With Jakub Hrůša at the Elbphilharmonie

Hamburg, Elbphilharmonie
20:00 Uhr

We visited the Elbphilharmonie for the first time last season, giving a tremendous concert performance of »Don Giovanni« in its entirety, which inspired a critic to write: »Every bar breathes and throbs. One would probably have to think back decades rather than years to remember the last time Hamburg enjoyed such a musically satisfying evening of Mozart opera.« We are very excited to have been invited back, and this time will be performing one of our signature works: Smetana’s »Má vlast (My Fatherland)«, a picture book brimming with musical images from our Bohemian homeland, which thus forms a perfect match for our motto of »symphonic tales«. Albrecht Mayer, who was our solo oboist for many years and is now thrilling audiences across the globe, will accompany us to the city on the Elbe. He will interpret Richard Strauss’s Oboe Concerto, which is a real rarity in the oeuvre of this master of the symphonic poem: Strauss regarded the solo concerto as an old-fashioned genre too closely associated with the age of »hyped-up virtuosos«. Despite this, he succeeded in producing an exciting and indeed highly virtuoso work! He composed it shortly after the Second World War – at the suggestion of an American soldier, as legend would have it. He referred to it ironically as a »wrist exercise«, written »to chase away the boredom of leisurely hours, as one cannot spend all day playing skat.« He also said while composing it: »I’m not working, I’m amusing myself!« The result was a supreme achievement: in the concerto, one scene is followed by the next – and the oboe slips from one role into another, like in a masque!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Albrecht Mayer Oboe

Richard Strauss Konzert für Oboe und kleines Orchester D-Dur
Bedřich Smetana »Mà vlast« (»Mein Vaterland«)

With Jakub Hrůša in Lugano

Lugano, LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura
20:00 Uhr

»A story well told turns ears into eyes.« Together with our principal conductor Jakub Hrůša, on our tour we will be leafing through the most famous musical picture-book of our Bohemian homeland: the cycle »Má vlast (My Fatherland)« is a national epic written by Smetana, whose life was full of struggle, suffering and pain. He experienced the greatest possible blow to a musician, going completely deaf. Desperate, he wrote that he could »hear neither speaking nor playing nor singing«: »The internal mechanism – this marvellous claviature of our internal organism – is impaired, out of tune, the hammers are jammed, and no tuner has hitherto been able to repair the keyboard.« After losing his hearing, he was no longer able to give concerts but could still compose, as he was able to imagine the »notes in his mind« and hear them »internally, as if in a dream«. Despite his cruel lot, he thus conjured up the legend-filled history of his people in »Má vlast« in a fascinating manner. The individual scenes of these six »symphonic tales« take vivid shape before the audience’s eyes: the memory of the royal castle Vyšehrad’s glorious past, sung of by a minstrel, the rustling of the Bohemian forests and the moving beauty of the open countryside. Legendary characters are brought to life: the fierce Amazon Šárka, the brave Hussites and the army of knights led by St. Wenceslas slumbering in the legendary mountain Blaník. The Vltava flows freely from its mountain source, past mermaids dancing in the silent moonlit night and a country wedding, then on to the towers and bridges of Prague – before becoming lost in the lowland plains. This masterpiece by Smetana truly »turns ears into eyes«!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor

Bedřich Smetana »Mà vlast« (»Mein Vaterland«)

With Jakub Hrůša in Innsbruck

Innsbruck, Congress
20:00 Uhr

»A story well told turns ears into eyes.« Together with our principal conductor Jakub Hrůša, on our tour we will be leafing through the most famous musical picture-book of our Bohemian homeland: the cycle »Má vlast (My Fatherland)« is a national epic written by Smetana, whose life was full of struggle, suffering and pain. He experienced the greatest possible blow to a musician, going completely deaf. Desperate, he wrote that he could »hear neither speaking nor playing nor singing«: »The internal mechanism – this marvellous claviature of our internal organism – is impaired, out of tune, the hammers are jammed, and no tuner has hitherto been able to repair the keyboard.« After losing his hearing, he was no longer able to give concerts but could still compose, as he was able to imagine the »notes in his mind« and hear them »internally, as if in a dream«. Despite his cruel lot, he thus conjured up the legend-filled history of his people in »Má vlast« in a fascinating manner. The individual scenes of these six »symphonic tales« take vivid shape before the audience’s eyes: the memory of the royal castle Vyšehrad’s glorious past, sung of by a minstrel, the rustling of the Bohemian forests and the moving beauty of the open countryside. Legendary characters are brought to life: the fierce Amazon Šárka, the brave Hussites and the army of knights led by St. Wenceslas slumbering in the legendary mountain Blaník. The Vltava flows freely from its mountain source, past mermaids dancing in the silent moonlit night and a country wedding, then on to the towers and bridges of Prague – before becoming lost in the lowland plains. This masterpiece by Smetana truly »turns ears into eyes«!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor

Bedřich Smetana »Mà vlast« (»Mein Vaterland«)

