading vocal concertos with Nicola Benedetti and the and instrumental soloists have included Czech Philharmonic (Universal). collaborations in recent seasons with Jakub Hrůša studied conducting at the , Piotr Anderszewski, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Leif Ove Andsnes, Lisa Batiashvili, Yefim where his teachers included Jiří Bělohlávek. Bronfman, Rudolf Buchbinder, Isabelle He is currently the president of the Faust, Bernarda Fink, Julia Fischer, Sol International Martinů Circle and of the Gabetta, Hilary Hahn, Janine Jansen, Dvořák Society, and in 2015 he was the Karita Mattila, Leonidas Kavakos, Sergey inaugural recipient of the Sir Charles Khachatryan, Lang Lang, Jan Lisiecki, Mackerras Prize.

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the online magazine Bachtrack wrote: “The TOMÁŠ music lit up the stage like a rousing march, providing a dazzling showcase for Netopil’s NETOPIL facility for creating three-dimensional soundscapes with the orchestra. With Strauss, Principal Guest Conductor they showed an impressive ability to segue almost instantly from dramatic dissonance to charming melodies.” He then conducted Tomáš Netopil took up the position of general Dvořák’s Te Deum at the closing concert music director at the Aalto Theatre and the of the festival with the Vienna Symphony Philharmonie Essen at the start of 2013/2014. Orchestra, which he subsequently conducted In addition to his concert season at the at the Vienna Konzerthaus and later at the helm of the Essen Philharmoniker, his opera Vienna Musikverein. productions in 2018/2019 include operas, such as Der Freischütz, Salome, Così fan tutte, His 2018/2019 concert appearances include and Rusalka. In 2017/2018 he conducted a return to the Zürich Tonhalle. Highlights The Bartered Bride, Salome, Lohengrin, Die of recent seasons include appearances Walküre, and Die Entführung aus dem Serail. with L’Orchestre de Paris, the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Netherlands Netopil made his debut with Sächsische Radio Philharmonic at ’s Staatsoper Dresden in 2008. Since then he Concertgebouw, and L’Orchestre has conducted La clemenza di Tito, Rusalka, Philharmonique de Monte Carlo. Future dates , La Juive, and include the Leipzig Gewandhaus and the RAI Busoni’s Doktor Faustus. He will conduct Torino. TOMÁŠ NETOPIL a new production of The Bartered Bride there in the spring of 2019. This season, he will Tomáš Netopil’s discography for also conduct a new production of Jenůfa for includes Janáček’s , Dvořák’s the Netherlands Opera, and he returns to the complete cello works, Martinů’s Ariane and Wiener Staatsoper for . Double Concerto, and Smetana’s Má vlast with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. He has An inspirational force in Czech music, Tomáš also recorded Suk’s Asrael Symphony with the Netopil is one of the two principal guest Essener Philharmoniker. conductors of the Czech Philharmonic. In August 2017 he conducted two Dvořák and From 2008–2012 Tomáš Netopil held the Mozart concerts alongside Diana Damrau at position of music director of the Prague the Grafenegg Festival. In early spring 2018 he National Theatre. Tomáš Netopil studied led the orchestra on an extensive UK tour and violin and conducting in his native Czech conducted Má vlast in the opening concert of Republic as well as at the Royal College of the 2018 Prague Spring Festival, which was Music in Stockholm under the guidance of televised live. Professor Jorma Panula. In 2002 he won the first Sir Georg Solti Conductors Competition About his debut at the Dvořák Prague Festival at the Alte Oper Frankfurt. in 2017 with the Essener Philharmoniker,

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SECOND VIOLINS CELLOS Orchestra Ondřej Skopový, section leader Václav Petr, concertmaster Ivan Sequardt, section leader, principal player first deputy – currently vacant position Josef Špaček, first deputy Jana Brožková, principal player Václav Prudil, second deputy Ivan Vokáč, second deputy Jiří Zelba CONDUCTORS Petra Brabcová Jakub Dvořák Vojtěch Jouza Semyon Bychkov, chief conductor and music Xenie Dohnalová Josef Dvořák Vladislav Borovka director Zuzana Hájková Jan Holeňa Jakub Hrůša, principal guest conductor Petr Havlín František Host Tomáš Netopil, principal guest conductor Pavel Herajn Tomáš Hostička Tomáš Kopáček, section leader, principal player Jitka Kokšová Jan Keller Jan Mach, principal player FIRST VIOLINS Milena Kolářová František Lhotka František Bláha Josef Špaček, concertmaster Marcel Kozánek Peter Mišejka Petr Sinkule Jiří Vodička, concertmaster Veronika Kozlovská Marek Novák Jan Brabec Jan Mráček, concertmaster Jan Ludvík Karel Stralczynský Irena Jakubcová, first deputy Vítězslav Ochman Eduard Šístek Magdaléna Mašlaňová, second deputy Jiří Ševčík Ondřej Roskovec, section leader, principal player Ota Bartoš Helena Šulcová DOUBLE BASSES Jaroslav Kubita, principal player Luboš Dudek Libor Vilímec Adam Honzírek, principal player Martin Petrák Marie Dvorská Markéta Vokáčová Petr Ries, first deputy Tomáš Františ Jan Jouza Pavel Nejtek, second deputy Ondřej Šindelář Bohumil Kotmel VIOLAS Jiří Hudec, section leader Jiří Kubita Jaroslav Pondělíček, section leader Ondřej Balcar FRENCH HORNS

ORCHESTRA Lenka Machová Pavel Ciprys, first deputy Jaromír Černík Jan Vobořil, section leader, principal player ORCHESTRA Viktor Mazáček Dominik Trávníček, second deputy Martin Hilský Ondřej Vrabec, principal player Pavel Nechvíle Pavel Hořejší Roman Koudelka Jiří Havlík Aida Shabuová Ondřej Kameš Jiří Valenta Petr Duda Helena Skopová Jaroslav Kroft Jiří Vopálka Jindřich Kolář Zdeněk Starý Jan Mareček Kateřina Javůrková Jindřich Vácha Jaromír Páviček HARPS Petra Čermáková Milan Vavřínek Jiří Poslední Jana Boušková, section leader Miroslav Vilímec Jiří Řehák Barbara Pazourová, deputy Zdeněk Zelba Jan Šimon Jaroslav Halíř, section leader, principal player René Vácha Ladislav Kozderka, principal player Lukáš Valášek Andrea Rysová, section leader, principal player Zdeněk Šedivý Naoki Sato, principal player Jiří Šedivý Roman Novotný Antonín Pecha Jan Machat Petr Veverka

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TROMBONES Robert Kozánek, section leader, principal player Orchestral Lukáš Moťka, principal player Břetislav Kotrba Academy of Karel Kučera Jan Perný the Czech Philharmonic Karel Malimánek for the 2019/2020 PERCUSSION Petr Holub, section leader season Michael Kroutil, principal timpanist Daniel Mikolášek Pavel Polívka Sakura Ito, violin Miroslav Kejmar Kateřina Krejčová, violin Klára Lešková, violin PIANO Anna Pacholczak, violin Václav Mácha Kateřina Jelínková, viola Radka Teichmanová, viola Dora Hájková, cello Aneta Šudáková, cello

ORCHESTRA Lukáš Holubík, double bass Zdeněk Pazourek, double bass Chelsea Lane, harp Isabelle Müller, harp Silvia Ruffino, David Šimeček, clarinet Lucie Havlíčková, Ladislav Pavluš, Lukáš Besuch, Dalibor Vinklar, tuba Ladislav Bilan, percussion Štěpán Hon, percussion

Additional players will be selected at auditions in June 2019.

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SUBSCRIPTION SERIES

Subscription Series A offers a highly varied selection of concerts in terms of the choice of composers, the combination Aof Czech and foreign music, and the introduction of five conductors and a large number of soloists. The series lets listeners experience two major works for voice and orchestra with Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass at the beginning, then before the end a relatively new work: Glanert’s Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch. There will be an interesting combination of a Berio work inspired by Schubert and Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony. More Beethoven will be heard together with a suite by Gluck. A carefully planned programme offers an interesting combination of the music of Suk, Bartók, Haas, and Janáček, and the evening with Brahms and Bruckner will be no less special. Semyon Bychkov, Jakub Hrůša, , and Giovanni Antonini are names that guarantee that Prague will enjoy great musical experiences. Another artist making his debut with the Czech Philharmonic is the Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado. Joining the vocal soloists are Jan Mráček, a Concert Master of the Czech Philharmonic, and two pianists: Francesco Piemontesi and Piotr Anderszewski.

25 CZECH PHILHARMONIC A Preludes to Subscription Concerts

The subscription concerts of series A The Czech Philharmonic invites its are held on Wednesdays, Thursdays, subscribers and others to attend regular and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. in the Dvořák Hall. gatherings before the concerts of subscription series A, B, and C. These The prices of single tickets range from forums and lectures prepare audience CZK 250 to 1,200 members, set the mood, and lure visitors to Subscription prices range from an evening with the Czech Philharmonic. CZK 1,400 to 4,400 Conductors, soloists, or musicians of the Individual tickets and subscriptions are sold Czech Philharmonic as well as musicologists at the Czech Philharmonic ticket office or music journalists discuss the composers in the Rudolfinum and on-line at and works on the programme and SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A czechphilharmonic.cz. Reservations interesting circumstances and curiosities. and information are available through Preludes include the playing of examples Czech Philharmonic Customer Service. from audio or audiovisual recordings. The Czech Philharmonic offers these Preludes as a free bonus with its evening concerts. They always take place at 6:30 p.m. (or at 2 p.m. on Saturdays) in the Suk Hall unless stated otherwise. Eva Hazdrová-Kopecká, Pavel Ryjáček, or Petr Kadlec lead the discussion.

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02 Oct. 2019_Wednesday 03 Oct. 2019_Thursday 04 Oct. 2019_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Leoš Janáček Jan Mráček violin “The rain in Luhačovice is pouring, just amen! And the reverent devotion of the pouring. I look out of the window at the motifs Svät, svät [Holy, Holy]! Blagoslovjen The Fiddler’s Child, a ballad Jana Šrejma Kačírková gloomy mountain Komoň. The clouds come [Blessed is He], and agneče božij [Lamb of for orchestra based on the soprano pouring in, and the wind tears and scatters God]!” them. The darkness becomes denser and Just two years earlier, Joseph Szigeti played poem by Svatopluk Čech Lucie Hilscherová alto denser. Now I look out into the black of Prokofiev’s First Violin Concerto in Prague night; lightning slashes into the darkness. Aleš Briscein tenor after its rather lukewarm reception at the I switch on the flickering electric light on Sergei Prokofiev premiere in Paris. The jaded French public Jan Martiník bass the high ceiling.” This is how Leoš Janáček wanted to be shocked in those days, and Violin Concerto No. 1 described the atmosphere on that Autumn Czech Philharmonic Choir Prokofiev’s concerto seemed too romantic in D Major, Op. 19 evening of 1916 when he began writing SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A to them. Today, this concerto and the SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A of Brno his Glagolitic Mass. He also described Glagolitic Mass are regarded as gems of the new work to readers of the newspaper Petr Fiala choirmaster twentieth-century music. You will also hear Leoš Janáček Lidové noviny shortly before the premiere: a violin solo in Janáček’s musical setting of Petr Altrichter conductor “I sketch nothing more than a quiet motif of Glagolitic Mass, a cantata a poem by Svatopluk Čech about a dead a desperate thought to the words Gospodi fiddler returning to earth. The entire for solo voices, mixed choir, pomiluj [Lord, have mercy]. Nothing more opening concert of Series A will captivate than the joyous cries of Slava, Slava [Glory]! orchestra and organ you with stirring music performed by Nothing more than the heart-rending marvellous Czech artists. sorrow of the motif Rozpet že za ny, mučen i pogreben jest [He was also crucified for us; he suffered and was buried]! Nothing more than the firmness of faith and the affirmation of the motif Věruju [I believe]! And all of the excitement and commotion of the emotional ending with the motifs Amen,

28 29 A2 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC A2 December 2019

04 Dec. 2019_Wednesday 05 Dec. 2019_Thursday 06 Dec. 2019_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Johannes Brahms Francesco Piemontesi piano There is little that we have anticipated as festival Settimane Musicali, and he divides eagerly as the Rudolfinum debut of Pablo his time equally between activities as a Piano Concerto No. 2 Pablo Heras-Casado conductor Heras-Casado. Just the list of orchestras soloist, chamber musician, and recording in B Flat Major, Op. 83 with which Pablo Heras-Casado appears artist. At the beginning of his career, would be plenty to recommend attending he recorded the Dvořák and Schumann his concert: the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna concertos with Jiří Bělohlávek and the BBC Anton Bruckner Philharmonic, London Symphony Orchestra, Symphony Orchestra. At the Rudolfinum, he Symphony No. 4 Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Los Angeles made his debut two years ago in Beethoven’s Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Third Piano Concerto and with a solo in E Flat Major Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, recital, and the success of both appearances (“Romantic”) Mariinsky Theatre, Philharmonic, immediately led us to invite him back for SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A Orchestre de Paris, and many more. Pablo the 2019/2020 season. Heras-Casado is a Spanish patriot and the chief guest conductor at the Teatro Real in Madrid, where he is performing Wagner’s complete cycle Der Ring des Nibelungen. Maestro Casado records for the Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Sony, and Harmonia Mundi labels, and although he is just 41 years old, he has been decorated for his musical artistry by both the Spanish and the French governments. Like Pablo Heras-Casado, the Swiss pianist Francesco Piemontesi also returns to his homeland to share his artistry. In Ascona, near his native Locarno, he directs the

30 31 A3 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC A3 January 2020

15 Jan. 2020_Wednesday 16 Jan. 2020_Thursday 17 Jan. 2020_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Franz Schubert Semyon Bychkov conductor Luciano Berio was often asked to “do The result is an enchanting symphony full something” with Schubert. He consistently of music that is pure Schubert that sparkles Symphony in B Minor refused until he got his hands on the like a precious gem that has been gently, (“Unfinished”), D 759 sketches of Schubert’s Tenth Symphony, masterfully illuminated by Luciano Berio. written during the last weeks of the composer’s life. Berio wished to avoid a musicological approach, by which one / Luciano Berio could do much harm in a cavalier attempt to complete the symphony, “as if one were Rendering Schubert or even Beethoven”. Instead, Berio tries to bring old colours back to SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A Ludwig van Beethoven life, as if restoring Giotto’s frescoes in Assisi without disguising the effects of Symphony No. 7 in A Major, time or filling in the blank spaces. His Op. 92 instrumentation of Schubert’s sketches is in the spirit of the Unfinished Symphony, resorting to the orchestration methods of Mendelssohn only when the music demands it. He fills in the spaces between the individual sketches with music in his own musical language woven from reminiscences of Schubert’s late works, gentle polyphony, and echoes of the music that precedes and follows. Berio tiptoes quietly around Schubert, and every transition between sketches is announced by the celesta.

