Brno Philharmonic's 64th season will begin with Elisabeth Leonskaja

18 September 2019, 1:00
Brno Philharmonic's 64th season will begin with Elisabeth Leonskaja

Brno Philharmonic will start its 64th concert season this Thursday. The show will feature guest pianist Elisabeth Leonskaja, and the concert will be conducted by chief conductor and artistic director Dennis Russell Davies. Works by Johannes Brahms, Béla Bartók and Joe Hisaishi will be played.

The night will open with Brahms' Symphony No. 1, which took a long fourteen years to be written. It cannot hide its direct relation with Beethoven; sometimes it is referred to as Brahms' transformation of Beethoven's Fifth or even as "Beethoven's Tenth". “In the finale, a theme will sound in the French horns sometimes branded as "greetings to Clara Schumann", for which Brahms treasured deep affection, and then a theme strongly resembling the melody from the last movement of the Ninth,” explained dramaturge of the Brno Philharmonic Vítězslav Mikeš. The opening concert will take place on 19 September at 7 pm in the Stadion hall in Kounicova Street.      

After the intermission, Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3 will be played as one of his brightest, most balanced and listener-friendly works. “Bartók intended this piece as a tribute to his wife, Ditta, and also to provide her with means of subsistence. He thought that Ditta would play the concert and improve thus her financial situation. This is also reflected in the concept of the solo part, the inwardness and noblesse of which stands in contrast to the barbarian style of Bartók's previous piano concerts and returns to the balanced use of the piano as a melodic, rhythmic and virtuoso instrument,” said Mikeš. The concert will be performed by Elisabeth Leonskaja, who has been one of the most valued personalities of piano art for several decades. As a soloist she performed with practically all the most important orchestras in the world, released numerous recordings for which she was awarded a number of times. Her CD Paris was selected by the International Classical Music Awards jury as the Solo Recording of the Year in 2014.

At the end of the evening, a Czech premiere will be staged of a composition named DA. MA. SHI. E by Joe Hisaishi. “It is very cheerful and positive, woven from a combination of eight models generated from the opening motif of the first violin. Changes in the colour of the sound are evoked by transitions between the scales A major and B major, highlighted by intense invasions of brass instruments. In the second half of the composition, a chant in brass instruments joins the motif tissue, which gives the conclusion a proper momentum,” described his work Hisaishi, who has become famous namely as an author of incidental music. He has been signed under some eighty films and has been brought to fame by his collaboration with the legendary anime filmmaker Hayao Miyazaki, on films such Nausicaä of the Valley of the Wind,  My Neighbour Totoro, Princess Mononoke, Spirited Away and others. Other globally acclaimed films with Hisaishi's music include The Tale of the Princess Kaguya, Fireworks and Villain. The composer won numerous important awards for his incidental music production.

Elisabeth Leonskaja/ photo from FB archive

Comments

Reply

No comment added yet..

On Saturday, 24 August, the Korean radio orchestra KBS Symphony Orchestra with its musical director - Finnish conductor and violinist Pietari Inkinen - came to Brno's Špilberk Festival with an exclusively romantic repertoire. The invitation was also accepted by South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim, a graduate of the prestigious Julliard School.  more

For a quarter of a century now, the Brno Philharmonic has been organising the Špilberk Festival at the end of August in the courtyard of the castle of the same name. Four open-air musical evenings offer the audience a selection of concerts featuring classical, film and computer music, as well as often jazz and other genres. This makes it a diverse mix of performers and repertoires with an often pleasant, summery, laid-back ambience. This year's big and rapdily sold-out attraction was the Wednesday evening of 21 August, full of melodies from the James Bond films, performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, headed by world-renowned conductor, composer and arranger Steven Mercurio. During the concert, the audience also got to enjoy singers Sara MilfajtováVendula Příhodová and David Krausmore

As part of its European tour, the Taiwanese Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir (TPCC), under the direction of artistic director and choirmaster Dr. YuChung Johnny Ku, took the city up on its invitation and visited Brno. The concert was held on Monday, 13th August in the hall of the newly renovated Passage Hotel.  more

The final concert of this year's season of the Brno Philharmonic was devoted to works by Antonín Dvořák and Jean Sibelius at the Janáček Theatre. On Thursday, 20 June, Danish conductor Michael Schønwandt, who had not appeared before a Brno audience since January last year, took the lead of the Philharmonic. In the first half of the programme, the orchestra was accompanied by violinist Alexander Sitkovetskymore

In the spirit of the idea that Brno and folklore belong together, the Folklore Ensemble Happening of the Year took place on Thursday 6 June. The event was organised by the Brno UNESCO City of Music Office in cooperation with the Brno Dances and Sings association. The event thus became part of a long-term project that set out to map the amateur music scene in Brno, and not only folk music. Last year Brno City of Music reached out to choirs in a similar way, and in the future will host garage bands and more. This just goes to prove the diversity of Brno's music scene, not only as regards professional ensembles, but also enthusiastic amateurs for whom music is an inseparable part of their lives.  more