Brilliant young Czech maestro Jakub Hrůša returns to the MSO with Dvořák’s subtly scored orchestral ballad, The Wood Dove, based on a Czech legend of infatuation and murder in a rural village. A muted funeral march, a typical Dvořákian wedding dance and the tragic epilogue, relieved by the song of the wood dove. Ukranian-born Vadim Gluzman is a superb violinist of the Russian school and his interpretation of the beloved Tchaikovsky concerto with its fiery virtuosity and wistful poetry is not to be missed.

Mussorgsky’s wrote his famous memorial to his dear friend, the artist Victor Harmann in the form of a suite of piano pieces depicting the composer “roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly, in order to come closer to a picture that had attracted his attention, and at times sadly, thinking of his departed friend.”

Ravel was on his own mission when he orchestrated the suite in 1922. With a strong experimental impulse he introduces new sounds with the saxophone and celeste, and explores the outermost reaches of instrumental possibilities in his search for new colours and contrasts. Revel in Ravel’s great 20th century orchestral showpiece.

Time

(Monday) 6:30 pm

Location

Hamer Hall

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29jun7:30 pmMelbourne Symphony Orchestra - Melbourne, Australia7:30 pm Hamer Hall

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Featuring

Jakub Hrůša conductor
Vadim Gluzman violin

Program

Dvořák The Wood Dove
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition

About the performance

Brilliant young Czech maestro Jakub Hrůša returns to the MSO with Dvořák’s subtly scored orchestral ballad, The Wood Dove, based on a Czech legend of infatuation and murder in a rural village. A muted funeral march, a typical Dvořákian wedding dance and the tragic epilogue, relieved by the song of the wood dove. Ukranian-born Vadim Gluzman is a superb violinist of the Russian school and his interpretation of the beloved Tchaikovsky concerto with its fiery virtuosity and wistful poetry is not to be missed.

Mussorgsky’s wrote his famous memorial to his dear friend, the artist Victor Harmann in the form of a suite of piano pieces depicting the composer “roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly, in order to come closer to a picture that had attracted his attention, and at times sadly, thinking of his departed friend.”

Ravel was on his own mission when he orchestrated the suite in 1922. With a strong experimental impulse he introduces new sounds with the saxophone and celeste, and explores the outermost reaches of instrumental possibilities in his search for new colours and contrasts. Revel in Ravel’s great 20th century orchestral showpiece.

Time

(Saturday) 7:30 pm

Location

Hamer Hall

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28jun7:30 pmMelbourne Symphony Orchestra - Melbourne, Australia7:30 pm Hamer Hall

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Event Details

Featuring

Jakub Hrůša conductor
Vadim Gluzman violin

Program

Dvořák The Wood Dove
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Mussorgsky/Ravel Pictures at an Exhibition

About the performance

Brilliant young Czech maestro Jakub Hrůša returns to the MSO with Dvořák’s subtly scored orchestral ballad, The Wood Dove, based on a Czech legend of infatuation and murder in a rural village. A muted funeral march, a typical Dvořákian wedding dance and the tragic epilogue, relieved by the song of the wood dove. Ukranian-born Vadim Gluzman is a superb violinist of the Russian school and his interpretation of the beloved Tchaikovsky concerto with its fiery virtuosity and wistful poetry is not to be missed.

Mussorgsky’s wrote his famous memorial to his dear friend, the artist Victor Harmann in the form of a suite of piano pieces depicting the composer “roving through the exhibition, now leisurely, now briskly, in order to come closer to a picture that had attracted his attention, and at times sadly, thinking of his departed friend.”

Ravel was on his own mission when he orchestrated the suite in 1922. With a strong experimental impulse he introduces new sounds with the saxophone and celeste, and explores the outermost reaches of instrumental possibilities in his search for new colours and contrasts. Revel in Ravel’s great 20th century orchestral showpiece.