32 33

A4 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC A4 January 2020

29 Jan. 2020_Wednesday 30 Jan. 2020_Thursday 31 Jan. 2020_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Josef Suk Piotr Anderszewski piano Although it might not seem so at first an absolutely unique phenomenon on glance, this entire programme put together today’s piano scene. This introverted star, Fantastic Scherzo, Op. 25 Jakub Hrůša conductor by Jakub Hrůša will be somewhat in the a virtuoso but not a showman, carefully spirit of Janáček. Of any work in the chooses his repertoire and musical Béla Bartók worldwide literature, Béla Bartók’s Third collaborators. He appears regularly with Piano Concerto is the closest to Janáček in Jakub Hrůša. Anderszewski has earned Piano Concerto No. 3 terms of its mood and folk inspiration. international awards for his recordings of And if one did not to know that the composer Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, and Pavel Haas of the Scherzo Triste was Janáček’s Szymanowski, and his Polish-Hungarian pupil Pavel Haas, one might reasonably roots have naturally led him to perform the Scherzo Triste, Op. 5 attribute it to Janáček himself. The colours music of Béla Bartók. SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A of this beautiful, original music seem to Leoš Janáček be an outgrowth of Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen, and the violin solo Taras Bulba, a rhapsody at the end foreshadows the next work for orchestra on the programme, Taras Bulba. Suk’s Fantastic Scherzo naturally follows in the compositional traditions of Dvořák, which Janáček also built upon, and we clearly find something like this in the Lachian Dances as well. It is as if all four works were somehow connected, yet each presents its composer’s mastery in an original way. Just as Leoš Janáček is an original figure who is difficult to categorise among the world’s composers, Piotr Anderszewski is

36 37 A5 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC A5 March 2020

18 March 2020_Wednesday 19 March 2020_Thursday 20 March 2020_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Detlev Glanert Marie Arnet soprano The German composer Detlev Glanert is one Andrew Clements, a critic for the British of today’s most successful opera composers. newspaper The Guardian, has called Glanert’s Requiem for Hieronymus Christa Mayer mezzo-soprano Last season, the Czech Philharmonic Requiem “an outstanding choral achievement, Bosch (2015–2016) Stefan Vinke tenor performed his composition Weites Land. a work of great power and intensely vivid This season brings the Czech premiere of invention, which uncannily finds musical Albert Pesendorfer bass the full concert-length oratorio Requiem parallels to Bosch’s surreal imagination, Luděk Vele recitation for Hieronymous Bosch. The Requiem was and to the extremes of his visions of heaven composed on a commission from Amsterdam’s and hell, grandeur and intimacy. The score Prague Philharmonic Choir Concertgebouw Orchestra for the 500th juxtaposes glimpses of the apocalypse with Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster anniversary of the death of the famed Dutch moments of extreme sweetness, in intensely painter. In it, Glanert unabashedly employs his detailed choral and orchestral writing that SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A Slovak Philharmonic Choir vast operatic experience, and this can be heard consistently avoids all the clichés that Jozef Chabroň choirmaster both in the work’s sonic conception and in disfigure so many contemporary oratorios.” its dramatic structure. He combines the texts Semyon Bychkov conductor of the Catholic Mass for the Dead with the medieval collection of songs Carmina Burana, from which he has chosen a description of the seven deadly sins. We are witnesses to a spiritual trial, at which the Archangel Michael examines Bosch’s life through the prism of these seven sins. In eighteen sections, Bosch must face God’s judgement with the narrator as the chief prosecutor. A small choir sings the liturgical text of the Requiem, and a large choir with four soloists combines that text with a description of the sins.

38 39 A6 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC A6 April 2020

01 April 2020_Wednesday 02 April 2020_Thursday 03 April 2020_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Christoph Willibald Gluck Giovanni Antonini conductor While Count Carl von Oppersdorff was Although its premiere was not as successful visiting his friend Prince Lichnowsky, he as that of the Seventh Symphony that Don Juan, ballet suite heard Ludwig van Beethoven’s Second preceded it, the composer held it in very Symphony, and he was so enthusiastic high regard musically. that he immediately offered the composer Ludwig van Beethoven The ballet Don Juan by Christoph Willibald a large sum of music to compose another Gluck also tells a very exciting story. Its Symphony No. 2 symphony for him. But while Beethoven’s importance to the ballet genre is similar to music thrilled Count von Oppersdorff, in D Major, Op. 36 the importance of the revolutionary work the critics in Vienna could not stand it. Orfeo ed Euridice to opera. Don Juan is According to the “Newspaper for the actually the first ballet to present the entire Ludwig van Beethoven Elegant World”, the Second Symphony SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A narrative of a story. Gluck had a very good SUBSCRIPTION SERIES A made the impression of “a hideously Symphony No. 8 grasp of dance, and he understood it as an writhing, wounded dragon that refuses to art form all its own, entirely independent in F Major, Op. 93 die, but is writhing in its last agonies and, of music. The task of the dancer was to in the fourth movement, bleeds to death.” combine the musical and dancing elements Beethoven further strengthened the effect into a single effective whole. There could be of this terrible, devilish music by excluding no better subject matter for this “prototype” the elegant minuet and by putting a thorny than the drama of Don Juan. scherzo in its place. As it turns out, scherzos would become a fixed feature of symphonic form, displacing the unfortunate minuet for good. The Eighth Symphony is one of Beethoven’s few compositions that does not bear any dedication. Beethoven called it “my Little Symphony in F Major” to differentiate it from the Pastoral Symphony.

40 41 CZECH PHILHARMONIC

SUBSCRIPTION SERIES

Series B consists of “balancing”.B Some of the concerts set out daringly into the music of the 20th and 21st centuries, while others fall back on the true classics of the repertoire. In this country, this primarily means Smetana’s Má vlast (My Homeland), which Semyon Bychkov will actually be conducting in Prague for the first time. Another concert of classics will be Tomáš Netopil’s programme with two works by Beethoven and a suite by Rameau. Contemporary counterparts comprise a performance by maestro Bychkov of Dutilleux’s Second Symphony and especially a concert under the baton of Peter Eötvös with works by Miroslav Srnka and by Eötvös himself. Among the classics of the 20th century are Martinů and Stravinsky of course, but the series climaxes with Janáček’s opera Káťa Kabanová which will be heard in a concert performance at the very end of the season. Besides operatic soloists, we can also look forward to the pianists Katia and Marielle Labèque, Rudolf Buchbinder, and Ivo Kahánek, the violinist Lisa Batiashvili, the cellist Gautier Capuçon, and the trumpet player Tamás Pálfalvi.

43 CZECH PHILHARMONIC B Preludes to Subscription Concerts

The subscription concerts of series A The Czech Philharmonic invites its are held on Wednesdays, Thursdays, subscribers and others to attend regular and Fridays at 7:30 p.m. in the Dvořák Hall. gatherings before the concerts of subscription series A, B, and C. These The prices of single tickets range from forums and lectures prepare audience CZK 250 to 1,200 members, set the mood, and lure visitors to Subscription prices range from an evening with the Czech Philharmonic. CZK 1,400 to 4,400 Conductors, soloists, or musicians of the Individual tickets and subscriptions are sold Czech Philharmonic as well as musicologists at the Czech Philharmonic ticket office or music journalists discuss the composers in the Rudolfinum and on-line at and works on the programme and SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B czechphilharmonic.cz. Reservations interesting circumstances and curiosities. and information are available through Preludes include the playing of examples Czech Philharmonic Customer Service. from audio or audiovisual recordings. The Czech Philharmonic offers these Preludes as a free bonus with its evening concerts. They always take place at 6:30 p.m. (or at 2 p.m. on Saturdays) in the Suk Hall unless stated otherwise. Eva Hazdrová-Kopecká, Pavel Ryjáček, or Petr Kadlec lead the discussion.

45 B1 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC B1 October 2019

09 Oct. 2019_Wednesday 10 Oct. 2019_Thursday 11 Oct. 2019_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Bedřich Smetana Semyon Bychkov conductor Smetana’s Má vlast (My Homeland) is Old Town Square. Má vlast has to be a more closely associated with the history part of the core repertoire of every chief Má vlast (My Homeland), of the Czech Philharmonic than perhaps conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, a cycle of symphonic poems any other work except for the New World and for foreign artists, performing it Symphony. On the first radio broadcast of at the Rudolfinum is always a special a concert in this country on 11 May 1925, experience. Semyon Bychkov has been the Czech Philharmonic played Má vlast. preparing himself diligently for these Four years later, the work was chosen for subscription concerts since last year, and the orchestra’s first phonograph recording he has already performed Má vlast with with Václav Talich for the His Master’s orchestras in Munich, Cologne, Hamburg, Voice label. During the Second World War, Madrid, Amsterdam, and Cleveland. SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B Talich conducted the entire work including the banned movements Tábor and Blaník on the programme of the concerts of the Czech Philharmonic in Berlin and Dresden, and by doing so he got the ban lifted in Prague as well. The legendary recording of the concert at the National Theatre in 1939, at the end of which the public spontaneously sang the national anthem, was released by Supraphon eight years ago. The Czech Philharmonic played Má vlast at the time of the Velvet Revolution, and upon the return of Rafael Kubelík from exile the orchestra opened the Prague Spring festival with the work in 1990 and played it in June of that year on

46 47 B2 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC B2 December 2019

11 Dec. 2019_Wednesday 12 Dec. 2019_Thursday 13 Dec. 2019_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Miroslav Srnka Tamás Pálfalvi trumpet Peter Eötvös named his composition Jet Framing the programme are two orchestral Stream after the natural phenomenon. In it, pieces by the successful Czech composer move 03 Peter Eötvös conductor the solo trumpet is not the lead voice like Miroslav Srnka. He wrote move 01 for in a classical concerto, but rather, as the the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra as Peter Eötvös composer puts it, the “eye of the storm”, to a study for the opera South Pole, which he which all of the musical flow refers. At just composed afterwards and which explores Jet Stream twenty-five years of age, the soloist Tamás movement and the “temperature” of sound. Pálfalvi is not only a world-class soloist He composed move 03 for the festival Miroslav Srnka and the holder of numerous awards for his Printemps des Arts in Monte Carlo. This recordings and solo performances; above orchestral work has an original structure move 01 all, he is a visionary musician elevating and form, and it won the 2018 “Coup de SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B the art of trumpet playing to entirely new Coeur” in France. Igor Stravinsky dimensions. Symphony in Three Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements is one of the major works of the twentieth Movements century. Thirty years after The Rite of Spring, Stravinsky again made intensive use of the rhythmic element, which firmly holds the whole symphony together. In the first movement, the most prominent instrument is piano, which gives way to harp in the Andante, which is freely inspired by Werfel’s novel The Song of Bernadette. The unrelenting rhythm is based on film footage of the Second World War, which deeply disturbed Stravinsky when he saw it.

48 49 B3 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC B3 January 2020

22 Jan. 2020_Wednesday 23 Jan. 2020_Thursday 24 Jan. 2020_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Bohuslav Martinů Katia and Marielle Labèque This entire programme could be given the He often performs the Concerto for Two title “Double”. You will be hearing a unique Pianos with his wife Marielle Labèque Double Concerto for two pianos collection of three different works that and her sister Katia, and he has consulted string orchestras, piano, Ivo Kahánek piano share the theme of musical pairs in different personally with Henri Dutilleux on that forms and treatments. While Martinů composer’s Second Symphony (“Le Double”) and , H 271 Michael Kroutil timpani composed his Double Concerto for Two and has recorded it on CD. String Orchestras, Piano, and Timpani in Semyon Bychkov conductor The word Double in the title of Dutilleux’s 1938 during the tense period preceding the Bohuslav Martinů symphony refers to the standing of a group Munich Agreement, the Concerto for Two of twelve musicians in opposition to the Concerto for two pianos Pianos, on the other hand, is jubilant and whole orchestra, allowing the composer and string orchestra, H 292 brilliant. In it, the shadow of approaching SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B all kinds of combinations in dialogue or SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B war is replaced by joy over success in contrast and the use of polyrhythms and America and the desire to create a virtuosic, polytonality. Henri Dutilleux radiant concert in which the pianos are not Symphony No. 2 a part of the orchestra, but prominent solo (“Le Double”) voices. In view of the length of the compositions and the work required to reset the stage, we have decided to divide the programme into three sections with two intervals. Besides musical themes, the programmed works also all have in common Semyon Bychkov’s personal ties with them: the Double Concerto was the first Czech work that he performed as the new chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.

50 51

B4 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC B4 February 2020

26 Feb. 2020_Wednesday 27 Feb. 2020_Thursday 28 Feb. 2020_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Jean-Philippe Rameau Rudolf Buchbinder piano Tomáš Netopil divides his time between original, sometimes unbridled musical symphonic and opera conducting, and he language into the classical form. This can Hippolyte et Aricie, orchestral Tomáš Netopil conductor wishes to show his “operatic face” to the be best heard in the Menuetto of the Fourth suite from the opera Czech Philharmonic audience. For the Symphony, a full-fledged, brilliant scherzo players of the orchestra, the suite from the notwithstanding its measured proportions. High Baroque opera Hippolyte et Aricie The Fourth Symphony is Tomáš Netopil’s Ludwig van Beethoven represents an interpretive challenge. Just as contribution to the complete performances it is a good idea for early music ensembles Piano Concerto No. 1 of Beethoven’s symphonies for the to take an occasional excursion into the composer’s 250th birthday. In February, in C Major, Op. 15 world of Romanticism, Baroque music also the phenomenal Austrian pianist Rudolf belongs on the programmes of modern SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B Buchbinder will also begin a cycle of all SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B orchestras, and the opera Hippolyte et Ludwig van Beethoven five of Beethoven’s piano concertos, which Aricie is one of the supreme works of its he will be performing as a soloist with the Symphony No. 4 genre. Jean-Philippe Rameau wrote it at the Czech Philharmonic, and next season as age of fifty-one as a respected music theorist in B Flat Major, Op. 60 a conductor as well. and teacher. The new work caused a true sensation, and according to the critics, it contained “enough music to compose ten operas”. Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony and First Piano Concerto have in common his attempt to come to terms with the compositional style of Haydn and Mozart in a worthy manner. Beethoven managed not only to grasp the greatness of the two composers, but also to channel his own

54 55 B5 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC B5 March 2020

25 March 2020_Wednesday 26 March 2020_Thursday 27 March 2020_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Johannes Brahms Lisa Batiashvili violin The pairing of Lisa Batiashvili and Gautier of Joachim’s personal motto F-A-E: Frei Capuçon in Brahms’s Double Concerto is aber einsam – Free but Lonesome. Double Concerto in A Minor, Gautier Capuçon cello a dream come true for both musicians and Op. 102, for violin, cello, Semyon Bychkov conductor audiences. Seldom do two of the world’s very greatest artists join forces rather than and orchestra playing solo concertos, instead playing a work together that demands the same Dmitri Shostakovich degree of instrumental virtuosity along with the experience of chamber music players. Symphony No. 5 Moreover, Lisa Batiashvili and Gautier in D Minor, Op. 47 Capuçon have played Brahms’s Double SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B Concerto together many times, and their appearance at the Rudolfinum with the Czech Philharmonic will be recorded and released by the DECCA label. Brahms dedicated his Double Concerto to his friend, the violinist Joseph Joachim, as a sign of the renewal of their lifelong friendship, which had been disrupted by Joachim’s divorce when Brahms took sides with Joachim’s wife Amalie. For the concerto’s dedication, Brahms wrote the sentence: “To him, for whom it was written”. So that there could be no doubt about who was meant, he used the musical motif A-E-F, a permutation of the anagram

56 57 B6 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC B6 April 2020

09 April 2020_Thursday 15 April 2020_Wednesday 17 April 2020_Friday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Leoš Janáček Opera Chorus of the During the coming seasons, we want In Káťa Kabanová, Janáček’s deeply our subscription series to offer not only moving lyrical adaptation of Ostrovsky’s Káťa Kabanová, a concert National Theatre symphonic works, but also concert drama The Storm, the finest Czech artists performance of the opera (concert on 09 April 2020) performances of major operatic works on will join forces under the baton of Jakub Pavel Vaněk choirmaster a regular basis. Káťa Kabanová follows Hrůša, an experienced and popular opera Kateřina Kněžíková Katya upon the performance of Jenůfa under Jiří conductor. The drama of the ill-fated love Prague Philharmonic Choir Bělohlávek in 2016, and as was the case of the married woman Katya for Boris Peter Berger (concerts on 15 and 17 April back then, the Czech Philharmonic will leads inevitably to a tragic end with the Boris Grigorjevich follow its Prague concerts of the opera contribution of society’s prejudices and 2020) with performances abroad, this time at the of male weakness. Káťa Kabanová, one Jaroslav Březina Elbe Philharmonic Hall in Hamburg. The of Janáček’s most successful operas, is SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster SUBSCRIPTION SERIES B Tichon Ivanych Kabanov adapting of the performing of operas to played regularly at leading opera houses Jakub Hrůša conductor the conditions of a symphony orchestra worldwide. Jarmila Balážová Varvara requires careful planning. Good operatic performances cannot be achieved following Jozef Benci a usual weekly rehearsal schedule, and Savël Prokofjevich Dikoj to perform at their best, singers need time between concerts for their voices to Eva Urbanová Kabanicha recuperate. For this reason, we scheduled Aleš Briscein Vana Kudrjas the Thursday subscription concert a week earlier than the Wednesday and Friday Jiří Brückler Kuligin performances. We hope that you appreciate Jitka Klečanská Glasha the artistic necessity of this step and that the richness of the musical experience Romana Kružíková Feklusha will compensate for any difficulties with planning your visit to the Rudolfinum.

