Pianist Ivo Kahánek is looking forward to the “specific energy” of the renowned Zurich Tonhalle orchestra, with whom he will perform this Friday, September 8, at the Prague Dvořák Festival. The renowned Swiss ensemble will accompany him during Ludwig van Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3. In it, the famous composer probably expressed his defiance towards fate the most, says Kahánek.
Forty-four-year-old Kahánek has recently focused mainly on Slavic authors. “Playing Beethoven is unusual for me in recent years. On the other hand, from a very young age, all pianists prove their qualities at various competitions and auditions, among other things at classical concerts, so everyone has experience with Beethoven in particular,” he says.
“Of course I have respect for Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto. But on the other hand, it is extremely refreshing, because classical music and especially composers like Beethoven or Bach and Mozart represent the basis of piano art,” he emphasizes.
Beethoven’s concert premiered on April 5, 1803 in the Vienna Theater. It did not turn out well, because it was preceded by a single rehearsal, during which Beethoven, appearing as a soloist, allegedly still wrote some passages. The concert was only helped to gain recognition by the second Viennese performance a year later, when the composer’s student Ferdinand Ries sat down at the piano.
The Dvořák Prague Festival starts this Thursday in Prague’s Rudolfinum. Kahanek is one of its traditional participants. “I appreciate it, because the level of the orchestras that go to this festival is usually top-notch. It’s only good that the metropolis has such a festival next to the Prague Spring. Healthy competition is stimulating for both sides and the listener benefits from it,” thinks the pianist.
On both opening nights, this Thursday and Friday, in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum, the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra will perform under the baton of its chief conductor Paavo Järvi, but each time with a different program and soloist. On Thursday, Russian cellist Anastasia Kobekin will perform Antonín Dvořák’s Concerto for Cello and Orchestra in B minor, followed by the composer’s New World Symphony. On Friday, Kahánk’s Beethoven will be played, and in the second half of the evening Anton Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony.
Director of the Prague Dvořák Festival, Jan Simon, and head of the organizing Academy of Classical Music, Robert Kolář. | Photo: CTK
The Swiss Ensemble, founded in 1868, had previously performed in Dvořák’s Prague, as well as in the Prague Spring. “With such outstanding orchestras, it’s always amazing to perceive the specific energy that each one of them has, which is a little different and which is their bonus. At this level, all the players have top quality, and at the Tonhalle it is further enhanced by music director Paavo Järvi,” notes Ivo Kahánek, which Tonhalle Zürich will accompany for the first time.
This year’s festival, which will last until September 25, pays tribute to Antonín Dvořák as well as Johannes Brahms. The work of the Czech author and native of Hamburg, whose birth has passed 190 years this year, will be connected on September 13 by a concert by the Vienna Philharmonic. Conducted by Jakub Hrůš, Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto with Russian soloist Igor Levit will be performed first, and then Dvořák’s Eighth Symphony. It will be one of the highlights of the show.
Among the world’s orchestras, the festival will also welcome the Israel Philharmonic with its chief conductor Lahav Shani and violinist Gil Shaham. She also performs twice. This Sunday, September 10, they will perform the Brahms Violin Concerto, followed a day later by the Double Concerto for Violin and Cello, in which Shaham will be joined by cellist Kian Soltani.
The Dvořák Collection program series will for the second time focus on complete performances of Dvořák’s string quartets. The filling will thus blend in with the chamber series. Under the curatorial supervision of members of the Pavel Haas Quartet, Dvořák’s compositions will be performed by the top Belcea Quartet or the Schumann Quartet. As part of the Chamber Series, the quartet will be expanded by clarinetist Sharon Kam or pianist Bertrand Chamayou.
As part of the Brahms series, listeners will hear the author’s First Piano Concerto performed by Paul Lewis. It will be played on September 25 at the end of the festival, accompanied by the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Petr Popelka.
On September 19, Tomáš Netopil (pictured) will conduct the Czech Philharmonic, which will accompany pianist Boris Giltburg. | Photo: Marco Borggreve
The resident orchestra of Dvořák’s Prague is the Czech Philharmonic again this year. It will be led by Sakari Oramo, Tomáš Netopil, and in the dual role of soloist and conductor, Sir András Schiff, who included the concert at the Prague show in his upcoming 70th birthday celebrations. The Budapest native will celebrate them in December.
The program series For the Future will offer the final rounds of the Concertino Praga competition in the chamber and solo categories and on September 17 a performance by scholarship holders of the Academy of Chamber Music with its artistic director Tomáš Jamník. Also this year, proceeds from the entrance fee will be donated to the Karel Komárek Family Foundation scholarship fund for talented young musicians.
Moreover, this year the festival is not purely musical. From this Friday, the public will be able to see a digital audiovisual installation called Dvořák Dreams by the American artist of Turkish origin Refik Anadol in front of the Rudolfinum. When creating the large-scale work, the author drew on the music and the composer’s biography.
According to the organizers, 15 thousand people visited the festival last year. The event, with a budget of approximately 64 million crowns, returned to the level of 2019 in terms of audience interest in tickets after two years of covid, the organizers said.
Video: Every singer faces a career break, says Pecková
“You give your best to your work. How many times do you sacrifice your family life, how many times do you give up your privacy,” says opera singer Dagmar Pecková in the Spotlight show. | Video: Jakub Zuzánek