Time

(Friday) 7:30 pm

Location

Hamer Hall

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19jun8:00 pmDSO Berlin - Berlin, Germany8:00 pm Philharmonie Berlin

28may8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Hamburg, Germany8:00 pm Elbphilharmonie

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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«)

Time

(Tuesday) 8:00 pm

Location

Elbphilharmonie

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22may8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Lugano, Switzerland8:00 pm LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura

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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«)

Time

(Wednesday) 8:00 pm

Location

LAC Lugano Arte e Cultura

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20may8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Innsbruck, Austria8:00 pm Congress

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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«)

Time

(Monday) 8:00 pm

Location

Congress

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19may8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Zurich, Switzerland8:00 pm Tonhalle

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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«)

Time

(Sunday) 8:00 pm

Location

Tonhalle

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18may8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Baden-Baden, Germany8:00 pm Festspielhaus

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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«)

Time

(Saturday) 8:00 pm

Location

Festspielhaus

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16may7:30 pmPhilharmonia Orchestra - London, United Kingdom7:30 pm Royal Festival Hall

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Jakub Hrůša conductor

Karen Gomyo violin

SCHUBERT Symphony No. 8, Unfinished

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto

–interval–

BRAHMS Symphony No. 3

Immerse yourself in a programme of three great works of German Romanticism, conducted by the Philharmonia’s Principal Guest Conductor, Jakub Hrůša.

The two completed movements of Schubert’s Symphony No. 8 are an object lesson in orchestral writing. Opening with a whisper from cellos and double basses, the music bubbles up into what a critic at the first performance described as ‘a sweet stream of melodies… so crystal-clear that you can see every pebble on the bottom’.

Mendelssohn’s much-loved Violin Concerto, too, brims with lyricism. Mendelssohn wrote it for his childhood friend Ferdinand David, leader of the Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestra, and it quickly attained the status it retains today as one of the essential works in the violin repertoire.

Brahms was at the height of his powers when he composed his Third Symphony, no longer assailed by self-doubt as he was with his First (performed on 4 November 2018). He built into each movement the motif F – A flat – F, standing for his personal motto ‘Frei aber Froh’, ‘free but happy’, and created a masterpiece, full of intensity and drama as well as moments of quiet, reflective beauty.

Time

(Thursday) 7:30 pm

Location

Royal Festival Hall

Southbank Centre, Belvedere Rd, Lambeth, London SE1 8XX

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04may8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Bamberg, Germany8:00 pm Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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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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Time

(Saturday) 8:00 pm

Location

Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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03may8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Bamberg, Germany8:00 pm Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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Jakub Hrůša conducts Dvořák, Lundquist, Brahms and Glanert

Abo A / Schüler-Abo
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

Time

(Friday) 8:00 pm

Location

Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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27apr8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Bamberg, Germany8:00 pm Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

18apr7:00 pmBohuslav Martinu Philharmonic Zlín - Zlín, Czech Republic7:00 pm Zlín Congress Centre

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Leoš Janáček: The Cunning Little Vixen, Suite and two opera extracts (arranged by Jakub Hrůša)
Robert Schumann: Symphony no. 2 in C, Op. 61

Soloists:
Vixen: Kateřina Kněžíková, soprano
Fox: Alžběta Poláčková, soprano
Forester: Svatopluk Sem, baritone
BOHUSLAV MARTINŮ PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Conductor: Jakub Hrůša

Leoš Janáček’s three-act opera The Cunning Little Vixen is based on motifs of Rudolf Těsnohlídek’s tale of the same name which came out first in serial form in the newspaper ‘Lidové Noviny’ and subsequently in book form. Janáček wrote the opera, his seventh, from 1921-1923 and over time it has become one of his most frequently performed operas. In addition to its unprecedented melodic inventiveness, striking eloquence and correspondingly dramatic denouement, an interesting feature of the work is the characters’ use of fox dialect and the slang used by woodcutters in the Adamov area. Tonight the Orchestra performs the full suite and two extracts from the opera, with the solo parts sung by the Prague National Theatre’s Opera Company sopranos Kateřina Kněžíková and Alžběta Poláčková, and leading baritone and 2017 Thália Prize winner Svatopluk Sem.