With Jakub Hrůša in Zürich

Zürich, Tonhalle
20:00 Uhr

»A story well told turns ears into eyes.« Together with our principal conductor Jakub Hrůša, on our tour we will be leafing through the most famous musical picture-book of our Bohemian homeland: the cycle »Má vlast (My Fatherland)« is a national epic written by Smetana, whose life was full of struggle, suffering and pain. He experienced the greatest possible blow to a musician, going completely deaf. Desperate, he wrote that he could »hear neither speaking nor playing nor singing«: »The internal mechanism – this marvellous claviature of our internal organism – is impaired, out of tune, the hammers are jammed, and no tuner has hitherto been able to repair the keyboard.« After losing his hearing, he was no longer able to give concerts but could still compose, as he was able to imagine the »notes in his mind« and hear them »internally, as if in a dream«. Despite his cruel lot, he thus conjured up the legend-filled history of his people in »Má vlast« in a fascinating manner. The individual scenes of these six »symphonic tales« take vivid shape before the audience’s eyes: the memory of the royal castle Vyšehrad’s glorious past, sung of by a minstrel, the rustling of the Bohemian forests and the moving beauty of the open countryside. Legendary characters are brought to life: the fierce Amazon Šárka, the brave Hussites and the army of knights led by St. Wenceslas slumbering in the legendary mountain Blaník. The Vltava flows freely from its mountain source, past mermaids dancing in the silent moonlit night and a country wedding, then on to the towers and bridges of Prague – before becoming lost in the lowland plains. This masterpiece by Smetana truly »turns ears into eyes«!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor

Bedřich Smetana »Mà vlast« (»Mein Vaterland«)

With Jakub Hrůša in Baden-Baden

Baden-Baden, Festspielhaus
20:00 Uhr

»A story well told turns ears into eyes.« Together with our principal conductor Jakub Hrůša, on our tour we will be leafing through the most famous musical picture-book of our Bohemian homeland: the cycle »Má vlast (My Fatherland)« is a national epic written by Smetana, whose life was full of struggle, suffering and pain. He experienced the greatest possible blow to a musician, going completely deaf. Desperate, he wrote that he could »hear neither speaking nor playing nor singing«: »The internal mechanism – this marvellous claviature of our internal organism – is impaired, out of tune, the hammers are jammed, and no tuner has hitherto been able to repair the keyboard.« After losing his hearing, he was no longer able to give concerts but could still compose, as he was able to imagine the »notes in his mind« and hear them »internally, as if in a dream«. Despite his cruel lot, he thus conjured up the legend-filled history of his people in »Má vlast« in a fascinating manner. The individual scenes of these six »symphonic tales« take vivid shape before the audience’s eyes: the memory of the royal castle Vyšehrad’s glorious past, sung of by a minstrel, the rustling of the Bohemian forests and the moving beauty of the open countryside. Legendary characters are brought to life: the fierce Amazon Šárka, the brave Hussites and the army of knights led by St. Wenceslas slumbering in the legendary mountain Blaník. The Vltava flows freely from its mountain source, past mermaids dancing in the silent moonlit night and a country wedding, then on to the towers and bridges of Prague – before becoming lost in the lowland plains. This masterpiece by Smetana truly »turns ears into eyes«!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor

Bedřich Smetana »Mà vlast« (»Mein Vaterland«)

Jakub Hrůša conducts Dvořák, Lundquist, Brahms and Glanert

Abo D
Bamberg, Konzerthalle, Joseph-Keilberth-Saal
20:00 Uhr

Not every story has a happy ending! For his symphonic poem, Dvořák selected a subject-matter from his fellow countryman Karel Jaromír Erben’s ballad collection »Kytice«: the »Wood Pigeon« is based upon an old Bohemian legend about the feigned sorrow of a woman who murdered her husband to marry her lover. The pigeon’s song becomes the voice of her conscience, accusing her ceaselessly until she kills herself in despair. A funeral march runs through the entire tone poem – although Dvořák brings the piece to a conciliatory conclusion. After this, an instrument only rarely in the spotlight will make a grand appearance: our orchestra’s tuba player, Heiko Triebener, will interpret the multifaceted concerto »Landscape« by Torbjörn Ivan Lundquist. In his works, the Swedish composer was always concerned with »the essence of life; not to escape reality, but to reinstate it.« His tuba concerto is a fascinating and virtuoso exploration of the specific sound of the lowest brass instrument. Lundquist was struck with the idea for this piece on the west coast of Sweden: »The title alludes to the ideal state of nature or a landscape before its ecological balance is disturbed – and this also applies metaphorically to the inner ‘landscape’ of human beings.« Brahms’s Second Symphony was also shaped by the experience of nature: drafted during a summer on the Wörthersee, it is occasionally referred to as his »Pastoral Symphony«. Many of its passages seem to be flooded with sunlight, like the place it was written – but the composer also warned a friend: »You will never have heard anything filled with greater Weltschmerz.« To conclude, we will be performing a brand new work by the musical magician Detlev Glanert, whose music is always moving. We can all look forward to the premiere of his »angry« Allegro!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Heiko Triebener Tuba

Antonín Dvořák »Die Waldtaube«, Symphonische Dichtung op. 110
Torbjörn Iwan Lundquist »Landscape« für Tuba und Streicher
Johannes Brahms Symphony No. 2 D major op. 73
Detlev Glanert encore! Uraufführung einer Zugabe

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