PRAGUE PHILHARMONIA

Jiří Bělohlávek, Conductor

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Don Giovanni, overture

Leoš Janáček: Suite for Strings

Jan Václav Hugo Voříšek: Symphony in D Major

Tickets: $40

Prague Philharmonia was established in 1994 upon the initiative of the conductor

Jiří Bělohlávek as a chamber ensemble made up of young music school graduates playing with true engagement and passion. Following 1996, when it became one of the first public benefit companies, it gradually came to be ranked among the Czech Republic’s foremost orchestras and built up renown abroad.

The fundamental configuration of the Prague Philharmonia is based on the type of orchestra dating from the period of Viennese Classicism, whose compositions form the cornerstone of its repertoire. In addition to paramount works of this epoch, the Romantic era and the 20th century, the concert programme is supplemented by a special series of concerts featuring modern and contemporary music, still rather exceptional when it comes to the leading Czech orchestras. When it comes to education, the Prague Philharmonia not only dedicates to talented young musicians in the Prague Philharmonia Orchestral Academy, but children too.

It was the first orchestra in the Czech Republic to start organising special concerts for children. Owing to their conception, the concerts do not create the impression of being “educational” but, conversely, familiarise children with classical music in an extremely entertaining form. The programme for children is completed by the Notička club for children, which strives to cultivate their aesthetic sensibilities and extend their leisure-time activities.

The Prague Philharmonia frequently performs at prestigious world concert halls, is a regular guest at international music festivals and appears with world-famous conductors and soloists, including Vladimir Ashkenazy, Milan Turković, Emmanuel Villaume, Jefim Bronfman, András Schiff, Shlomo Mintz, Sarah Chang, Isabelle Faust, Mischa Maisky, Magdalena Kožená, Anna Netrebko, Natalie Dessay, Rolando Villazón, Placido Domingo and many others.

The orchestra has to date recorded more than 60 compact discs for labels of such renown as Deutsche Grammophon, Decca, Supraphon, EMI and Harmonia Mundi. One of the most recent Prague Philharmonia albums is the live recording of Bedřich Smetana’s My Country from the opening concert of the 2010 Prague Spring festival.

Among the interesting projects the Prague Philharmonia has lined up for the 2011-12 season are a tour of Japan and South Korea, an orchestral concert featuring the violinist and conductor Vladimir Spivakov, an autumn tour with Maxim Vengerov and collaboration with Anna Netrebko, Erwin Schrott and Jonas Kaufmann.

The young Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša became the orchestra’s new chief conductor at the beginning of the 2008-2009 season.

www.praguephilharmonia.com