During a concert called “Jazz Inspirations”, which took place on 4th February at Reduta concert hall in Olomouc, the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra gave world premiere of Zdenek Merta’s Century Dance. The trumpet concerto, which the author describes as a classic crossover piece, is in fact a symphonic transcription of five distinctive dances of the 20th century. The movements are … Read more
The Prague Chamber Orchestra gave the world premiere of Pražské divertimento (Prague Divertimento) by the composer and visual artist Vladimír Franz. Apart from this four-movement piece, the program of the concert, which took place on 2nd February at the Rudolfinum’s DvořákHall, included music by J. Haydn, W. A. Mozart and P. I. Tchaikovsky. “Prague. A city both magical … Read more
Three new pieces by three Czech composers received their world premiere on this year’s first concert of Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra’s “New Horizons” subscription series. During the performance of the works by Martin Kumžák, Petr Wajsar and Jan Kučera, which are all written for a string quartet and orchestra, was the Radio orchestra accompanied by the Prague-based crossover … Read more
On Sunday 31st January the long-awaited world premiere of the opera South Pole by the Czech composer Miroslav Srnka took place at the Bavarian State Opera. The event, referred to as being one of the peaks of this year’s Munich opera season, also represents a crucial moment in the context of Czech contemporary music’s history, the last Czech … Read more
A new production of Leoš Janáček’s opera The Cunning Little Vixen received its premiere on 19 January at the Theatro Regio Turin. Eigth Czech singers in total are starring in this co-production between the Opéra National du Rhin and Opéra de Lille by the well-known Canadian opera director Robert Carsen: Lucie Silkenová (Bystrouška), Michaela Kapustová (Zlatohřbítek), … Read more
PKF – Prague Philharmonia performed a world premiere of the composition I Hear the Sky by Michal Nejtek (*1977). The 13-minute long piece, which had been commissioned by the orchestra, was given its premiere on 17 January at the Dvořák’s Hall of Rudolfinum followed by music of Richard Wagner, Claude Debussy and Béla Bartók. The orchestra was … Read more
The premiere of a new production of Janáček’s opera Katya Kabanova took place on January 16 at the Hessisches Staatstheater Wiesbaden. The stage director was Matthew Wild, a South African opera director, who is currently working as Artistic Director of Cape Town Opera, and who set the story into a gloomy post-Soviet periphery. Zsolt Hamar, General Music Director of … Read more