The four symphonies written by Robert Schumann represent a conceptual link between those of Beethoven and Brahms. His third C-major symphony was completed in 1846 but is designated Symphony no. 2 because Schumann revised the original second symphony in D minor a few years after it was written. Opus 61, as performed by the Orchestra tonight, is the result of Schumann’s strong yearning from within to extricate himself from a creative crisis of sorts and redeem some of his earlier less successful compositions.

Both tonight’s works are played by the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic under the baton of Jakub Hrůša, who is justly recognised as one of the world’s top-flight conductors.

Time

(Thursday) 7:00 pm

Location

Zlín Congress Centre

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14apr3:00 pmNHK Symphony Orchestra - Tokyo, Japan3:00 pm NHK Hall

13apr6:00 pmNHK Symphony Orchestra - Tokyo, Japan6:00 pm NHK Hall

06apr8:00 pmChicago Symphony Orchestra - Chicago, USA8:00 pm Chicago Symphony Orchestra

05apr1:30 pmChicago Symphony Orchestra - Chicago, USA1:30 pm Chicago Symphony Orchestra

04apr8:00 pmChicago Symphony Orchestra - Chicago, USA8:00 pm Chicago Symphony Orchestra

31mar3:00 pmSt. Louis Symphony Orchestra - St. Louis, USA3:00 pm Powell Hall

30mar8:00 pmSt. Louis Symphony Orchestra - St. Louis, USA8:00 pm Powell Hall

29mar8:00 pmSt. Louis Symphony Orchestra - St. Louis, USA8:00 pm Powell Hall

22mar8:00 pmLeipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra - Leipzig, Germany8:00 pm Grosser Saal, Gewandhaus

21mar8:00 pmLeipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra - Leipzig, Germany8:00 pm Grosser Saal, Gewandhaus

10mar7:30 pmWiener Symphoniker - Vienna, Austria7:30 pm Wien Konzerthaus

08mar7:30 pmWiener Symphoniker - Vienna, Austria7:30 pm Wien Konzerthaus

23feb6:00 pmOrchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Rome, Italy6:00 pm Sala Santa Cecilia

22feb8:30 pmOrchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Rome, Italy8:30 pm Sala Santa Cecilia

21feb7:30 pmOrchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia - Rome, Italy7:30 pm Sala Santa Cecilia

17feb7:30 pmPhilharmonia Orchestra - London, United Kingdom7:30 pm Royal Festival Hall

15feb8:30 pmBamberg Symphony - Paris, France8:30 pm Philharmonie

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With Jakub Hrůša in Paris

Paris, Philharmonie
20:30 Uhr

In 1896, Gustav Mahler wrote to Anna von Mildenburg, with whom he was having a passionate love affair, that he was working on a composition meant »to reflect the entire world«: »One is, so to speak, only the instrument on which the universe is playing.« Mahler’s Third Symphony, which featured in our December concerts, now returns to our programmes – including that of our guest performance in the Philharmonie de Paris. It is a masterly »symphonic tale«. According to Theodor W. Adorno, Mahler wrote musical novels. His Third Symphony is a kind of evolutionary history in music: starting with primeval nature, its development finally culminates in a great song of love. The whole thing takes over 100 minutes – longer than anything written until then. The opening movement alone, in which Mahler wakens Pan and summer, lasts over half an hour – leading a horrified Viennese critic to write: »The man deserves a couple of years in gaol for this.« But Mahler was simply an inspired creator of musical images – and his Third Symphony is a wonderful example of this. He himself wrote: »All of nature is given a voice in it, telling secrets so deep that we perhaps sense them in dreams!« Mahler had the ability to lose himself in these worlds of dreams with their trials and tribulations and then catapult them to the surface of his music – using a vast orchestra and additional voices. Come with us as we embark on a musical journey through this panopticon of life and nature!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Bernarda Fink Alto
Damen und Kinder des Chors des Orchestre de Paris Chorus