58 59 CZECH PHILHARMONIC

SUBSCRIPTION SERIES

Taking the baton will be a violinist,C two prominent American musicians, and the orchestra’s chief conductor – thus, the conductors will be the defining characteristic of Series C. There is definitely plenty to look forward to. Besides having a career as a violin soloist, Leonidas Kavakos also conducts, and when the repertoire permits, he does both at once. In this regard, the Beethoven Violin Concerto will surely be a great experience. Beethoven will be performed again, but in a combination with Bartók and Reich presented to the Prague public by the well-known conductor David Robertson. James Gaffigan, who is returning to the Czech Philharmonic after a six-year absence, will give the world premiere of a work commissioned from Jiří Teml together with the music of Mozart and Shostakovich. Finally, there will be more Beethoven, this time in combination with Mahler under the baton of Semyon Bychkov. The list of soloists can only be described as rich, varied and balanced: the violinists Leonidas Kavakos and Josef Špaček, the violist Antoine Tamestit, the pianist Rudolf Buchbinder, and the soprano Chen Reiss.

61 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC C Preludes to Subscription Concerts

The subscription concerts of series C The Czech Philharmonic invites its are held on Thursdays and Fridays subscribers and others to attend regular at 7:30 p.m. and on Saturdays at 3 p.m. gatherings before the concerts of in the Dvořák Hall. subscription series A, B, and C. These forums and lectures prepare audience The prices of single tickets range from members, set the mood, and lure visitors to CZK 220 to 1100 an evening with the Czech Philharmonic. Subscription prices range from Conductors, soloists, or musicians of the CZK 800 to 2,900 Czech Philharmonic as well as musicologists Individual tickets and subscriptions are sold or music journalists discuss the composers at the Czech Philharmonic ticket office and works on the programme and in the Rudolfinum and on-line at interesting circumstances and curiosities. SUBSCRIPTION SERIES C czechphilharmonic.cz. Reservations Preludes include the playing of examples and information are available through from audio or audiovisual recordings. Czech Philharmonic Customer Service. The Czech Philharmonic offers these Preludes as a free bonus with its evening concerts. They always take place at 6:30 p.m. (or at 2 p.m. on Saturdays) in the Suk Hall unless stated otherwise. Eva Hazdrová-Kopecká, Pavel Ryjáček, or Petr Kadlec lead the discussion.

62 63 C1 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC C1 December 2019

19 Dec. 2019_Thursday 21 Dec. 2019_Saturday 20 Dec. 2019_Friday 3 p.m._Dvořák Hall

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Ludwig van Beethoven Leonidas Kavakos violin, Less than two weeks before the arrival Beethoven’s Ninth, which was second, and of the year 2020, we are beginning a cycle Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony, which finished Violin Concerto In D Major, conductor in celebration of the 250th anniversary in third place! of the birth of Ludwig van Beethoven. Op. 61 The Czech public is familiar with Kavakos One could hardly imagine a more powerful as an exceptional violinist, but not as beginning than a performance of his a conductor, but he has already led Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto and Third Symphony. performances with the London Symphony Leonidas Kavakos, who opened our 122nd Symphony No. 3 Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, season in exciting fashion, is returning the New York Philharmonic, the Budapest in E Flat Major, Op. 55 as a violinist and a conductor. Last year, Festival Orchestra, and the Vienna (“Eroica”) he recorded Beethoven’s Violin Concerto SUBSCRIPTION SERIES C Symphony Orchestra, just to name a few. SUBSCRIPTION SERIES C with the Bavarian Radio Symphony For his recording of Beethoven’s violin Orchestra, which he conducted himself. sonatas, Leonidas Kavakos won the ECHO The programmes of the concerts in Munich Klassik award, and in 2014 the magazine were similar to the Prague performance, Gramophone named him “Artist of the Year”. except that on the second half, Leonidas Kavakos conducted the Seventh Symphony, while he will be conducting the Eroica at the Rudolfinum. Unlike competitions between performers, rankings of the popularity of compositions are not usual in the classical music world. An exception was a survey by the BBC Music Magazine in 2018, for which most of the respondents were conductors. And can you guess which symphony won? The Eroica defeated

64 65 C2 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC C2 February 2020

06 Feb. 2020_Thursday 08 Feb. 2020_Saturday 07 Feb. 2020_Friday 3 p.m._Dvořák Hall

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Steve Reich Antoine Tamestit viola The second subscription concert of Series The concert will open with Music for C brings together Ludwig van Beethoven, Ensemble and Orchestra by Steve Reich, Music for Ensemble David Robertson conductor who enchanted the nobility of Vienna with which was commissioned by the Los and Orchestra (2018) his talent as a young composer, and Béla Angeles Philharmonic. The conductor of the Bartók, whose Viola Concerto was one premiere was Susanna Mälkki. Reich works of the final works composed at the end with an extended form of the Baroque Béla Bartók of his life. Baron Gottfried van Swieten concerto grosso, in which there are twenty Viola Concerto was the patron behind Beethoven’s First solo instruments including vibraphone Symphony, while Bartók wrote his concert and two pianos. The tempo of the five- at the request of a performer, the Scottish movement composition remains constant, Ludwig van Beethoven violist William Primrose. In his fresh, while there are changing note values in SUBSCRIPTION SERIES C Symphony No. 1 in C Major, energetic symphony, Beethoven proudly the pulsating parts for the two pianos. SUBSCRIPTION SERIES C paid tribute to his teacher Joseph Haydn, Thematically, the work is based on Reich’s Op. 21 who was his equal in terms of the quantity earlier composition Runner. and originality of his musical ideas. In his Viola Concerto, Bartók could build upon on a lifetime of compositional mastery, but he was unable to finish the work. He was in the last stages of his battle with leukaemia, but he still wrote to William Primrose that the concerto was nearly finished. Bartók’s friend Tibor Serly put the finishing touches on the concerto, and the composer’s son and the American violist Paul Neubauer made later revisions.

66 67 C3 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC C3 April, May 2020

30 April 2020_Thursday 02 May 2020_Saturday 01 May 2020_Friday 3 p.m._Dvořák Hall

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Josef Špaček violin This programme is framed by two of a definite success. The concerto contains the major works in the history of music. references to Beethoven and Elgar along Symphony No. 41 in C Major, James Gaffigan conductor Mozart’s Jupiter Symphony is the with the plentiful use of a motif based on K 551 (“Jupiter”) composer’s last and longest symphony. Shostakovich’s name: DSCH (the German Among musicians it is so beloved that note names for d, e flat, c, and b natural). conductors voted it the third most popular Another of the premieres of works written Jiří Teml of all symphonies. The Jupiter Symphony on commission for the Czech Philharmonic is the last of three great symphonies that The Labyrinth of Memory, will feature the music of Jiří Teml, a popular Mozart composed in rapid succession in and remarkably versatile composer and a symphonic tableau June and July 1788. The speed with which a Prague Spring laureate. His compositional (world premiere) he composed the works and their formal SUBSCRIPTION SERIES C style reflects the influence of Czech folk SUBSCRIPTION SERIES C interconnections led Nikolaus Harnoncourt music. to believe that Mozart had conceived Dmitri Shostakovich them as a single whole. This hypothesis Violin Concerto No. 1 in is supported by, among other things, the facts that the first movement of the Jupiter A Minor, Op. 77 Symphony lacks the usual slow introduction and that its finale is unusually lengthy. Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto fell victim to Zhdanov’s censorship, so the composer withheld it, and it was not premiered until seven years later. Meanwhile Shostakovich continued working on the concerto with David Oistrakh, its dedicatee. The premiere with the Leningrad Philharmonic and Yevgeny Mravinsky was

68 69 C4 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC C4 June 2020

11 June 2020_Thursday 13 June 2020_Saturday 12 June 2020_Friday 3 p.m._Dvořák Hall

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Ludwig van Beethoven Rudolf Buchbinder piano Historical connections can sometimes be of the songs, while the Fourth Symphony entertaining. In the scholarly literature, one quotes only one, Das himmlische Leben Piano Concerto No. 5 Chen Reiss soprano reads that Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto (Heavenly Life). There are flashes of the in E Flat Major, Op. 73 Semyon Bychkov conductor was dedicated to a Habsburg named song in various forms throughout the Rudolf. This building, the Rudolfinum, symphony, then it finally appears as a (“Emperor”) was also named for Rudolf. But make no whole in the fourth movement. The title mistake, one Rudolf is not to be confused Das himmlische Leben comes directly from with the other. Beethoven’s friend was Mahler, and it captures a child’s idea of Archduke Rudolf, to whom he also heaven. He had originally wanted to use the Symphony No. 4 in G Major dedicated his great Archduke Trio, Op. 97, song in his Third Symphony, which contains while “our” Rudolf was the crown prince quotes of it. Ultimately, however, he made SUBSCRIPTION SERIES C seventy years later. Beethoven had given the Das himmlische Leben the focal point of SUBSCRIPTION SERIES C premieres of all of his piano concertos, but his Fourth Symphony, with its breath of by the time of the Emperor Concerto, he heavenly beauty, child-like purity, and deep almost could not hear at all, unfortunately, peace. so the part was entrusted to Friedrich Schneider in Leipzig and to Carl Czerny in Vienna. The composition is a culmination of the classical-era instrumental concerto while also throwing the door wide open to Romanticism. Mahler’s Fourth Symphony concludes a tetralogy through which songs from the cycle The Youth’s Magic run like a common thread. The preceding symphonies work with material from several

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SUBSCRIPTION SERIES K

The series of four concerts by the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra premiered last season. This project was a success with its variable ensemble consisting exclusively of members of the Czech Philharmonic, and we are again using the same model this season. All of the Czech Philharmonic concertmasters participate as artistic supervisors, rehearsing and leading the orchestra for three of the concerts. A fourth concert, actually the second of the series taking place during the Christmas season, will be prepared by Jaroslav Krček, who shall lead the premiere of his composition dedicated to four women of the Czech Philharmonic. The concert programmes will be of enormous interest: a symbiosis of Vivaldi and Piazzolla, masterpieces by Janáček, Rejcha, and Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, and finally music of the Baroque composers Geminiani and Bach combined with Stravinsky. The soloists will also be youthful: the cellist Sebastian Bru and the pianist Zoltán Fejérvári.

73 K1 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC K1 November 2019

10 Nov. 2019_Sunday 3 p.m._Dvořák Hall

The subscription concerts of series K Antonio Vivaldi Vivaldi’s Four Seasons is heard every The word “porteño” means an inhabitant are held on Sundays at 3 p.m. evening in dozens of cities all around of a port city in general, and this is in the Dvořák Hall. The Four Seasons, Op. 8, the world in all kinds of venues and automatically understood in Argentina to performances, often as a tourist attraction. mean a person from Buenos Aires. At Gidon The prices of single tickets range from four concertos for violin The cost of its fame is that the quality of Kremer’s request, the successful Ukrainian CZK 200 to 850 and string orchestra these performances varies, usually tending composer Leonid Desyatnikov arranged the Subscription prices range from to be poor. To begin Series K, we have work for solo violin and string orchestra, CZK 650 to 2,200 Astor Piazzolla decided to present Vivaldi’s cycle in all and he inserted quotes from Vivaldi into Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic its glory played by Josef Špaček and his Piazzolla’s music, further strengthening ticket office in the Rudolfinum and on-line The Four Seasons of Buenos colleagues from the Czech Philharmonic. the connection between the two works. at czechphilharmonic.cz. Reservations Aires The revolutionary work, often regarded as SUBSCRIPTION SERIES K and information are available through the first programmatic composition, evokes SUBSCRIPTION SERIES K Czech Philharmonic Customer Service. singing birds, buzzing flies, a fire in the Josef Špaček violin, artistic winter and a frozen landscape, a barking supervisor of the project dog, a summer storm, and even dancers emboldened by wine. Vivaldi connected Czech Philharmonic a stirring display of virtuosity and bounty Chamber Orchestra of musical ideas with sonnets illustrating the mood of each of the four concertos. Astor Piazzolla, the king of the Argentine tango, set his four seasons in Buenos Aires, and he did not originally conceive them as a cycle. He wrote all four tangos for violin, piano, electric guitar, and bandoneon. The Spanish title Cuatro Estaciones Porteñas refers to the inhabitants of Buenos Aires.

74 75 K2 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC K2 December 2019 Christmas Concert in Honour of 22 Dec. 2019_Sunday Jaroslav Krček 3 p.m._Dvořák Hall

A Christmas programme Anna Hlavenková soprano When the name Jaroslav Krček is -after colleague. He has had many musical mentioned, the first thing that comes to friendships with players of the Czech with the premiere of Jaroslav Březina tenor mind is the ensemble Musica Bohemica, Philharmonic, so it is our honour and a composition by Jaroslav Jana Boušková harp which he founded forty-four years ago. pleasure to celebrate he eightieth birthday On top of that, Jaroslav Krček is celebrating together with him. And as is typical of him, Krček for flute, , harp, Jana Brožková oboe his eightieth birthday this year! Sometimes, rather than accepting a gift, he has instead and French horn Kateřina Javůrková French horn someone is called a “Renaissance man” given four women from our orchestra who is not truly deserving. In the case a brand new composition, which will be Andrea Rysová flute of Jaroslav Krček, the opposite is the given its world premiere. Martinů Voices case. “Renaissance man” hardly suffices to capture everything that has brought SUBSCRIPTION SERIES K Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster fulfilment to Jaroslav Krček’s rich life. He SUBSCRIPTION SERIES K Czech Philharmonic has been a conductor, a composer, a player of countless musical instruments, a singer, Chamber Orchestra a music director, and even an instrument Jaroslav Krček conductor maker. Everyone who has been fortunate enough to come into contact with him has experienced a torrent of irresistibly vital energy, optimism, an unstoppable desire for musical perfection, and an inexhaustible wellspring of musical ideas. Whether involving himself with folk music, historical music, adapting original folk material, composing, conducting, or directing, Jaroslav Krček has always drawn people to himself as a popular and sought-

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23 Feb. 2020_Sunday 3 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Leoš Janáček Sebastian Bru cello The third programme of Series K presents At the midpoint of the programme is three works by young composers: a concerto by the world traveller and Suite for String Orchestra Jiří Vodička violin, artistic Mendelssohn wrote his Octet when he was extraordinarily gifted composer, teacher, supervisor of the project just sixteen years old, Janáček presented and theorist Antonín Rejcha (Anton Antonín Rejcha Czech Philharmonic his Suite for Strings before enrolling at the Reicha). This successful professor at the Concerto in D Major, Op. 3, Leipzig Conservatoire, and the Concerto Paris Conservatoire who had been a student Chamber Orchestra for Violin and Cello by Antonín Rejcha is together with Beethoven, had taken lessons for violin and cello one of that composer’s early works. Both from Haydn, and had also given instruction soloists are young as well – concertmaster to such greats as Berlioz, Franck, Gounod, of the Czech Philharmonic Jiří Vodička and and Liszt, was made a Chevalier of Felix Mendelssohn- the Austrian cellist Sebastian Bru, a member the Légion d’honneur, and he became SUBSCRIPTION SERIES K -Bartholdy of the Vienna Philharmonic. a member of France’s National Institute SUBSCRIPTION SERIES K of Sciences and Arts. String Octet in E Flat Major, Upon its premiere, critics called Mendelssohn’s Octet “a miracle of Op. 20 nineteenth-century music”. Inspiration from Goethe’s Walpurgis Night, quotes from Handel’s Messiah, and the masterful use of polyphony are all permeated with youthful musical invention and brilliant compositional technique. Janáček originally gave the movements of his composition titles that had been in use for French dance suites: Prelude, Allemande, Sarabande, and Air, but he quickly abandoned them because his style as a composer was simply too original to fit in with labels from the old dance suite.

