Prague – The first of today’s two sold-out New Year’s concerts of the Czech Philharmonic (ČF) took place in the festively decorated Prague Rudolfinum. The orchestra led by Tomáš Netopil performed works by French composers of the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries. Great applause was received by the soloists, violinist Josef Špaček and cellist and concert master of the ČF Ivan Vokáč. Marek Eben performed the program in a light tone. The ČF New Year’s gala concert is an important cultural and social event.
Some of the visitors to the Rudolfinum stopped on the way at a memorial site connected to the tragedy of December 21 last year. The building of the Faculty of Arts of the Charles University, where 14 people lost their lives when the attacker shot, stands opposite the Rudolfinum.
The concert opened with Bacchanale from the opera Samson and Dalila by Camillo Saint-Saëns. This was followed by Sicilienne, a dance number from the incidental music to Maurice Maeterlinck’s drama Pelléas et Mélisande by Gabriel Fauré. At the New Year’s Concerts, the ČF returned to the belle époque (the beautiful era – the period of European history between 1890 and 1914) and performed works by composers such as Claude Debussy, Jules Massenet, Francis Poulenc, Maurice Ravel or Eugène Ysaÿe.
“All the composers performing today knew each other, for example Saint-Saëns was Fauré’s professor,” Eben pointed out.
Saint-Saëns’ Concerto for Cello and Orchestra No. 1 in A minor. From Poulenc, the visitors heard two parts from the five-part orchestral suite from the ballet Les biches. The concert program closed with Ravel’s famous La Valse.
For the fourth year now, the dramaturgy of New Year’s concerts focuses on the music of a selected country. In 2022, the first Czech orchestra offered a Viennese program conducted by Manfred Honeck. Polkas, waltzes and famous opera melodies by Viennese composers, especially Johann Strauss Jr., were performed. and his brother Joseph. However, there were also compositions by Franz von Suppé and Franz Lehár. A year later, conductor Juanjo Mena, guitarist Pablo Sáinz-Villegas and mezzo-soprano Clara Mouriz performed compositions by Spanish composers Manuel de Falla, Joaquín Rodrigo, Joaquín Turin and Xavier Montsalvatge.
Last year’s New Year’s concerts with conductor Jakub Hrůša and violin virtuoso Jiří Vodička opened the Year of Czech Music with Czech music. It featured works by Bedřich Smetana, Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Josef Suk and Oskar Nedbal.
CR Music Czech Philharmonic PHOTO
Source: www.ceskenoviny.cz