Gustav Mahler Symphonie Nr. 3 d-Moll

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Time

(Friday) 8:30 pm

Location

Philharmonie

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10feb5:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Bamberg, Germany5:00 pm Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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Jakub Hrůša conducts the last three symphonies of W. A. Mozart

Bamberg, Konzerthalle, Joseph-Keilberth-Saal
17:00 Uhr

Many aspects of Mozart’s life seem like a marvellous tale. At five years of age, he was already an excellent pianist and sometimes would play blindfold as an additional attraction. He also composed more or less non-stop, sometimes »helter-skelter« – whether in his carriage or during mealtimes. When he died at the early age of 35, he left behind over 600 compositions – using up more than eight kilometres of music paper! This year’s Mozart project will culminate in the performance his three last symphonies in one evening. For many, these symphonies are the epitome of Mozart’s world; his individual instrumentation and melodic inventiveness fill them with life and expressive power. For Mozart, his work was just a normal job: »You need to work hard and perform well in order to escape dependency.« Over the course of his life, this is exactly what he managed to achieve: for a long period of time, he was dependent on his commissioners. However, the three symphonies he wrote in 1788 in only two months were produced for no apparent external reason and with no prospect of being performed – at a time when the fame he had recently gained in Vienna was already beginning to fade, leaving him to make his way (not very successfully) as a freelance artist. These three last contributions to the genre mark the culmination of his symphonic compositions. In performing these milestones, we are taking up an idea of the great Mozart conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who saw these symphonies as a unit and performed all three one after another without an interval, like a great symphony of Brucknerian dimensions. Listen closely: doesn’t Symphony no. 40 begin as quietly, as furtively as one of Bruckner’s slow middle movements?

Jakub Hrůša Conductor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 39 Es-Dur KV 543
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 40 g-Moll KV 550
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 41 C-Dur KV 551 »Jupiter«

Time

(Sunday) 5:00 pm

Location

Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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09feb7:30 pmBamberg Symphony - Schweinfurt, Germany7:30 pm Theater der Stadt

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Jakub Hrůša conducts the last three symphonies of W. A. Mozart

Schweinfurt, Theater
19:30 Uhr

Many aspects of Mozart’s life seem like a marvellous tale. At five years of age, he was already an excellent pianist and sometimes would play blindfold as an additional attraction. He also composed more or less non-stop, sometimes »helter-skelter« – whether in his carriage or during mealtimes. When he died at the early age of 35, he left behind over 600 compositions – using up more than eight kilometres of music paper! This year’s Mozart project will culminate in the performance his three last symphonies in one evening. For many, these symphonies are the epitome of Mozart’s world; his individual instrumentation and melodic inventiveness fill them with life and expressive power. For Mozart, his work was just a normal job: »You need to work hard and perform well in order to escape dependency.« Over the course of his life, this is exactly what he managed to achieve: for a long period of time, he was dependent on his commissioners. However, the three symphonies he wrote in 1788 in only two months were produced for no apparent external reason and with no prospect of being performed – at a time when the fame he had recently gained in Vienna was already beginning to fade, leaving him to make his way (not very successfully) as a freelance artist. These three last contributions to the genre mark the culmination of his symphonic compositions. In performing these milestones, we are taking up an idea of the great Mozart conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, who saw these symphonies as a unit and performed all three one after another without an interval, like a great symphony of Brucknerian dimensions. Listen closely: doesn’t Symphony no. 40 begin as quietly, as furtively as one of Bruckner’s slow middle movements?