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15 March 2020_Sunday 3 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Francesco Geminiani Zoltán Fejérvári piano To conclude Series K, we are introducing Together with music of the High Baroque an extraordinary pianist who is poised at by Johann Sebastian Bach and Francesco Concerto grosso in D Minor, Jan Mráček violin, artistic the beginning of an international career. Geminiani, you will be hearing Stravinsky’s “La Folia”, H 143 supervisor of the project Zoltán Fejérvári triumphed at the 2017 treatment of subject matter from the Czech Philharmonic Montreal International Music Competition commedie dell’arte with music by Giovanni Johann Sebastian Bach and won a stipend from the Borletti- Battista Pergolesi. Stravinsky composed Chamber Orchestra Buitoni Trust. András Schiff invited him the neoclassical ballet Pulcinella for Sergei Piano Concerto in D Minor, to join Building Bridges, a project for Diaghilev, and the Boston Symphony exceptional young pianists, and he has twice Orchestra commissioned him to create BWV 1052 participated at the Marlboro Music Festival an orchestral suite from it, in which he at the personal invitation of Mitsuko discovered “a backward look, of course – SUBSCRIPTION SERIES K Johann Sebastian Bach Uchida. Zoltán Fejérvári has appeared at the first of many love affairs in that SUBSCRIPTION SERIES K New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Gasteig in direction – but it was a look in the mirror, Piano Concerto in A Major, Munich, the Lingotto Auditorium in Turin, too.” Above all, he had written a congenial, BWV 1055 the Library of Congress in Washington, attractive work. and the National Library in Buenos Aires. For his recording of Liszt’s Malédiction Igor Stravinsky for piano and string orchestra he won Pulcinella, ballet suite France’s prestigious Grand prix du Disque. His skilled partner will be another soloist, the artistic supervisor of the programme Jan Mráček, winner of the Fritz Kreisler International Competition in Vienna, bringing to a conclusion his series of appearances by three concertmasters of the Czech Philharmonic as part of Series K.

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SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M

In accordance with tradition, the special concerts for the 124th season include two opening concerts, a programme for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day, plus a special project arising from the second run of the Czech Philharmonic Composition Competition. Three winning compositions by young finalists will be heard in November under the baton of Keith Lockhart, with the highlight being the work of the overall winner: Song of the Willow Branch by Jana Vöröšová. The opening concert offers excerpts from operas followed by Dmitri Shostakovich’s sombre Eighth Symphony. Purely Czech repertoire will be heard on the New Year’s programme, when Jakub Hrůša will conduct works by Dvořák, Suk, Smetana, and Janáček. Because of great successes during past seasons, this year for the first time we are giving three performances – twice on New Year’s Eve and one more on the evening of New Year’s Day.

83 M1 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC M1 September 2019 Opening Concerts of the Season 04 Sept. 2019_Wednesday 05 Sept. 2019_Thursday

7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall

We wish to point out that Special Concerts Bedřich Smetana The ceremonial opening of the season and protest against it. The Seventh begin at different times. will begin in the spirit of opera, Symphony and Eighth Symphony are The Bartered Bride, overture commemorating the great works of my Requiem. I feel boundless sorrow for Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Bedřich Smetana and Pyotr Ilyich those who were killed by Hitler, but my ticket office in the Rudolfinum and on-line to the opera Tchaikovsky, but the focal point of the sorrow is no less great for those killed at at czechphilharmonic.cz. Reservations programme will be Shostakovich’s Eighth Stalin’s orders. I suffer for everyone who and information are available through Bedřich Smetana Symphony. For Dmitri Shostakovich, who was tortured, shot, or starved to death. Czech Philharmonic Customer Service. Polka, Furiant, Skočná, was constantly criticised by the Soviet There had been millions of these victims regime for a lack of optimism, the Second before the war with Hitler even began. dances from the opera World War amounted to a certain kind of The war brought many new sorrows and The Bartered Bride artistic refuge: “Then the war came, and new devastation, but at the same time sorrow became something usual. We were I did not forget about the horrors of the able to speak about it, to weep openly for pre-war years. That is what my symphonies Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky those whom we had lost. People ceased are about, including the Eighth.” Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, to be afraid of tears. Before the war, there was perhaps not a single family that had SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS letter scene from Act I not lost someone – a father, brother, or of the opera dear friend. Everyone had someone to weep for, but they had to do so quietly, under their blankets, where no one Dmitri Shostakovich could see them. Everybody was afraid of Symphony No. 8 in everybody else, and we were oppressed and smothered by sorrow. I, too, was C Minor, Op. 65 suffocating. I had to write about it. I had to write a Requiem for all those who had Elena Stikhina soprano died, who had suffered. I had to describe Semyon Bychkov conductor the terrible machinery of extermination

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M2 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC M2 November 2019 Premiere Evening Winning works from 07 Nov. 2019_Thursday the 2nd-annual Czech 7:30 p.m._Dvořák Hall Philharmonic Composition Competition

Jana Vöröšová Soprano TBA When Jiří Bělohlávek became the chief of the jury for the finals were the Harvard conductor of the Czech Philharmonic University professor Chaya Czernowin, the Orpingalik's Songs Keith Lockhart conductor in 2012, one of his artistic goals was to chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony for Soprano and Orchestra create dignified conditions for young Orchestra David Robertson, and the chief artists, to stimulate their professional conductor of the Czech Philharmonic development, and to contribute towards Semyon Bychkov, and they decided Matouš Hejl their success internationally. Besides on Jana Vöröšová as the winner. They also Crossings working with young musicians in the made high demands when choosing orchestra and supporting talented soloists, the conductor to give the works their maestro Bělohlávek and the composer premiere: Keith Lockhart is not only a first- Adrián Demoč Miroslav Srnka were attempting to come -class musician, but also one of the most Tenderness, adagio up with an effective way to support young popular conductors with whom our players composers. Thanks to this, the first Czech collaborate. for orchestra Philharmonic Composition Competition took place in 2014, and another followed SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS Programme TBA four years later. The first round drew a respectable 57 applicants from the Czech Republic and Slovakia. From among them, a committee consisting of players of the Czech Philharmonic, concert programming experts, and renowned composers selected the three finalists. The Czech Philharmonic commissioned Adrián Demoč, Matouš Hejl, and Jana Vöröšová to compose the works that you will be hearing on this special concert programme. The members

88 89 M3 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC M4 December 2019 Special New December 2019 New Year’s Eve Year’s Eve Dress Afternoon Concert 31 Dec. 2019_Tuesday Rehearsal 31 Dec. 2019_Tuesday 10 a.m._Dvořák Hall 3 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Antonín Dvořák Music of the Castle Guard This year, we have decided to welcome in towards a tremendous hymn-like conclusion the new year with you in Czech style with supported by the sound of organ and bells. Carnival Overture, Op. 92 and the Police of the Czech four beautiful works, each of which is Janáček’s immediate stimulus for composing original and a supreme musical celebration. Republic the Sinfonietta was a request from the Antonín Dvořák, who conducted the very newspaper Lidové noviny that he write Jakub Hrůša conductor first Czech Philharmonic concert, composed a greeting for the All-Sokol Rally. This Praga, Op. 26 three concert overtures titled In Nature’s resulted in the creation of the opening Realm, Carnival, and Othello in 1891. and closing fanfares, which later grew into Carnival Overture is the most impressive of Bedřich Smetana a brilliant five-movement composition filled these works, and it is part of the worldwide with mysticism, excitement, and grandeur. Prague Carnival core orchestral repertoire. It has a brilliant The Czech Philharmonic gave the premiere violin solo in common with Suk’s Praga, with Václav Talich in June 1926 as part of which follows. The second half opens with Leoš Janáček the cultural programme of the VIIIth All another depiction of Carnival, this time by Sokol Rally at the Rudolfinum. Sinfonietta Bedřich Smetana. SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS Suk dedicated his symphonic poem Praga to the “Royal City of Prague”, while Janáček dedicated his Sinfonietta to Brno. Although the two works share dedications to the two largest Czech cities, they differ entirely in terms of their character and overall tone. Suk’s monumental symphonic poem builds upon the traditions of Smetana and Dvořák. It takes a look back at Prague’s history, and through a recollection of a lyrical theme from his suite A , it drives

90 91 M5 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC M5 January 2020 New Year’s Concert

01 Jan. 2020_Wednesday 8 p.m._Dvořák Hall

Antonín Dvořák Music of the Castle Guard This year, we have decided to welcome in towards a tremendous hymn-like conclusion the new year with you in Czech style with supported by the sound of organ and bells. Carnival Overture, Op. 92 and the Police of the Czech four beautiful works, each of which is Janáček’s immediate stimulus for composing original and a supreme musical celebration. Republic the Sinfonietta was a request from the Antonín Dvořák, who conducted the very Josef Suk newspaper Lidové noviny that he write Jakub Hrůša conductor first Czech Philharmonic concert, composed a greeting for the All-Sokol Rally. This Praga, Op. 26 three concert overtures titled In Nature’s resulted in the creation of the opening and Realm, Carnival, and Othello in 1891. closing fanfares, which later grew into a Carnival Overture is the most impressive of Bedřich Smetana brilliant five-movement composition filled these works, and it is part of the worldwide with mysticism, excitement, and grandeur. Prague Carnival core orchestral repertoire. It has a brilliant The Czech Philharmonic gave the premiere violin solo in common with Suk’s Praga, with Václav Talich in June 1926 as part of which follows. The second half opens with Leoš Janáček the cultural programme of the VIIIth All another depiction of Carnival, this time by Sokol Rally at the Rudolfinum. Sinfonietta Bedřich Smetana. SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS Suk dedicated his symphonic poem Praga to the “Royal City of Prague”, while Janáček dedicated his Sinfonietta to Brno. Although the two works share dedications to the two largest Czech cities, they differ entirely in terms of their character and overall tone. Suk’s monumental symphonic poem builds upon the traditions of Smetana and Dvořák. It takes a look back at Prague’s history, and through a recollection of a lyrical theme from his suite A Fairy Tale, it drives

92 93 M6 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC M5 June 2020 Open Air Concert

24 June 2020_Wednesday 8:20 p.m._ Hradčany Square

Programme TBA Czech Philharmonic Martin Grubinger percussion Wayne Marshall conductor The entrance is free. MIMOŘÁDNÉ NEABONENTNÍMIMOŘÁDNÉ KONCERTY SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS M SPECIAL NON-SUBSCRIPTION CONCERTS

94 95 CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC

Concerts for Other Presenters in Prague

13 Sept. 2019_ 17 Sept. 2019_ 21 Sept. 2019_ 12 and 13 May 2020_ Dvořák Hall, Rudolfinum Dvořák Hall, Rudolfinum Dvořák Hall, Rudolfinum Smetana Hall, Municipal House Dvořák Prague Dvořák Prague Dvořák Prague Prague Spring, Opening Concerts of the Festival

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky The festival will announce Piano Concerto No. 1 Serenade for Strings Violin Concerto in D Major, the programme and in B Flat Minor, Op. 23 in C Major, Op. 48 Op. 35 performers in November. (1879 version) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Variations on a Rococo Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Manfred, Op. 58, a symphony Theme, Op. 33, for cello Op. 74 (“Pathétique”) in four scenes based on the and orchestra dramatic poem by Lord Byron Renaud Capuçon violin Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Semyon Bychkov conductor Kirill Gerstein piano Symphony No. 5

CONCERTS FOR OTHER PRESENTERS IN PRAGUE CONCERTS Semyon Bychkov conductor in E Minor, Op. 64 FOR OTHER PRESENTERS IN PRAGUE CONCERTS

Gautier Capuçon cello Semyon Bychkov conductor

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03 and 04 June 2020_ Smetana Hall, Municipal House Prague Spring, Concluding Concerts of the Festival

The festival will announce the programme and performers in November. CONCERTS FOR OTHER PRESENTERS IN PRAGUE CONCERTS

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Tours

During its 124th season, the orchestra will Soon thereafter, the Czech Philharmonic then a concert performance of Janáček’s In accordance with tradition, at the end of be presenting itself in concerts outside of will have two prestigious residencies opera Káťa Kabanová with leading Czech the season the orchestra will appear twice Prague a total of thirty times. Immediately with Semyon Bychkov – the first at the and Slovak soloists. with Semyon Bychkov at the biggest Czech after its opening concerts, the Czech Musikverein in Vienna and the second at music festival outside of Prague, Smetana’s In May, the Czech Philharmonic and Philharmonic will make its first appearance the modern Philharmonie de Paris, where Litomyšl. Semyon Bychkov with the soprano Chen in five years at the prestigious BBC Proms in the orchestra will be playing for the very Reiss will be bringing symphonies by Gustav London’s Royal Albert Hall. The programme first time with three performances. At both Mahler and Ludwig van Beethoven as well TOURS will be the same as for the opening concerts halls, the programme will be repeated TOURS as Czech music on tour to Moscow and to in Prague, with the chief conductor Semyon from the September concerts at the Dvořák Nanjing, China. The Czech Philharmonic Bychkov and the soprano Elena Stikhina, Prague Festival and will consist entirely is making its first visit to Moscow in nine and it will be broadcast on BBC Radio 3. of works by Tchaikovsky. The Czech years, and it will be playing two concerts in Philharmonic will be appearing on tour with In October, the orchestra will return to the brand new, modern Zaryadye Concert the cellist Gautier Capuçon, the violinist Japan and Taiwan after a two-year absence. Hall in the city’s historical centre. In Renaud Capuçon, and the pianist Kirill With Semyon Bychkov, it will first appear Nanjing, one of China’s most culturally Gerstein. at the National Concert Hall in Taipei, and historically important cities, the Czech then there will be eight concerts in Japan, In March, the orchestra is heading for five Philharmonic will play three orchestral two of which will be at one of the world’s important German cities – Frankfurt am concerts as well as chamber music and most famous halls, Tokyo’s Suntory Hall, Main, Cologne, Stuttgart, Friedrichshafen, educational programmes. Its residency and one will be in the NHK Hall – that and Freiburg – with the conductor Jakub in China is being organised as part of the concert will be broadcast on Japan’s NHK Hrůša and the cellist Sol Gabetta. The “Spring of Jiangnan” festival at what is state television network. The programmes programme will feature exclusively Czech currently the largest culture centre in all will feature the music of Pyotr Ilyich music – Dvořák, Suk, and Janáček. Then of Asia – the Jiangsu Grand Theatre, with Tchaikovsky and Smetana’s Má vlast in April, again with Jakub Hrůša, there is which the Czech Philharmonic will be (My Homeland) along with appearances a residency with two concerts at the famed entering into cooperation over a period of by the concertmaster of the Berlin Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg – first a several years. Philharmonic, Daishin Kashimoto. concert with the cellist Daniel Müller-Schott,

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UNITED KINGDOM TAIWAN AND JAPAN 22 Oct. 2019_Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan 27 Oct. 2019_Symphony Hall, Osaka, Japan 10 Sept. 2019 _BBC Proms, Royal Albert 17 Oct. 2019_National Concert Hall, Bedřich Smetana Hall, London, United Taipei, Taiwan Vltava (The Moldau), symphonic poem from Bedřich Smetana Kingdom the cycle Má vlast (My Homeland) Vltava (The Moldau), symphonic poem from Bedřich Smetana the cycle Má vlast (My Homeland) Bedřich Smetana Vltava (The Moldau), symphonic poem from Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky The Bartered Bride, overture to the opera the cycle Má vlast (My Homeland) Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 Bedřich Smetana Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky The Bartered Bride, Polka, Furiant, Skočná, Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky dances from the opera (“Pathétique”) Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (“Pathétique”) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 Daishin Kashimoto violin Eugene Onegin, Op. 24, letter scene from (“Pathétique”) Semyon Bychkov conductor Daishin Kashimoto violin Act I of the opera Semyon Bychkov conductor Daishin Kashimoto violin Dmitri Shostakovich Semyon Bychkov conductor 24 Oct. 2019_Bunkyo Civic Hall, Tokyo, Symphony No. 8 in C Minor, Op. 65 Japan 28 Oct. 2019_Suntory Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Elena Stikhina soprano 19 Oct. 2019_Aichi Prefectural Arts Bedřich Smetana Bedřich Smetana Semyon Bychkov conductor Center, Nagoya, Japan Vyšehrad, symphonic poem from the cycle Má vlast (My Homeland), a cycle of Má vlast (My Homeland) symphonic poems Bedřich Smetana Vyšehrad, Vltava (The Moldau), Šárka, conductor TOURS Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Semyon Bychkov TOURS symphonic poems from the cycle Má vlast Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 (My Homeland) Antonín Dvořák 29 Oct. 2019_Kumamoto Prefectural Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 Theater, Kumamoto, Japan Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64 (“From the New World”) Bedřich Smetana Semyon Bychkov conductor Daishin Kashimoto violin Má vlast (My Homeland), a cycle of Semyon Bychkov conductor symphonic poems

