In the next 128th season, the Czech Philharmonic intends to reflect on the projects called the Year of Czech Music and Smetana 200. It will open the new season in Prague’s Rudolfinum on September 27 with works by Antonín Dvořák, in addition to chief conductor Semjon Byčkov, it will regularly perform with the two principal guest conductors Jakub Hrůša and Tomáš Netopil, management announced.
“The Czech Philharmonic is looking forward to the new season, because it will be more marked by Czech music because of 2024, when there are many anniversaries of Czech composers. This fall, we will open the season with a big Dvořák program,” announces general director David Mareček.
Among the season’s most dazzling guests is Sir Antonio Pappano, whose conducting debut with the Czech Philharmonic at November’s special concerts will include Johannes Brahms’ Nänie, Mendelssohn’s Violin Concerto and the second movement of Dvořák’s Slavic Dances. Conductors Simon Rattle, Giovanni Antonini and Franz Welser-Möst will return to the first Czech orchestra next season. Tugan Sochijev and Nicholas Kraemer will make their debut.
Director of the Czech Philharmonic, David Mareček. | Photo: CTK
Violinist Janine Jansenová, pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard and Emanuel Ax or pianist Wang Jüťia will perform again with the Philharmonic, as well as Czech artists such as violinists Josef Špaček and Jiří Vodička or pianist Lukáš Vondráček.
From the beginning of the season, chief conductor Semjon Byčkov will present nine concerts dedicated exclusively to the works of Antonín Dvořák, the soloists will be violinist Augustin Hadelich, cellist Pablo Ferrández and resident artist of the season, pianist András Schiff. The Year of Czech Music 2024 project will then open a New Year’s gala concert under the baton of Jakub Hrůš, composed of works by Czech artists. Violinist Jiří Vodička will perform as a soloist. Two concert performances of operas will be other important events in the year-long cycle celebrating domestic music: Tomáš Netopil will prepare Bohuslav Martinů’s one-act play Ariadne, Jakub Hrůša will stage The Tales of the Vixen Bystrouska by Leoš Janáček.
On November 16 and 17, Concerts for Freedom and Democracy will take place with works by Johannes Brahms, Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and Dvořák. At the beginning of May, the ensemble will symbolically celebrate the twentieth anniversary of the Czech Republic’s entry into the European Union with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony.
In March next year, the orchestra will commemorate Bedřich Smetana’s 200th birthday with the release of a new recording of My Homeland. He will play this cycle with Tomáš Netopil at the Smetanova Litomyšl festival in July. There, the conductor Hrůš with the Czech Philharmonic will perform Smetana’s opening concert and Smetana’s Libuša. The Prague season of the Czech Philharmonic will end on June 26 next year with an open-air concert on Hradčanské náměstí, where Petr Altrichter will present other compositions by Czech composers in a vocal-instrumental program.
Among the foreign tours, the first Czech orchestra is awaiting a tour to South Korea and Japan, and in the spring of 2024 to Spain, Belgium, France, Austria and Germany. The project culminates at the end of the year in the USA with three performances at New York’s famous Carnegie Hall. Dvořák’s Symphonies No. 7, 8 and 9 and three concert overtures will be recorded by the orchestra with Semjon Byčkov for the Pentatone publishing house.
The contribution organization of the Ministry of Culture, the Czech Philharmonic, manages 400 to 450 million crowns a year. According to CEO David Mareček, it has seen an increase in sponsors and private partners, whose share has increased from five to 15 percent. The general partner of the orchestra is ČEZ, the global partner of PPF.
