Composers Antonín Dvořák and Johannes Brahms will be commemorated at this year’s Dvořák Prague festival, which will take place in the Rudolfinum from September 7 to 25. The work of the famous Czech author and his German colleague, whose birth has passed 100 years this year, will be connected on September 13 by a concert by the famous 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.
“Brahms is a really essential person for Dvořák’s artistic growth, because he recommended his works to his publisher Fritz Simrock,” says Jan Simon, pianist and director of Dvořák’s Prague. “It ensured publicity and accessibility for Dvořák. An author who doesn’t have a publisher can have a great invention, but if his work is not distributed, his life is much more complicated,” he adds.
As usual, Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and New World Symphony will be played at the opening ceremony on September 7. This year, they will be performed by the Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra with its music director, the renowned conductor Paav Järvi. Russian cellist Anastasia Kobekinová will perform the solo part.
At the invitation of the organizers, the Israel Philharmonic will come to the metropolis with its chief conductor Lahav Shani and violinist Gil Shaham. He performs twice. On Sunday, September 10, they will perform Brahms’s 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.
Violinist Gil Shaham will be accompanied by the Israel Philharmonic. | Photo: Chris Lee
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.
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 called For the Future will focus on the upcoming generation. It will offer the final rounds of the Concertino Praga competition in the chamber and solo categories, and on September 17 a performance by fellows of the Academy of Chamber Music under the direction of Tomáš Jamník.
After last year’s premiere, Dvořák Prague will return to the foyer of the Bořislavka Center, an office and shopping center built by the KKCG Real Estate Group of businessman Karel Komárek, who is sponsoring the festival, with a series of four early evening concerts. Also this year, proceeds from the entrance fee will be donated to the Komárka family’s scholarship fund for talented musicians.
The Bethlehem Chapel will become the venue for the concerts of the new program series Academic Cycle, on which the organizers cooperate with the Czech Technical University in Prague. The goal is to encourage interest in classical music among students and teachers.
Festival director Jan Simon. | Photo: CTK
Last year’s fifteenth edition of the festival featured 15 concerts in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum and another 15 performances or accompanying events elsewhere. According to the organizers, 15 thousand people came. After two years of covid, the festival returned to the level of the last pre-pandemic year 2019 in terms of audience interest.
The sixty million dollar budget of Dvořák’s Prague is supported by the main patron, the Karel Komárek Family Foundation, the Ministry of Culture, the Prague Municipality and private donors. The grant from the Ministry of Culture this year amounts to 17.9 million crowns, Prague provided 7.5 million crowns. More than half of the budget is artist fees and accommodation costs.
“Without financial support, no classical music festival could exist in the European context,” repeated this year Robert Kolář, head of the Academy of Classical Music, which organizes Dvořák’s Prague.
Also according to Jan Simon, it is only exceptionally that the entrance fee covers almost the entire fee costs. This usually happens in the case of recitals or chamber performances. “The only projects that are self-financing are touring sports halls, but that’s a concept that’s basically impossible in classical music, with absolute exceptions,” pointed out Simon.
For example, for the most anticipated concert of this year, the performance of the Vienna Philharmonic, tickets cost from 1,990 to 5,490 crowns each. However, if the organizers were to finance it only from the entrance fee, tickets would have to cost up to 9,000 kroner each, even if the Dvořák Hall was 100% full, warned Robert Kolář. According to him, such events would be more likely only for the rich.
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 program. | Video: Jakub Zuzánek