Jakub Hrůša Conductor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 39 Es-Dur KV 543
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 40 g-Moll KV 550
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 41 C-Dur KV 551 »Jupiter«

Time

(Saturday) 7:30 pm

Location

Theater der Stadt

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05feb8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Erlangen, Germany8:00 pm Heinrich-Lades-Halle

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Jakub Hrůša conducts Mozart and Mendelssohn Bartholdy

Erlangen, Heinrich-Lades-Halle
20:00 Uhr

Wondrous enchantment of the faery realm! While composing his outstanding violin concerto, Mendelssohn said: »I sense that with each piece, I am getting closer to writing precisely what I feel in my heart.« The concerto was soon described as an »evergreen«: it was written in 1844 during a happy summer holiday in Bad Soden in the Taunus. In his letters, Mendelssohn waxed lyrical about the many flowers, the unbelievable pear and apple trees and century-old oaks. He produced a work with numerous magical melodies, full of scintillating drama and elvish romance. Mendelssohn dedicated the concerto to Ferdinand David, who promised that he would »practice it so well that the angels in heaven will rejoice«. Not only the angels will rejoice to hear our soloist Serge Zimmermann’s masterful interpretation! Our concerts will combine Mendelssohn’s concerto with Mozart’s popular last symphonies, which were written in a veritable creative frenzy during a time of great financial difficulty. Despite these obstacles, Mozart created musical milestones and a »divine legacy« for those that followed after him. The symphonies give musical expression to a range of different emotions – including unrest, passion and agitation, lamentation and despair. Under our principal conductor’s baton, we will also be bringing a famous »Punch« character of Russian popular theatre to the concert stage: Stravinsky took the »terrible confusion« of the tragicomic tale of Petrushka as the basis for a ballet with numerous stylised folk melodies, a large dash of irony and a brilliantly sophisticated sound palette – and the suite is likewise a true symphonic »play about the eternal misfortunes of the fairground hero«!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Serge Zimmermann Violin

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 40 g-Moll KV 550
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Konzert für Violine und Orchester e-Moll op. 64
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 41 C-Dur KV 551 »Jupiter«

Time

(Tuesday) 8:00 pm

Location

Heinrich-Lades-Halle

Rathausplatz, 91052 Erlangen, Germany

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04feb8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Wiesbaden, Germany8:00 pm Kurhaus Wiesbaden

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Jakub Hrůša and Serge Zimmermann in Wiesbaden

20:00 Uhr

Wondrous enchantment of the faery realm! While composing his outstanding violin concerto, Mendelssohn said: »I sense that with each piece, I am getting closer to writing precisely what I feel in my heart.« The concerto was soon described as an »evergreen«: it was written in 1844 during a happy summer holiday in Bad Soden in the Taunus. In his letters, Mendelssohn waxed lyrical about the many flowers, the unbelievable pear and apple trees and century-old oaks. He produced a work with numerous magical melodies, full of scintillating drama and elvish romance. Mendelssohn dedicated the concerto to Ferdinand David, who promised that he would »practice it so well that the angels in heaven will rejoice«. Not only the angels will rejoice to hear our soloist Serge Zimmermann’s masterful interpretation! Our concerts will combine Mendelssohn’s concerto with Mozart’s popular last symphonies, which were written in a veritable creative frenzy during a time of great financial difficulty. Despite these obstacles, Mozart created musical milestones and a »divine legacy« for those that followed after him. The symphonies give musical expression to a range of different emotions – including unrest, passion and agitation, lamentation and despair. Under our principal conductor’s baton, we will also be bringing a famous »Punch« character of Russian popular theatre to the concert stage: Stravinsky took the »terrible confusion« of the tragicomic tale of Petrushka as the basis for a ballet with numerous stylised folk melodies, a large dash of irony and a brilliantly sophisticated sound palette – and the suite is likewise a true symphonic »play about the eternal misfortunes of the fairground hero«!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Serge Zimmermann Violin

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 40 g-Moll KV 550
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Konzert für Violine und Orchester e-Moll op. 64
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 41 C-Dur KV 551 »Jupiter«

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Time

(Monday) 8:00 pm

Location

Kurhaus Wiesbaden

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02feb8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Bamberg, Germany8:00 pm Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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Jakub Hrůša conducts Mozart, Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Strawinski