20 Oct. 2019_Minato Mirai Hall, Semyon Bychkov conductor Yokohama, Japan 25 Oct. 2019_NHK Hall, Tokyo, Japan

Bedřich Smetana Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Vyšehrad, Vltava (The Moldau), Šárka, Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 symphonic poems from the cycle Má vlast Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (My Homeland) Manfred Symphony, Op. 58 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Daishin Kashimoto violin Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64 Semyon Bychkov conductor Semyon Bychkov conductor

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AUSTRIA AND FRANCE 22 Nov. 2019_Philharmonie de Paris, GERMANY GERMANY Paris, France 18 Nov. 2019_Musikverein, Vienna, 03 March 2020_Alte Oper, Frankfurt, 20 April 2020_Elbphilharmonie, Austria Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Germany Hamburg, Germany Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 04 March 2020_Kölner Philharmonie, Antonín Dvořák Op. 23 (1879 version) Piano Concerto No. 1 in B Flat Minor, Cologne, Germany Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104 Op. 23 (1879 version) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 06 March 2020_Kultur- und Josef Suk Manfred Symphony, Op. 58 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Kongresszentrum Fantastic Scherzo, Op. 25 Manfred Symphony, Op. 58 Kirill Gerstein piano Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Leoš Janáček Semyon Bychkov conductor Germany Kirill Gerstein piano Taras Bulba, a rhapsody for orchestra Semyon Bychkov conductor 07 March 2020_Graf-Zeppelin-Haus, Daniel Müller-Schott cello 23 Nov. 2019_Philharmonie de Paris, Friedrichshafen, Jakub Hrůša conductor Paris, France Germany 19 Nov. 2019_Musikverein, Vienna, Austria Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 08 March 2020_Konzerthaus, Freiburg, 21 April 2020_Elbphilharmonie, Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 Germany Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Hamburg, Germany Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Antonín Dvořák Leoš Janáček Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 Cello Concerto in B Minor, Op. 104 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Káťa Kabanová, opera in concert Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Josef Suk Kateřina Kněžíková Katya (“Pathétique”) Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64 Fantastic Scherzo, Op. 25 TOURS Peter Berger Boris Grigorjevich TOURS Renaud Capuçon violin Gautier Capuçon cello Leoš Janáček Jaroslav Březina Tichon Ivanych Kabanov Semyon Bychkov conductor Semyon Bychkov conductor Taras Bulba, a rhapsody for orchestra Jarmila Balážová Varvara Jozef Benci Savël Prokofjevich Dikoj Sol Gabetta cello Eva Urbanová Kabanicha 20 Nov. 2019_Musikverein, Vienna, 24 Nov. 2019_Philharmonie de Paris, Jakub Hrůša conductor Aleš Briscein Vana Kudrjas Austria Paris, France Jiří Brückler Kuligin Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Jitka Klečanská Glasha Serenade for Strings in C Major, Op. 48 Violin Concerto in D Major, Op. 35 Romana Kružíková Feklusha Prague Philharmonic Choir Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster Variations on a Rococo Theme, Op. 33 Symphony No. 6 in B Minor, Op. 74 Jakub Hrůša conductor (“Pathétique”) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 in E Minor, Op. 64 Renaud Capuçon violin Semyon Bychkov conductor Gautier Capuçon cello Semyon Bychkov conductor

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RUSSIA AND CHINA 27 May 2020_Spring of Jiangnan Festival, CZECH REPUBLIC Jiangsu Grand Theatre, 21 May 2020_Zaryadye Concert Hall, 02 July 2020_Smetana’s Litomyšl Nanjing, China Moscow, Russia Festival, Litomyšl Castle, Ludwig van Beethoven Czech Republic Franz Schubert Symphony No. 7 in A Major, Op. 92 Symphony No. 7 in B Minor, D 759 Programme TBA (“Unfinished”) Antonín Dvořák Semyon Bychkov conductor Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 Gustav Mahler (“From the New World”) Symphony No. 4 in G Major 03 July 2020_Smetana’s Litomyšl Semyon Bychkov conductor Chen Reiss soprano Festival, Litomyšl Castle, Semyon Bychkov conductor Czech Republic 28 May 2020_Spring of Jiangnan Programme TBA Festival, Jiangsu Grand 22 May 2020_Zaryadye Concert Hall, Theatre, Nanjing, China Semyon Bychkov conductor Moscow, Russia Programme TBA Bedřich Smetana Vyšehrad, Vltava (The Moldau), Šárka, Semyon Bychkov conductor symphonic poems from the cycle Má vlast (My Homeland)

TOURS Antonín Dvořák TOURS Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, Op. 95 (“From the New World”)

Semyon Bychkov conductor

26 May 2020_Spring of Jiangnan Festival, Jiangsu Grand Theatre, Nanjing, China

Franz Schubert Symphony No. 7 in B Minor, D 759 (“Unfinished”)

Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 4 in G Major

Chen Reiss soprano Semyon Bychkov conductor

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Broadcasts and Recordings

Like in past years, again during piano concertos with the chief conductor Czech Television and Czech Radio the 2019/2020 season, the Czech Semyon Bychkov and the soloist Kirill continue their traditional partnerships Philharmonic has much to look forward Gerstein. The recording of the cycle of with the Czech Philharmonic, selecting to in the field of recording projects. Mahler symphonies will continue with concerts in Prague for live broadcasting During the past season, the Czech Symphony No. 4, and a recording will and taping. Philharmonic saw the completion also be made of Double Concerto in In cooperation with the Czech TV, of installation of a new audiovisual A Minor for violin, cello, and orchestra the Czech Philharmonic co-produced recording studio at the Dvořák Hall in with the soloists Lisa Batiashvili and a documentary on Jiří Bělohlávek, the Rudolfinum. This complex with the Gautier Capuçon. The Decca label will subtitled “But I just love conducting most up-to-date audiovisual recording also release the last studio recording by so much“. The documentary will be technology, which is now gradually being the late chief conductor Jiří Bělohlávek – premiered in September 2019, as part put into operation, will enable the Czech Dvořák’s Biblical Songs sung by the

BROADCASTS AND RECORDINGS BROADCASTS of the Golden Prague International AND RECORDINGS BROADCASTS Philharmonic to make the best possible Czech bass Jan Martiník. A recording Television Festival, with subsequent recordings and live broadcasts of its will be added to the complete series limited theatrical release. educational projects and concerts. The with Dvořák’s Requiem and Te Deum new studio will be yet another important performed by leading Czech and foreign tool allowing the Czech Philharmonic to soloists and the Prague Philharmonic bring its activities to audiences at home Choir under the baton of the orchestra’s and abroad. principal guest conductor Jakub Hrůša. During its 124th season, the Czech There will also be recordings during Philharmonic will continue its tours – the Czech Philharmonic will collaboration with the Decca recording be collaborating with the channel BBC label. This will primarily involve the Radio 3 at the BBC Proms in London issuing of the long-awaited complete set and with Japan’s NHK public television of Tchaikovsky’s symphonic works and network in Tokyo.

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EDUCATION PROGRAMMES E

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In the world we live in, is there more music goals is to use music to touch on things of or noise? And are we surrounded more by importance within and around us. The same harmony or by shouting? These are rhetorical can also be said about the new fairytale concert questions, of course… The answers are obvious, “Midnight at the Rudolfinum” by Klára unfortunately, and this should be no surprise. Boudalová which reminds us that there are Noise and shouting are signs of the times when important moments that we absolutely should everyone is trying to attract everyone else’s not sleep through… attention, no matter what the cost. The choice We are overjoyed that many traditional, proven of resources is based on whatever is flashier, programmes continue, but their creators and noisier, or surprising in any way at all. This, in instructors are still working hard to improve turn, has made us all a bit burned out, jaded, and perfect them. This includes the “Little and tired. Rudolfinum” workshops by Veronika Lucassen However, there still is a source of living water, and her co-workers and the concerts titled our hope for salvation: music. It’s just that “Penguins at the Rudolfinum” and “Who’s the situation is getting harder and harder for Afraid of the Philharmonic?” which Alice Nellis us. After all, the crucial condition for music’s has created for the first time visitors to the existence is that it be listened to. This is not Rudolfinum. Then there is the popular series necessarily meant in some lofty, metaphorical “Czech Philharmonic – The Serial”, for which a sense. We often find ourselves lacking the brand new programme has been prepared with time to concentrate enough to listen to music a whole series of thematic workshops. in even the most ordinary way. We need time We keep on educating teachers, we work with to do nothing else besides just listening to pupils at Elementary Art Schools, and for a music. And perhaps thinking about it and also seventh year straight we are happy to join Ida thinking a bit about ourselves, at that. Kelarová and Čhavorenge on a shared path of

This is the direction in which we wish to be Romani and Czechs (Hej Romale!, Romano PROGRAMMES EDUCATION headed for yet another year of the Czech drom). Philharmonic’s music education activities. We are doing all of this with the firm belief that Several innovations await us. “Cinkylinky music tears down barriers and builds bridges. jeřabinky” is the first of a series of workshops That is because music is the language of the titled “Carnival and More” (Fašánek) for heart, to which we all wish to listen in the end. school pupils in their first or second years; the It is a language by which we can understand authors and instructors Monika Václová and others and be freely creative with them. Kateřina Klementová have taken inspiration On the behalf of the Czech Philharmonic from traditional folk rhymes, songs, and Education Team dances. The series of workshops titled “Be Wary! Be Grateful! ” seems to be something Petr Kadlec completely different at first glance. It is devoted * The complete offering of educational programmes for to the connections between music, freedom, schools and teachers is listed in a separate catalogue. and democratic values, but another of its

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Upwards to the Future! How Do You Make a Hit? To the Source of Music Programmes for Prague Cello Quartet (alias iPad band) Camerata 2018 Orchestral Academy of the Czech Philharmonic Children with 03 Nov. 2019_Sunday_2 p.m. 19 Jan. 2020_Sunday_2 p.m. with the exciting game “On the Trail of the Spirit Parents Dvořák Hall Dvořák Hall of Music” in the streets around the Rudolfinum What kind of music is playing when film Someone is whistling a tune on the street 07 June 2020_Sunday_2 p.m. superheroes are jumping over Prague’s right in front of the Rudolfinum, which Dvořák Hall rooftops? And how does music go together had even been built yet. And the person is CZECH with modern technology? This concert is full whistling a famous melody by Wolfgang Using a time machine, on this occasion we PHILHARMONIC – of smartphones, tablets, films, animation, Amadeus Mozart. How is this possible? And will take several time jumps, and we will and above all the thing that not even the who is it? Come solve this mystery with us at find out what kind of music the walls of the THE SERIAL OR WHAT most modern technology can replace – a concert full of wigs, beautiful dresses, and Rudolfinum prefer to listen to. In our time PRAGUE’S WALLS HEAR wonderful live music. Mozart’s music. travels, we will be encountering a number of great composers, and with them we will even A series of concerts be able to discover the mystery of the Spirit May I Have This Dance? An Alchemy Workshop of Music itself. The climax of this exciting _children ages 5 to 11 with parents Czech Philharmonic Jazz Band Klezharmonic Band game for the whole family will be a concert. _60 minutes (no interval) A reward is guaranteed for everyone who _tickets to individual concerts 15 Dec. 2019_Sunday_2 p.m. 05 April 2020_Sunday_2 p.m. plays! CZK 150–300, subscriptions Dvořák Hall Dvořák Hall CZK 700–1,500 Ondřej Vrabec conductor

Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office in Jazz, swing, balls, dancing… a high-spirited Have you heard of the Golem? We will the Rudolfinum or on-line at ceskafilharmonie.cz. concert where you will learn why you can examine the oldest and most exciting The gameOn the Trail of the Spirit of Music Make reservations on-line or through Customer Service clap along with music and why a trombonist legends of Prague’s Jewish quarter with at [email protected]. will take place on the day of the concert, i.e. EDUCATION PROGRAMMES EDUCATION who uses a mute is not stifled. Also awaiting Jewish music, of course. We’ll be singing, PROGRAMMES EDUCATION 07 June 2020, and it is intended for teams of you is your own Christmas song hit parade dancing, and telling old stories about the 2–5 members. Each team will have at least one On this exciting trip in a time machine, we like on radio in the old days! We’re on our giant made of clay and much more. adult (who is responsible for the children during examine what music was heard on Prague’s way to Prague of the early 20th century in the game). Participants must have a valid ticket streets and what tunes people where the days before Christmas. to the concert of the Orchestral Academy of the whistling as they walked. So get ready and Czech Philharmonic on the same day. The game hold on tight… we’re starting the machine! will take place in the area near the Rudolfinum. But we’ll have to be careful not to go all the The number of participants is limited. Registration way back to the days of the dinosaurs! This of participants will begin at 11:30 a.m. in the is a great opportunity to learn about the foyer of the Rudolfinum. The game will last ca. instruments of the orchestra and to meet the 1 hour. Details will be published on the Czech players of the Czech Philharmonic and their Philharmonic website (in the section Czech guests. The guide for all of these concerts is Philharmonic – The Serial). Klára Boudalová.

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NEW Instructor: Klára Boudalová and her guests NEW to be satisfied with themselves, to establish from among the performers at concerts of contact with another person, or to hold CLUB OF THE CZECH the series Czech Philharmonic – The Serial 100 Minutes among the Notes on to joyful feelings. Although words PHILHARMONIC – THE At these five gatherings, we will be taking An intergenerational musical encounter sometimes are not enough, there remains your family team on an exciting journey into only one possibility: a personal example SERIAL OR HOW A the depths of music. At the first workshop, here and now.” CONCERT IS MADE you will learn about how percussion and _ages 5–100, maximum capacity 100 Through Music to Ourselves is a music string instruments work, and you will make participants education concept that opens up music A series of workshop some of your own. Awaiting you at the _100 minutes to various generations and familiarises second gathering will be wind instruments. _children CZK 100, adults CZK 150 participants with the principles of playing _children ages 6 to 9 with parents, At the third encounter, under the guidance an instrument, the use of the voice, maximum capacity: 60 participants of real composers we will be composing 09 Nov. 2019_Saturday _2 p.m. elementary composing, and improvisation _120 minutes (with an interval) music together for instruments that we will Suk Hall through practical playing. It encompasses _children CZK 600, adults CZK 800 be making with our own hands. We are individual instruction, encounters in 10 March 2020_Tuesday _4:30 p.m. (subscriptions only) devoting the fourth workshop to rehearsing families, programmes at schools, auxiliary Suk Hall our own composition and to making programmes for children and adults, musical 02 Nov. 2019, 14 Dec. 2019, 18 Jan. 2020, costumes and sets for the ceremonial concert 04 May 2020_Monday _4:30 p.m. workshops, and performances. “I am deeply 04 April 2020, 06 June 2020 premiere. The fifth meeting will be the Suk Hall convinced”, says Ondřej Tichý, “that music _2 p.m., Rudolfinum exciting “dress rehearsal”, and the highpoint opens up completely different possibilities will be the gala performance of our own This special musical performance brings for us and can be a special help in the family, The workshops tie in with the subscription concerts series composition with the whole orchestra together different generations, different education, and the lives of each of us.” Czech Philharmonic – The Serial. The strict age limit is at the final concert of the series Czech musical approaches, and different for children ages 6–9. The maximum number of children Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office per adult participant is two. Adults are active participants Philharmonic – The Serial. This is a unique instruments bringing music to life. The in the Rudolfinum or on-line at ceskafilharmonie.cz. in the workshops! chance to experience music and a concert music is created by a group effort on the spot, Make reservations on-line or through Customer Service atmosphere with the Czech Philharmonic and it can never be repeated. What role does at [email protected].