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

Wondrous enchantment of the faery realm! While composing his outstanding violin concerto, Mendelssohn said: »I sense that with each piece, I am getting closer to writing precisely what I feel in my heart.« The concerto was soon described as an »evergreen«: it was written in 1844 during a happy summer holiday in Bad Soden in the Taunus. In his letters, Mendelssohn waxed lyrical about the many flowers, the unbelievable pear and apple trees and century-old oaks. He produced a work with numerous magical melodies, full of scintillating drama and elvish romance. Mendelssohn dedicated the concerto to Ferdinand David, who promised that he would »practice it so well that the angels in heaven will rejoice«. Not only the angels will rejoice to hear our soloist Serge Zimmermann’s masterful interpretation! Our concerts will combine Mendelssohn’s concerto with Mozart’s popular last symphonies, which were written in a veritable creative frenzy during a time of great financial difficulty. Despite these obstacles, Mozart created musical milestones and a »divine legacy« for those that followed after him. The symphonies give musical expression to a range of different emotions – including unrest, passion and agitation, lamentation and despair. Under our principal conductor’s baton, we will also be bringing a famous »Punch« character of Russian popular theatre to the concert stage: Stravinsky took the »terrible confusion« of the tragicomic tale of Petrushka as the basis for a ballet with numerous stylised folk melodies, a large dash of irony and a brilliantly sophisticated sound palette – and the suite is likewise a true symphonic »play about the eternal misfortunes of the fairground hero«!

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Serge Zimmermann Violin

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 40 g-Moll KV 550
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Konzert für Violine und Orchester e-Moll op. 64
Igor Strawinski »Petruschka« (Fassung 1947)

Time

(Saturday) 8:00 pm

Location

Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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24jan7:30 pmCzech Philharmonic - Prague, Czech Republic7:30 pm Rudolfinum Dvorak Hall

23jan7:30 pmCzech Philharmonic - Prague, Czech Republic7:30 pm Rudolfinum Dvorak Hall

19jan8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Bamberg, Germany8:00 pm Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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Jakub Hrůša conducts Copland, Martinů and Mozart

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

In this concert, we will be welcoming two notable soloists as our virtuoso storytellers! This year’s featured artist, Martin Fröst, will play the Clarinet Concerto by Aaron Copland – a key figure of American music, a music that always »speaks of the universal«. Listening to the luxuriant concerto, one can tell that Copland also wrote the scores for a number of films. This work was written for the legendary clarinettist Benny Goodman – and thus combines jazz elements with symphonic traits in a congenial manner. The Czech composer Martinů said of his Fourth Piano Concerto: »The artist is always searching for the meaning of life, that of his own life and that of humanity, searching for truth.« Martinů wrote this splendidly colourful work, which Ivo Kahánek will interpret for us, in 1956 during his exile in America. It bears the epithet »Incantation«, using magical spells to conjure up far-off worlds in its strikingly dramatic music. Martinů also said the following: »It is absolutely clear to me what our contemporary music is lacking: a Mozart!« We will conclude by paying tribute to Viennese classicism: Mozart wrote his three last symphonies in an incredibly brief period of just under ten weeks – a phase during which he was struggling with considerable financial difficulties. However, none of the works reveals much despair, and the »Jupiter« symphony was even praised as the »greatest triumph of instrumental composition«. Nobody really knows where its later title comes from, however. One biographer wrote: »Perhaps an excellent literary scholar – maybe even a journalist – gave it this name, which did not contain any kind of ‘programme’, of course, but referred to a characteristic. But why should we not be allowed to think of a god of the ancient world when entering this musical landscape?«

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Martin Fröst Clarinet
Ivo Kahánek Piano

Aaron Copland Konzert für Klarinette und Orchester
Bohuslav Martinů Konzert für Klavier und Orchester Nr. 4 »Incantation«
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 41 C-Dur KV 551 »Jupiter«

Time

(Saturday) 8:00 pm

Location

Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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18jan8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Bamberg, Germany8:00 pm Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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Jakub Hrůša conducts Copland, Martinů and Mozart

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

In this concert, we will be welcoming two notable soloists as our virtuoso storytellers! This year’s featured artist, Martin Fröst, will play the Clarinet Concerto by Aaron Copland – a key figure of American music, a music that always »speaks of the universal«. Listening to the luxuriant concerto, one can tell that Copland also wrote the scores for a number of films. This work was written for the legendary clarinettist Benny Goodman – and thus combines jazz elements with symphonic traits in a congenial manner. The Czech composer Martinů said of his Fourth Piano Concerto: »The artist is always searching for the meaning of life, that of his own life and that of humanity, searching for truth.« Martinů wrote this splendidly colourful work, which Ivo Kahánek will interpret for us, in 1956 during his exile in America. It bears the epithet »Incantation«, using magical spells to conjure up far-off worlds in its strikingly dramatic music. Martinů also said the following: »It is absolutely clear to me what our contemporary music is lacking: a Mozart!« We will conclude by paying tribute to Viennese classicism: Mozart wrote his three last symphonies in an incredibly brief period of just under ten weeks – a phase during which he was struggling with considerable financial difficulties. However, none of the works reveals much despair, and the »Jupiter« symphony was even praised as the »greatest triumph of instrumental composition«. Nobody really knows where its later title comes from, however. One biographer wrote: »Perhaps an excellent literary scholar – maybe even a journalist – gave it this name, which did not contain any kind of ‘programme’, of course, but referred to a characteristic. But why should we not be allowed to think of a god of the ancient world when entering this musical landscape?«

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Martin Fröst Clarinet
Ivo Kahánek Piano

Aaron Copland Konzert für Klarinette und Orchester
Bohuslav Martinů Konzert für Klavier und Orchester Nr. 4 »Incantation«
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 41 C-Dur KV 551 »Jupiter«

Time

(Friday) 8:00 pm

Location

Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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12jan8:00 pmNew York Philharmonic - New York, USA8:00 pm David Geffen Hall

11jan2:00 pmNew York Philharmonic - New York, USA2:00 pm David Geffen Hall

10jan7:30 pmNew York Philharmonic - New York, USA7:30 pm David Geffen Hall

30dec8:00 pmBamberg Symphony - Bamberg, Germany8:00 pm Konzert- und Kongresshalle Bamberg

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With Jakub Hrůša and Martin Fröst in Berlin

Berlin, Konzerthaus
20:00 Uhr

These concerts will start with a real orchestral hit about »Jupiter«, the Greek father of the gods. Mozart’s last symphony is a radiant work that portrays the entire gamut of emotions in music, from intense introspection and the passionate anguish of grief to the noble, solemn tones of the tremendous final fugue. We will also be staging a symphonic puppet show: Stravinsky’s »Petrushka«! Every Russian child knows the puppet Petrushka, who is brought to life by a magician’s flute: a life in which he loves, suffers and dies as if he were not an inanimate doll, but a flesh-and-blood human being. In between these two »symphonic tales«, Martin Fröst will interpret the outstanding clarinet concerto by Aaron Copland, whose works are always marked by a combination of both instinct and keen intellect, by a sense for musical effect and joy in experiment. Much like Stravinsky, the Brooklyn-born composer was a »young rebel« who went to live in Paris during the 1920s, a sojourn that was source of many important ideas and much inspiration. After returning to America, Copland also worked in film. He wrote his captivating clarinet concerto with its extensive cadenzas for jazz legend Benny Goodman. In it, we hear what Copland was always striving to create: a music »that is instantly recognisable as American in nature«. And thus he created a congenial combination of jazz and the symphonic – including a melody in the expressive first movement originally written for the documentary film »The Cummington Story«, a tale about Eastern European refugees who find a temporary home in a small American town.

Jakub Hrůša Conductor
Martin Fröst Clarinet

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Symphonie Nr. 41 C-Dur KV 551 »Jupiter«
Aaron Copland Konzert für Klarinette und Orchester
Igor Strawinski »Petruschka« (Fassung 1947)