EDUCATION PROGRAMMES EDUCATION from the inside, intensively, and as a group! music play in finding a shared language? PROGRAMMES EDUCATION And through rhythm, harmony, and melody, A ticket to the workshop is valid only with the purchase can music lead us to understand each other of ticket to the closing concert of the series Czech better or to a happier life? Philharmonic – The Serial, i.e. To the Source of Music with the Orchestral Academy of the Czech Philharmonic. Taking part in the performance are Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office participants in the project Through Music in the Rudolfinum or on-line at ceskafilharmonie.cz. to Ourselves, which is taking place at certain Make reservations on-line or through Customer Service schools and in families. The programme at [email protected]. is led by the teacher, musician, and author of the concept Ondřej Tichý, who says: “We often teach children what something looks like, how something is pronounced or spelled, or how a note is played. But then there is very little time left for passing on to children the ability to overcome obstacles,

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Czech Student Philharmonic We are also preparing special music workshops, Penguins at the Rudolfinum Vojtěch Jouza conductor Midnight at the Rudolfinum which will take place on the premises of the A concert Pavel Liška host with a Concert of Guardian Rudolfinum. Children’s tickets to the workshops Alice Nellis author and director cost CZK 100 and are available only with the ­­_children ages 7 to 12 with parents Angels purchase of a ticket to the concert. For details, see _60 minutes (no interval) Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office A concert ceskafilharmonie.cz (in the section Midnight) or in the Rudolfinum or online at ceskafilharmonie.cz. _CZK 150–450 inquire when buying tickets. Make reservations online or through Customer Service at [email protected]. _children ages 5 to 10 with parents 27 Oct. 2019_Sunday_2 p.m. _60 minutes (no interval) Czech Heavenly Philharmonic Dvořák Hall _CZK 150–450 Czech Song and EN ARCHÉ Heavenly Choir Pavel Tesař Guardian Angel Because of their tailcoats, orchestra 30 Nov. 2019_Saturday_ Vojtěch Jouza Night Watchman musicians somewhat resemble penguins, 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. _Dvořák Hall Klára Boudalová author especially when seen through the eyes of children. For the seventh time, the actor Auxiliary music and art workshops Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office in the Rudolfinum or on-line at ceskafilharmonie.cz. Pavel Liška will be examining the world 12:30–1:40 p.m. and 5:20–6:30 p.m. Make reservations on-line or through Customer Service of orchestral musicians and their music. at [email protected]. And naturally, there will be a curious It’s midnight. And not just any night. It’s and enthusiastic audience of children. Christmas Eve midnight. While children Together, they have already discovered are falling asleep by Christmas trees, the what different kinds of music sound like, angels in heaven are standing guard. The what a conductor is needed for, and why light that has just been born is still too one does not talk at concerts. But they small and vulnerable, and someone could have also been able to experience what it is easily steal him from the world. Together, like to conduct an orchestra, to sing “Let’s can we protect the light of Christmas until

EDUCATION PROGRAMMES EDUCATION Rejoice and Be Merry” from The Bartered the heavenly clock strikes twelve? This fairy PROGRAMMES EDUCATION Bride accompanied by an orchestra, to tale is about, among other things, how create the newest music together with the we should not sleep through important musicians of the Philharmonic, or to witness moments. a performance by a blind pianist. We want to prepare experiences for children that will allow them to look for music not only on stage (or on their phones), but especially within themselves. You are invited to the premiere of an entertaining and educational programme by Alice Nellis for parents with children!

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Pirates in the Rudolfinum We are also preparing special music workshops Soloists and choirs TBA to be held at the Rudolfinum. Children’s tickets Programmes for Czech Student Philharmonic with a Concert on a Sailing to the workshops for CZK 100 are available only (Czech Philharmonic players, members after the purchase of a concert ticket. For more Adolescent and of the Orchestral Academy of the Czech Ship details, go on-line to ceskafilharmonie.cz (under Philharmonic, and students from music A concert Pirates) or inquire when purchasing tickets. Adult Listeners schools) Marko Ivanović conductor _children ages 5 to 10 with parents Czech Philharmonic Crew Petr Kadlec guide _­­ 60­­ minutes (no interval) Chorus of Lifeguards FOUR STEPS TO THE _­­ CZK 150–450 Pavel Tesař First Officer NEW WORLD Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office in the Rudolfinum or online at ceskafilharmonie.cz. Marko Ivanović Captain Hlukovous A series of concerts Make reservations online or through Customer Service 18 April 2020_Saturday_ Klára Boudalová author at [email protected]. 2 p.m. and 4 p.m._Dvořák Hall Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office _12+ in the Rudolfinum or online at ceskafilharmonie.cz. _ca. 120 minutes (with an interval) Auxiliary music and art workshops Make reservations online or through Customer Service _individual concert tickets CZK 230–550 Janáček’s Jenůfa 12:30–1:40 p.m. and 5:20–6:30 p.m. (selections from the opera) at [email protected]. subscriptions CZK 500–1,200

The pirates have set out in search of treasure 17 Oct. 2019_Thursday_7:30 p.m. The great composers create music that led by their commander Captain Hlukovous. Dvořák Hall allows us to look into our souls – into that But what if they run into trouble on their mysterious place where people’s lives are voyage on the waves of the stormy seas? “My servant recalls that during her second projected and from which they are directed This fairy tale about looking for and perhaps year with us, I began composing Jenůfa. at the same time – their thoughts, feelings, even finding the most beautiful treasure That was in 1896. In those days, I was only decisions, and struggles. In this series of our is interspersed with the music of great a part-time composer! Being a church choir concerts, we are attempting to take a close composers and pirate songs. And maybe director and organist, a music teacher at look at the spirit and ideas of the composers EDUCATION PROGRAMMES EDUCATION there will even be a parrot! an Austro-Hungarian normal school, the PROGRAMMES EDUCATION Leoš Janáček, Ludwig van Beethoven, director of an organ school, a conductor of Miloslav Kabeláč, Antonín Dvořák, and concerts at the Symphonic Society – having Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. We will be a terminally ill daughter at home – that was listening to their powerful music, which also my life. Well, composing was hard, so I didn’t has a spiritual message for us. do much of it. For that reason, it is also hard for me to reminisce about it.” (Leoš Janáček, 1917) – “My husband had just finished Jenůfa. The whole time he was working on the opera, Olga was terribly interested in it. Now she asked: “Daddy, play Jenůfa for me; I’ll never hear it again.” Leoš sat down at the piano and played… I couldn’t bear it, so I ran away…” (Zdenka Janáčková)

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Beethoven’s and Kabeláč’s Dvořák’s Tchaikovsky’s Romeo and Mystery of Time (selections from the cantata) Juliet and Swan Lake

26 Nov. 2019_Tuesday_7:30 p.m. 12 March 2020_Thursday_7:30 p.m. 24 April 2020_Friday_ 7:30 p.m. Dvořák Hall Dvořák Hall Dvořák Hall

Beethoven was a man of his times, but “I had been yearning to perform Dvořák’s “The sun was already setting when I had my he wrote timeless musical works. One of Stabat Mater for a very long time. After tea and went for a walk… Deeply moved by them is Egmont Overture, which concerns more than thirty years, I wanted to engage in the beauty of the forest, the setting sun, and freedom and the courage to risk confronting polemics with the conductor Karel Kovařovic, the balmy evening, it occurred to me how the powerful. Lamoraal, Count of Egmont, whose wonderful performance back then such moments make it worthwhile to bear lived in the sixteenth century and became provoked in me an effort to stand one day the little vexations with which life is filled… a symbol of the Dutch revolt against on the podium and come to terms with that Such moments are enough for us to love life. Spanish domination and the Inquisition. ten-movement song about suffering and loss, We are promised the eternal joy of immortal In 1956, Beethoven’s Egmont became the beginning with heavy, implacable sorrow and existence, but we do not recognise or unofficial anthem of the Hungarian uprising moving down a long, black corridor towards understand this. But if we are worthy of such against Soviet hegemony. – “Alongside the light of paradise and a trusting Amen. (…) moments and if they are truly eternal, we Bohuslava Martinů and Karel Husa, At Christmas I came into possession of Škréta’s soon learn to enjoy them. Then one wishes Miloslav Kabeláč was the most important painting of the Crucifixion… Unlike other to go on living, so there might be a repeat of modern Czech composer. During the war, he depictions of a ‘general assembly’ beneath the moments like what I experienced yesterday. refused to divorce his Jewish wife, so he was Cross of Christ, Škréta limits himself to the (…) Formerly, music was composed, created; forced to leave his job in radio broadcasting, gently inclined heads of the Sacrificial Victim now it is conceived, invented. This purely and he spent the rest of the war in hiding to and of the Mother of God, whose sad eyes gaze intellectual process of musical creation is avoid being sent to a concentration camp. motionlessly, fixed on Christ’s face. The two of reflected in how contemporary music is

EDUCATION PROGRAMMES EDUCATION After the war, he went back to work in radio, them are alone. The other figures in the picture clever, piquant, curious, even delightful (…), PROGRAMMES EDUCATION but he did not join the Communist Party. are in the background and are only sketchily but at the same time, it is cold, lacking the He was a musical programming director and portrayed, as if to indicate how remote the warmth of inspiration.” a composer. His composition The Mystery of world is from us when we encounter true (Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, 1880) Time is in perfect opposition to the regime – sorrow. And it is in such loneliness that sorrow the communists felt that they had time grows into an unbearable horror. I am glad under control. And Kabeláč makes it clear that the honour of being the interpreter of this that there is still some sort of cosmic time work by Dvořák has come to me so late: when that is indifferent to whether some plodding I was young, I would not have been capable of regime exists or not.” it at all, and it was truly necessary to have life (The composer Milan Slavický, 2004) experience and to know human misery for me to be able to bow down before the Stabat Mater…” (conductor Václav Talich, 1952)

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Czech Student Philharmonic Antonín Dvořák Concert for Students’ Day (Czech Philharmonic players, members Concert of the Joint Symphony No. 9 in E Minor A concert for the public of the Orchestral Academy of the Czech Orchestra of the Czech (“From the New World”) Philharmonic, and students from music _12+ schools) Philharmonic and Pupils Joint orchestra of Czech Philharmonic _120 minutes (with an interval) Robert Kružík conductor from Elementary Art Schools members and pupils from elementary _CZK 230–550 David Mareček host schools of the arts Concluding concert of the project Petr Altrichter conductor 16 Nov. 2019_Saturday_7:30 p.m. Josef Suk _12+ Dvořák Hall Meditation on the Old Czech Chorale Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office _60 minutes (no interval) in the Rudolfinum or on-line at ceskafilharmonie.cz. “St. Wenceslas”, Op. 35a _CZK 150–350 Make reservations on-line or through Customer Service The concert will take place with the at [email protected]. participation of the former president of the Ludwig van Beethoven 21 June 2020_Sunday_7:30 p.m. Federal Republic of Germany, Mr Joachim Leonora III., Op. 72b – ouverture Dvořák Hall Gauck, who will give a speech at the concert on the occasion of the 30th anniversary of the Antonín Dvořák Public dress rehearsal events that led to the fall of the totalitarian , Op. 62 – ouverture 21 June 2020_11 a.m._Dvořák Hall states in central and eastern Europe in the ­_uniform price of admission CZK 150 autumn of 1989. Leoš Janáček Sinfonietta Talented pupils from elementary schools The concert is held in cooperation with of the arts all around the Czech Republic the Institute for the Study of Totalitarian Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office in the Rudolfinum or on-line at ceskafilharmonie.cz. will be getting together for the seventh Regimes. Make reservations on-line or through Customer Service time in a joint orchestra, where musicians at [email protected]. of the Czech Philharmonic will provide artistic leadership and will also make music EDUCATION PROGRAMMES EDUCATION PROGRAMMES EDUCATION together with them. The joint orchestra will perform under the baton of the conductor Petr Altrichter.

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the author and biographer of Josef Toufar, and My Uncle Vanished. Where with Tomáš Petráček, a historian, and priest who Did He Go, Mr. President? is the postulator for Father Toufar’s beatification process. A special performance for the general public, followed by a discussion Jana Franková author and director Slavomír Hořínka music _14+ Jakub Grec artistic design of the educational _90 minutes (no interval) materials _CZK 150

With members of the Czech Philharmonic 08 April 2020_Wednesday_ 7 p.m. and the Orchestral Academy, the Disman Suk Hall Radio Children’s Ensemble (artistic director: Jana Franková), Jan Hnilička, “For our pupils, this was one of the first and Slavomír Hořínka. steps in the topic of Czech post-war

history. The step was not easy, just like the Tickets are sold at the Czech Philharmonic Ticket Office period when Josef Toufar was living. They in the Rudolfinum or on-line at ceskafilharmonie.cz. appreciated the depth of the story, but they Make reservations on-line or through Customer Service had a hard time dealing with the cruelty of at [email protected]. Father Toufar’s fate. One girl asked a very telling question: ‘what was it that he had actually done wrong?’ (…) Maybe the way today’s young people take freedom and rule of law as a matter of course will be a guarantee that they won’t let it be taken EDUCATION PROGRAMMES EDUCATION from them.” PROGRAMMES EDUCATION

With members and teachers from the Orchestral Academy of the Czech Philharmonic and with actors from the Disman Radio Children’s Ensemble, we will be transported by a dramatic reading and by the music of Slavomír Hořínka into the story of the priest Josef Toufar, who was tortured to death by State Security officers in January 1950. The script is based on books by Miloš Doležal titled As If We Should Die Today and A Step into the Dark Night. The programme is accompanied by projections of period photographs. After the dramatic reading, there will be a meeting and discussion with Miloš Doležal,

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in August 2016, then it came to the Vsetín Romano drom region in the summer of 2017. Čhavorenge then recorded a CD in cooperation with the 2019 Czech Philharmonic under the direction of Marko Ivanović, and it was issued by “The Czech Philharmonic’s involvement Supraphon in the spring of 2018. The 2018 is a fine example of what can be done. Romano drom summer programme was Many orchestras have taken steps in the held in , where the children and the right direction – took the musicians of the Czech Philharmonic got to Berlin Philharmonic to perform in some know the local community and its culture. of the roughest parts of that city – but There was a concert in the town Sinaia at the this one has a particular character and George Enescu International Music Festival relevance. At a time of rampant nationalism for Young Musicians. In January 2019, we in Eastern Europe, the outsider is always introduced the project Romano drom at going to suffer. It is nothing new for Roma concerts and workshops in Belfast, Northern communities to have to accept that they are Ireland, where the children of Čhavorenge going to be denied respect and perhaps face and musicians of the Czech Philharmonic direct discrimination. In that atmosphere were invited by the Association of British the statement by the Czech Philharmonic is Orchestras. brave and significant.” “Romani children lack the feeling that James Naughtie, BBC Music Magazine they are welcome in society. Their escape route from the vicious circle of settlements and ghettos to a world where something is The cooperation between the Czech

ROMANO DROM 2019 DROM ROMANO expected of them, where they can believe in Philharmonic, Ida Kelarová, and the themselves and achieve something is one of Čhavorenge Children’s Choir will be the hardest journeys. Although the energy continuing for a sixth year, supporting that we are investing in these children does talented Romani children and youth in not pay off immediately, I believe that more than just their musical paths. The there is hope for change. The Čhavorenge project has resulted in fifty concerts in the Children’s Choir is a way of motivating Czech Republic and Slovakia, including children, so they won’t give up their dreams an appearance at the Czech Philharmonic and goals and will pursue a fulfilling life. Open Air on Hradčany Square under I’m glad the Czech Philharmonic is going the baton of Jiří Bělohlávek, numerous down the thorny path of education with us workshops, and above all, the influence over for a sixth year, but I realize that the journey the lives of dozens of Romani children and toward understanding may take several more young people. generations; in fact, it never ends.” After two summer visits to eastern Slovakia Ida Kelarová in 2014 and 2015, Romano drom moved to the Šluknov, Nový Bor, and Děčín regions

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The ticket office is inside the Rudolfinum. TICKETS TO CZECH Sale of Subscriptions Please use the entrance from the street PHILHARMONIC SUBSCRIPTION Information The sale of subscriptions to the 2019/2020 ul. 17. listopadu (barrier-free access). CONCERTS season begins on Tuesday, 23 April 2019 about Tickets At the ticket office, you can pay in cash or With a single purchase, you get tickets to all at 10 a.m. The sale of subscriptions ends with a credit card. concerts of the selected Czech Philharmonic on the day of the first concert of the series. chosen subscription series. Thereafter, only The ticket office accepts the following CUSTOMER SERVICE AND TICKET individual tickets will be sold. vouchers: Sodexo (Flexi Pass, Relax Pass, Subscription tickets offer the following OFFICES Fokus Pass), Cheque Déjeuner (Unišek, benefits: You can purchase subscriptions: Czech Philharmonic Customer Service Unišek+, Cadhoc), and Edenred Benefits — at the Czech Philharmonic ticket office in — Subscription ticket prices are discounted phone: +420 227 059 227 (Multi, Sport&Kultura) the Rudolfinum by 25–40% for concerts of the chosen e-mail: [email protected] series in comparison with the regular — online at czechphilharmonic.cz in price of tickets sold separately. the section Concerts/Concert Series Ticket office business hours Customer Service provides all information — Subscribers are entitled to a 20% discount Subscription reservations: workdays: 10 a.m.–6 p.m. about tickets available at the Czech to other Czech Philharmonic Czech — onli-ne at czechphilharmonic.cz in the (July, August: 10 a.m.–3 p.m.) Philharmonic ticket office at the Rudolfinum Chamber Music Society concerts. section Concerts/Concert Series (for concerts of the Czech Philharmonic, — Subscription tickets guarantee you will — through Czech Philharmonic Customer the Czech Chamber Music Society, and — open on the day of a Czech Philharmonic always get the same seat in the hall for all Service selected external concert organisers). They or Czech Chamber Music Society concert concerts in the series. can answer your questions concerning Seat Reservations for Existing Subscribers until the concert begins the programmes of concerts of the Czech — A subscription ticket is transferrable – The seats of subscribers from previous Philharmonic and the Czech Chamber — open for morning concerts on any day if you cannot attend a concert, you can concert seasons are reserved for the new Music Society, help you select concerts, 1 hour before the concert begins led your subscription to someone else. season until 31 May 2019. and handle your reservations, orders, or — open for afternoon concerts on weekends — You can receive a partial refund for payments made by wire transfer. and holidays 2 hours before the concert subscription concerts you are unable to INFORMATION ABOUT TICKETS INFORMATION ABOUT TICKETS INFORMATION Customer Service business hours begins attend by contacting Customer Service. You will receive a discount coupon worth workdays: 9 a.m.–6 p.m. 40% of the value of the cancelled concerts (July, August: 9 a.m.–3 p.m.) in proportion to the total price of the open on the day of a Czech Philharmonic subscription. concert until the concert begins — We will automatically send you the programme catalogue for the following season. Ticket office The ticket office sells tickets to concerts of the Czech Philharmonic, the Czech Chamber Music Society, and selected external concert organisers.

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BONUS PROGRAMME — CDs at the Czech Philharmonic ticket Wheelchair places are also available EXCHANGING AND RETURNING office in the Rudolfinum, 10% discount on-line, but these are only spaces for TICKETS By presenting a valid subscription ticket, (on the Supraphon and Decca Classic a wheelchair, not seats. you can get the following benefits: Purchased tickets cannot be returned for labels) TICKETS TO PUBLIC DRESS a refund. You may exchange tickets for — Czech Philharmonic, 20% discount for — Parking in the Rudolfinum garage, REHEARSALS tickets of an equal or greater value, but Czech Philharmonic and Czech Chamber 1 hour free with a minimum of 2 hours no later than 15 days before the concert. Music Society concerts at the Rudolfinum Public dress rehearsals are intended during each subscription concert (vouchers A handling fee of CZK 50 will be charged both for individuals and for schools and — Galerie Rudolfinum, 35% discount for all on request at the Czech Philharmonic for the exchange of each ticket. E-tickets organised groups. Customer Service accepts gallery exhibitions; galerierudolfinum.cz ticket office in the Rudolfinum while purchased on line cannot be exchanged or bulk orders (min. 10, max. 40 persons) supplies last – the number of vouchers returned. — Café Rudolfinum, with your coffee, continuously from the distribution of order is limited, and vouchers do not guarantee choose a FREE dessert from the daily forms during March until no available More information is found in the general available parking spaces) offering (only on the day of the given seating remains. Seats will be assigned in the terms and conditions available at the Czech subscription concert) order in which orders are received. Philharmonic ticket office in the Rudolfinum TICKETS TO INDIVIDUAL CONCERTS or on line at czechphilharmonic.cz. — National Theatre, 30% discount for If you have submitted a group order for performances presented by the National Ticket sales for special, Advent, and non- a dress rehearsal during the 2018/2019 Theatre (for one subscription a maximum subscription educational concerts for the concert season, an order confirmation will GIFT VOUCHERS of two tickets to one performance) 2019/2020 season begin on Tuesday, automatically be sent during April to the Would you like to give someone a ticket 23 April 2019 at 10 a.m. contact address you provided. Otherwise, — Prague Philharmonic Choir, tickets to a Czech Philharmonic concert, but you please contact Czech Philharmonic to all of the choir’s own concerts at the Sales of individual tickets to concerts from can’t decide which one to choose? Give Customer Service. Advance sales of discounted price of CZK 100 2019/2020 subscription series begin them a gift voucher worth CZK 500 or tickets to individuals for all public dress on Monday, 10 June 2019 at 10 a.m. 1,000 that is valid until 30 June 2020. — Dvořák Prague Festival, 10% discount for rehearsals for the entire 2019/2020 season Gift vouchers can be purchased at the concerts of the Dvořák Prague Festival Tickets can be purchased: will begin on Monday, 16 September 2019 Czech Philharmonic ticket office in the (for one subscription a maximum of two — at the Czech Philharmonic ticket office at 10 a.m. both at the Czech Philharmonic Rudolfinum, or they can be ordered through tickets to one concert) in the Rudolfinum ticket office in the Rudolfinum and on-line INFORMATION ABOUT TICKETS INFORMATION Czech Philharmonic Customer Service ABOUT TICKETS INFORMATION at czechphilharmonic.cz in the section — The Met: Live in HD, CZK 50 discount — on-line at czechphilharmonic.cz with payment by wire transfer. None of the Concerts/Programme. Earlier orders will not off the full ticket price for The Met: in the section Concerts/Programme discounts are applicable to the purchase of be honoured. PLEASE GIVE PREFERENCE Live in HD in the 2019/2020 season, gift vouchers. Gift vouchers can be used to Ticket reservations can be made: TO PURCHASING TICKETS ON-LINE redeemable at the cinemas Aero, Světozor, purchase tickets to concerts of the Czech — on-line at czechphilharmonic.cz RATHER THAN GOING TO THE TICKET and Bio Oko in Prague (buy up to two Philharmonic or the Czech Chamber Music in the section Concerts/Programme OFFICE. Reservations are handled by Czech discounted tickets for one performance; Society of equal or greater value (with Philharmonic Customer Service and only the number of performances is unlimited; — through Czech Philharmonic Customer payment of the balance) than the value by e-mail: [email protected]. For see the performance schedule at Service of the gift certificate either at the Czech reasons of capacity, telephone reservations www.metopera.cz) Philharmonic ticket office or on-line at Please contact Customer Service for group are not possible. In view of the great amount czechphilharmonic.cz. — e-Harmonie , with each purchased orders. Orders for admission to educational of interest, advance sales are limited to subscription, get a free access code for a concerts for school groups are handled by the a maximum of four tickets per person for quarterly subscription to the Czech music education department (phone: 227 059 222, a particular public dress rehearsal. journal e-Harmonie [email protected]).

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DISCOUNTS The discount does not apply to standing room HANDICAPPED ACCESSIBLE, ACCESS or to seating in front of the organ (empora). FOR THE VISUALLY IMPAIRED Czech Philharmonic subscribers Transportation – 20% discount on the purchase of individual Czech Radio Vltava Club Wheelchair seating is available at the ends tickets to concerts presented by the Czech 20% discount for club members to concerts and Access to the of the first row of the parterre in the Dvořák Philharmonic and the Czech Chamber Music presented by the Czech Philharmonic at Hall and the Suk Hall. Society. the Rudolfinum. Rudolfinum Handicapped access (elevator) to the Disabled with ZTP or ZTP/P IDs Česká spořitelna Dvořák Hall is located by the ticket office – 50% discount on the purchase of individual 10% discount on the purchase of individual Metro: line A, station: Staroměstská (from the street 17. listopadu). It is always tickets and subscriptions to concerts presented tickets and 5% discount on subscription Tram: nos. 2, 17, 18, stop: Staroměstská open one hour before a concert and before by the Czech Philharmonic and the Czech purchases for Česká spořitelny clients and Bus: nos. 207, 194, stop: Staroměstská Preludes to evening subscription concerts Chamber Music Society except for the employees except for the subscription series Individual transportation: parking is at 6 p.m.. An indoor staircase with a rail subscription series Tuning Together. The Tuning Together (upon presenting a ČS available in underground garages on the also leads from the area of the ticket office. same conditions also apply for the person payment card or employee ID). square náměstí Jana Palacha, There is also access to the elevator from accompanying a ZTP/P cardholder. The phone: +420 222 328 687 (the garages are the underground garage. For handicapped For a 70% discount on tickets to selected discount does not apply to standing room or not part of the Rudolfinum building). access to the Suk Hall, use the personnel chamber music concerts at the Suk Hall, to seating in front of the organ (empora). entrance from the street Alšovo nábřeží see “more about tickets” for the concerts The Rudolfinum opens one hour before the (beside the entrance to the Rudolfinum Students up to age 26 and children up to age 15 in question on the orchestra’s website at concert begins and for Preludes to evening Gallery). The visually impaired are – 50% discount on the purchase of individual ceskafilharmonie.cz (this discount can be subscription concerts at 6 p.m. permitted to enter the hall with a guide tickets to concerts of the Czech Philharmonic claimed only directly at the Czech Philharmonic dog. In case of difficulties with exiting by and the Czech Chamber Music Society. The ticket office in the Rudolfinum or at the sales the staircase to the balcony, please ask our student discount does not apply to educational desk in the Ceremony Hall at the Rudolfinum). personnel for assistance. concerts except for an evening presentations of Limitations Four Steps to the New World, and the special educational concerts on 16 November 2019 and — Discounts cannot be combined. 21 June 2020. The discount does not apply to INFORMATION ABOUT TICKETS INFORMATION — Discounts will be honoured upon ABOUT TICKETS INFORMATION standing room at any concerts. presentation of valid documentation proving Seniors over age 65 entitlement to the discount. – 50% discount on the purchase of individual — Discounts do not apply to selected special tickets to the following concerts presented by concerts and concerts presented by external the Czech Philharmonic: Advent concerts, organisers. special concerts, and public dress rehearsals of the Czech Philharmonic. The discount does not — Discounts do not apply to gift voucher apply to subscription series concerts, including purchases. concerts of the Czech Chamber Music Society For a complete, up-to-date overview of or to Educational Programmes except for an discounts and their conditions for the evening presentations of Four Steps to the New 2019/2020 season, contact Czech Philharmonic World, and the special educational concerts Customer Service or visit the orchestra’s on 16 November 2019 and 21 June 2020. website at czechphilharmonic.cz.

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INTRODUCING Dynamic Club

We greatly appreciate all of the players in the Orchestral Academy, support “Some years back, the subscription series meaningful in itself for the orchestra’s contributions we receive from private for particular players in the orchestra, new of the Czech Philharmonic became the operations. We believe that the Dynamic donors. We know that the tradition of state-of-the-art audiovisual recordings at centrepiece of our culture season, so Club can be built into a strong community private philanthropy in the Czech Republic the Rudolfinum, tours, commissions of new we are pleased by the existence of the and that through this joining of societal is very young and is basically still rising works, and last but not least, our wealth of Dynamic Club, which enabled us to make forces, it will be a real support for the Czech from the ashes, while it is flourishing to the educational programmes. The breadth of a financial donation to express our feeling Philharmonic.” west of us and is an integral component of the activities of the Czech Philharmonic is of solidarity with this wonderful orchestra. Jakub Kocmánek, Tomáš Hůlka support for cultural organisations there. enormous, and we are able to accommodate The Dynamic Club has also arranged for us Members of the Dynamic Club We value all the more the ever growing donors who wish to target one of those a series of enjoyable encounters with other number of our supporters who wish to activities preferentially. club members and with people who are be bound to the Czech Philharmonic professionally associated with the orchestra. We like meeting in person with others by more than just the role of listeners or The club has also provided us with a number who are interested in joining the Dynamic subscribers. You can join our Dynamic of special, unforgettable experiences. We Club. You can find a basic overview of the Club for just CZK 1,500 a year and belong had the opportunity of watching a rehearsal structure and activities of the Dynamic Club to the group Piano. Our intention is of Janáček’s Sinfonietta led by the chief in the section Supporters – Dynamic Club for this affordable sum to highlight the conductor, maestro Bělohlávek, and a on the Czech Philharmonic website. DYNAMIC CLUB OF THE CZECH PHILHARMONIC CLUB DYNAMIC perception of the Czech Philharmonic as rehearsal of the New World Symphony OF THE CZECH PHILHARMONIC CLUB DYNAMIC the leading Czech orchestra, a value that You can express your interest in membership by sending under the baton of the new chief conductor, an e-mail to [email protected] will resonate with everyone regardless of Semyon Bychkov. We were able to honour or by calling +420 606 616 531. Your contact person is wealth or social status. For larger gifts, we Lucie Maňourová. the memory of maestro Bělohlávek whilst have the categories Mezzo-forte, Forte, and listening to the Dvořák Stabat Mater Fortissimo. On behalf of the Czech Philharmonic, we conducted by Jakub Hrůša. This is a wish to offer you our sincere thanks for your wonderful aspect of life in the club, which In this way we accumulate funding not only support and favour. allows many people to join forces towards for the orchestra’s routine operations with a shared goal. Few individuals are able to its foreign guest conductors and soloists, give the Czech Philharmonic an amount but also for targeted projects – young of money that would be substantially

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Partners of the Czech Philharmonic

The Czech Philharmonic is entering its 124th in the context of Czech culture, but also schools at regional centres in cooperation concert season with a “score” filled with a towards the perception of the orchestra as with the Agrofert Foundation. These are variety of plans. We are looking forward a powerful, distinct brand, with which it is teachers who view music education as an to engaging in successful collaboration worthwhile to be connected. important part of the educating of future together with our supporters. And in generations. We owe a debt of thanks to our general accordance with proper custom, again partner, the bank Česká spořitelna, and It is absolutely necessary for us to be this year the “notes” written in our “score” to our traditional partner, Škoda Auto. heard and seen. We could achieve neither include several attractive innovations, and We also wish to thank our partners who the requisite reach nor the necessary we will soon be informing you about them. support individual players: J&T Bank, the “reverberation” without the support of Although we are firmly grounded in auction house Arthouse Hejtmánek, and professionals: we appreciate our good tradition, from which we draw when the watch retailer Hodinářství Bechyně. relations and long-term cooperation with presenting Czech and foreign musical works We have a deepening partnership with the our general media partner Czech Television, Dear fans of first-class music and of the on the prestigious stages of famed concert Mucha Museum, which supports the Czech Czech Radio, the media company MAFRA, Czech Philharmonic, halls, we are simultaneously looking ahead Chamber Music Society as well as the and leading media partners in the field. and going along with the times. One proof developing idea of the Chamber Orchestra Those subjects are also deserving of our Each season the Czech Philharmonic offers of this is the promising development of of the Czech Philharmonic. We are realising sincere thanks. unique cultural experiences and special our virtual concert hall project. We are also creative projects with the companies FINEP events. We are enormously pleased that the Ladies and gentlemen, fans of the Czech proud that composers from this country and and Arcona Capital Czech Republic. We bank Česká spořitelna can participate as a Philharmonic, we hope all of you enjoy abroad are creating new works specifically are also pleased with the growth of our base traditional partner. beautiful experiences during the 2019/2020 for the Czech Philharmonic. The Bohemian of supporters in the Dynamic Club of the season. Let the music resound! Together with you, I am looking forward to Heritage Fund is particularly deserving of Czech Philharmonic. Thanks in part to their hearing a wide variety of music and to the thanks in this regard for its cooperation in generosity and infectious enthusiasm, we are Management of the Czech Philharmonic line-up of extraordinary performers. I am supporting contemporary Czech music. able to invite top soloists and conductors, also pleased that we can support the Czech to develop the artistry of young talents PARTNERS OF THE CZECH PHILHARMONIC PARTNERS At the Czech Philharmonic – whether Philharmonic in its long-term efforts to OF THE CZECH PHILHARMONIC PARTNERS in the Orchestral Academy, or to support the orchestra on stage or the team in the present inventive programmes to bring the the worthy activities of the ensemble background that secures administration, world of classical music even to the youngest Čhavorenge. marketing, and strategic operations – we listeners. sincerely appreciate all those who have We are significantly indebted to our I hope that your every encounter with decided to support the arts and music in “Beautiful Sound Partners”, the companies the Czech Philharmonic, whether at the particular. Besides our founder, the Ministry PPF and J&T Bank, which enable the historic Rudolfinum or elsewhere, will be an of Culture of the Czech Republic, it is borrowing of rare string instruments for our unforgettable and inspirational experience. our partners and patrons who contribute musicians. Also entering its next phase is substantially towards the growing awareness the educational project Music for Schools, Tomáš Salomon of the Czech Philharmonic as a high-quality which is successfully bringing together Chairman of the Board of Directors ensemble with a position of importance teachers at secondary and elementary of Česká spořitelna

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Alžběta Lupíšková Tours and Projects Partners Contacts +420 227 059 345 [email protected]

Vojtěch Šafařík Recording Projects general partner Czech Philharmonic Rudolfinum +420 227 059 224 Alšovo nábřeží 12, 110 00 Prague 1 [email protected] www.czechphilharmonic.cz facebook.com/ceskafilharmonie Petr Kadlec traditional partner ticket sales +420 227 059 227 Education Programmes [email protected] +420 227 059 222 [email protected] David Mareček Chief Executive Officer Bohumil Antony Czech Chamber Music Society partners Assistant: +420 227 059 201, 311 [email protected] +420 227 059 269 [email protected] Robert Hanč General Manager Pavlína Landová Beautiful Sound Partner Beautiful Sound Partner Concertmaster´s Deputy Partner Concertmaster Partner Music Library and Concertmaster Partner Assistant: Blanka Löblová +420 227 059 246 [email protected] +420 227 059 265 [email protected] CONTACTS Michal Medek Music for Schools Project Partner Contemporary Czech Music Partner Creative Europe Programme Partner CP Chamber Orchestra Partner Business Development Director Lucie Maňourová Communication and Customer Services project partnerships +420 227 059 337 [email protected] +420 227 059 368 [email protected] Ondřej H. Matyáš Finance Director Alena Špačková

PARTNERS OF THE CZECH PHILHARMONIC PARTNERS general media partner +420 227 059 206 Rentals Department [email protected] +420 227 059 244 [email protected] Luděk Březina PR Manager Oldřich Slezák key media partner +420 736 605 620 Recording Studio [email protected] +420 227 059 282 [email protected] Anna Moravcová Concerts and Projects in Prague +420 227 059 225 [email protected]

media partners

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Czech Philharmonic Rudolfinum

Alšovo nábřeží 12, 110 00 Praha 1 Tel.: +420 227 059 227

e-mail: [email protected] www.czechphilharmonic.cz facebook.com/ceskafilharmonie

Established by the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic Company ID: 00023264

2019/2020 Programme Catalogue published by the Czech Philharmonic

Concept and graphic design Marek Pistora / Studio Najbrt

Illustration Zdeněk Trinkewitz / Studio Najbrt

Photography Marco Borggreve, Petra Hajská, Petr Kadlec, Jan Hromádko photographic archives of the Czech Philharmonic

Typesetting / DTP Aleš Münzberger / Studio Najbrt

Translation Mark Newkirk

Editor Romana Veselá

Printing COLOPHON Minimax Studio

We reserve the right to change the programmes and performers.

The making of audio and video recordings without the permission of the Czech Philharmonic is forbidden at all concerts.

© 2019, Czech Philharmonic

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PPF A Partner to Czech Philharmonic Orchestra PPF’s Photography Collection PPF’s Art Collection Czech Culture Václav Špála Gallery Josef Sudek Studio LOOKING FORWARD Summer Shakespeare Festival Jára Cimrman Theatre TO HEARING THE ENCORE. Prague Spring Music Festival

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Step into the new season with Arthouse Hejtmánek

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BHF_inz_170x210mm_ ENG 15. března 2019 14:23:00 RUDOLFINUM GUIDED TOURS

Would you like a behind-the-scenes look at the building and learn something about its history and about its present-day operations?

Come on a pilgrimage through the Rudolfinum with an employee of the Czech Philharmonic as your guide.

A tour needs to be booked beforehand by e-mail: [email protected] or over the phone: +420 778 468 023 162 163 Dvořák Hall Presidential Lounge

Foyer Café Rudolfinum Ceremony Hall

RUDOLFINUM

Rudolfinum interiors Café Rudolfinum Recording Studio Ideal for organising various social Open from Tuesday to Sunday from State-of- the-art technology functions or private gatherings 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. offers recording, editing, mixing, Entrance from the Rudolfinum Gallery mastering and more

Recording Studio Suk Hall RUDOLFINUM.CZ

CZECH PHILHARMONIC CZECH PHILHARMONIC

04 Sept. 2019 OPENING CONCERTS OF Prague, CZ 24 Oct. 2019 Bedřich Smetana, Tokyo, JP 30 Nov. 2019 MIDNIGHT AT THE Prague, CZ 22 Jan. 2020 Bohuslav Martinů, Prague, CZ 05 Sept. 2019 THE SEASON Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky RUDOLFINUM WITH A 23 Jan. 2020 Henri Dutilleux Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák CONCERT OF GUARDIAN 24 Jan. 2020 Katia and Marielle Labèque Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Daishin Kashimoto violin ANGELS pianos, Ivo Kahánek piano Dmitri Shostakovich Semyon Bychkov conductor Vojtěch Jouza conductor Michael Kroutil timpani Elena Stikhina soprano Semyon Bychkov conductor Semyon Bychkov conductor 25 Oct. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Tokyo, JP 04 Dec. 2019 Johannes Brahms, Anton Prague, CZ Daishin Kashimoto violin 05 Dec. 2019 Bruckner 29 Jan. 2020 Josef Suk, Béla Bartók, Prague, CZ 10 Sept. 2019 Bedřich Smetana, London, UK Semyon Bychkov conductor 06 Dec. 2019 Francesco Piemontesi piano 30 Jan. 2020 Pavel Haas, Leoš Janáček Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Pablo Heras-Casado conductor 31 Jan. 2020 Piotr Anderszewski piano Dmitri Shostakovich 27 Oct. 2019 Bedřich Smetana, Osaka, JP Jakub Hrůša conductor Elena Stikhina soprano Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 11 Dec. 2019 Miroslav Srnka, Peter Eötvös, Prague, CZ Semyon Bychkov conductor Daishin Kashimoto violin 12 Dec. 2019 Igor Stravinsky 06 Feb. 2020 Steve Reich, Béla Bartók Prague, CZ Semyon Bychkov conductor 13 Dec. 2019 Tamás Pálfalvi trumpet 07 Feb. 2020 Ludwig van Beethoven 13 Sept. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Prague, CZ Peter Eötvös conductor 08 Feb. 2020 Antoine Tamestit viola Kirill Gerstein piano 28 Oct. 2019 Bedřich Smetana Tokyo, JP David Robertson conductor Semyon Bychkov conductor Semyon Bychkov conductor 19 Dec. 2019 Ludwig van Beethoven Prague, CZ 20 Dec. 2019 Leonidas Kavakos violin, 23 Feb. 2020 Leoš Janáček, Antonín Rejcha, Prague, CZ 17 Sept. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Prague, CZ 29 Oct. 2019 Bedřich Smetana Kumamoto, 21 Dec. 2019 conductor Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Gautier Capuçon cello Semyon Bychkov conductor JP Sebastian Bru cello Semyon Bychkov conductor 22 Dec. 2019 CHRISTMAS CONCERT IN Prague, CZ Jiří Vodička violin, artistic 07 Nov. 2019 PREMIERE EVENING Prague, CZ HONOUR OF JAROSLAV supervisor 21 Sept. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Prague, CZ Jana Vöröšová, Matouš Hejl, KRČEK Czech Philharmonic Chamber Renaud Capuçon violin Adrián Demoč Anna Hlavenková soprano Orchestra Semyon Bychkov conductor Keith Lockhart conductor Jaroslav Březina tenor Jana Boušková harp 26 Feb. 2020 Jean-Philippe Rameau, Prague, CZ 02 Oct. 2019 Leoš Janáček, Sergei Prokofiev Prague, CZ 10 Nov. 2019 Antonio Vivaldi, Prague, CZ Jana Brožková oboe 27 Feb. 2020 Ludwig van Beethoven 03 Oct. 2019 Jan Mráček violin Astor Piazzolla Kateřina Javůrková French horn 28 Feb. 2020 Rudolf Buchbinder piano 04 Oct. 2019 Pavla Vykopalová soprano Josef Špaček violin, artistic Andrea Rysová flute Tomáš Netopil conductor Lucie Hilscherová alto supervisor Martinů Voices Aleš Briscein tenor Czech Philharmonic Chamber Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster 03 March 2020 Antonín Dvořák, Josef Suk, Frankfurt, Jan Martiník bass Orchestra Czech Philharmonic Chamber Leoš Janáček DE Czech Philharmonic Choir Orchestra Sol Gabetta cello of Brno, Jaroslav Krček conductor Jakub Hrůša conductor CALENDAR 18 Nov. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Vienna, AT CALENDAR Petr Fiala choirmaster Kirill Gerstein piano Petr Altrichter conductor Semyon Bychkov conductor 31 Dec. 2019 SPECIAL NEW YEAR’S EVE Prague, CZ 04 March 2020 Antonín Dvořák, Josef Suk, Cologne, DE DRESS REHEARSAL Leoš Janáček NEW YEAR’S EVE 09 Oct. 2019 Bedřich Smetana Prague, CZ 19 Nov. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Vienna, AT Sol Gabetta cello AFTERNOON CONCERT 10 Oct. 2019 Semyon Bychkov conductor Renaud Capuçon violin Jakub Hrůša conductor Antonín Dvořák, Josef Suk, 11 Oct. 2019 Semyon Bychkov conductor Bedřich Smetana, Leoš Janáček 06 March 2020 Antonín Dvořák, Josef Suk, Stuttgart, Music of the Castle Guard 17 Oct. 2019 Bedřich Smetana, Taipei, ROC 20 Nov. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Vienna, AT Leoš Janáček DE Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky and the Police of Sol Gabetta cello Gautier Capuçon cello the Czech Republic Daishin Kashimoto violin Semyon Bychkov conductor Jakub Hrůša conductor Semyon Bychkov conductor Jakub Hrůša conductor 22 Nov. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Paris, FR 07 March 2020 Antonín Dvořák, Josef Suk, Friedrichs- 19 Oct. 2019 Bedřich Smetana, Nagoya, JP 01 Jan. 2020 NEW YEAR’S CONCERT Prague, CZ Leoš Janáček hafen, DE Kirill Gerstein piano Antonín Dvořák, Josef Suk, Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Semyon Bychkov conductor Sol Gabetta cello Semyon Bychkov conductor Bedřich Smetana, Jakub Hrůša conductor Leoš Janáček 23 Nov. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Paris, FR Music of the Castle Guard 20 Oct. 2019 Bedřich Smetana, Yokohama, 08 March 2020 Antonín Dvořák, Josef Suk, Freiburg, DE Gautier Capuçon cello and the Police of Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky JP Leoš Janáček Semyon Bychkov conductor the Czech Republic Semyon Bychkov conductor Sol Gabetta cello, Jakub Hrůša conductor Jakub Hrůša conductor 24 Nov. 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Paris, FR 22 Oct. 2019 Bedřich Smetana, Tokyo, JP Renaud Capuçon violin 15 Jan. 2020 Franz Schubert, Luciano Berio, Prague, CZ Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Semyon Bychkov conductor 16 Jan. 2020 Ludwig van Beethoven Daishin Kashimoto violin 17 Jan. 2020 Semyon Bychkov conductor Semyon Bychkov conductor

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15 March 2020 Francesco Geminiani, Prague, CZ 21 April 2020 Leoš Janáček Hamburg, 02 July 2020 Programme TBA Litomyšl, CZ Johann Sebastian Bach, Kateřina Kněžíková soprano DE Semyon Bychkov conductor Igor Stravinsky Peter Berger tenor Zoltán Fejérvári piano Jaroslav Březina tenor Jan Mráček violin, artistic supervisor Jarmila Balážová mezzo-soprano 03 July 2020 Programme TBA Litomyšl, CZ Czech Philharmonic Chamber Jozef Benci bas Semyon Bychkov conductor Orchestra Eva Urbanová soprano Aleš Briscein tenor 18 March 2020 Detlev Glanert Prague, CZ Jiří Brückler baritone 19 March 2020 Marie Arnet soprano Jitka Klečanská mezzo-soprano 20 March 2020 Christa Mayer mezzo-soprano Romana Kružíková mezzo-soprano Stefan Vinke tenor Prague Philharmonic Choir Albert Pesendorfer bass Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster Luděk Vele recitation Jakub Hrůša conductor Prague Philharmonic Choir Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster 30 April 2020 , Prague, CZ Slovak Philharmonic Choir 01 May 2020 Jiří Teml, Dmitri Shostakovich Jozef Chabroň choirmaster 02 May 2020 Josef Špaček violin Semyon Bychkov conductor James Gaffigan conductor

25 March 2020 Johannes Brahms, Prague, CZ 12 May 2020 Programme TBA Prague, CZ 26 March 2020 Dmitri Shostakovich 13 May 2020 Conductor TBA 27 March 2020 Lisa Batiashvili violin Gautier Capuçon cello Semyon Bychkov conductor 21 May 2020 Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler Moscow, RU Chen Reiss soprano 01 April 2020 Christoph Willibald Gluck, Prague, CZ Semyon Bychkov conductor 02 April 2020 Ludwig van Beethoven 03 April 2020 Giovanni Antonini conductor 22 May 2020 Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Moscow, RU Dvořák 09 April 2020 Leoš Janáček Prague, CZ Semyon Bychkov conductor 15 April 2020 Kateřina Kněžíková soprano 17 April 2020 Peter Berger tenor Nanjing, CN CALENDAR Jaroslav Březina tenor 26 May 2020 Franz Schubert, Gustav Mahler CALENDAR Jarmila Balážová mezzo-soprano Chen Reiss soprano Jozef Benci bas Semyon Bychkov conductor Eva Urbanová soprano Aleš Briscein tenor 27 May 2020 Ludwig van Beethoven, Nanjing, CN Jiří Brückler baritone Antonín Dvořák Jitka Klečanská mezzo-soprano Semyon Bychkov conductor Romana Kružíková mezzo-soprano Opera Chorus of the 28 May 2020 Programme TBA Nanjing, CN National Theatre Semyon Bychkov conductor Pavel Vaněk choirmaster Prague Philharmonic Choir Lukáš Vasilek choirmaster 03 June 2020 Programme TBA Prague, CZ Jakub Hrůša conductor 04 June 2020 Conductor TBA

18 April 2020 PIRATES IN THE Prague, CZ RUDOLFINUM WITH A 11 June 2020 Ludwig van Beethoven, Prague, CZ CONCERT ON BOARD A SHIP 12 June 2020 Gustav Mahler Marko Ivanović conductor 13 June 2020 Rudolf Buchbinder piano Chen Reiss soprano 20 April 2020 Antonín Dvořák, Josef Suk, Hamburg, Semyon Bychkov conductor Leoš Janáček DE Daniel Müller-Schott cello 24 June 2020 OPEN AIR CONCERT Prague, CZ Jakub Hrůša conductor OF THE CZECH PHILHARMONIC Martin Grubinger percussion Wayne Marshall conductor

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