The Brno Philharmonic is preparing for an American tour. It will give the New York premiere of Glass’ Symphony No. 12 “Lodger” at Carnegie Hall with the composer in attendance. The Brno Philharmonic will play seven concerts in seven venues overseas in February.
The entire American tour starts at Carnegie Hall, where it will perform the New York premiere of Philip Glass’ Symphony No.12 “Lodger”. “Carnegie is the base of every orchestra. I am extremely pleased that the Brno Philharmonic will represent our city there with such an important event as the New York premiere of the symphony with the personal participation of Philip Glass. I believe that thanks to the tour, many people will learn how important Brno is as a musical city and that it rightly belongs to the prestigious international UNESCO Network of Creative Cities,” said Brno Mayor Markéta Vaňková.
The orchestra will be led on tour by its chief conductor and artistic director Dennis Russell Davies. “I am very happy that we are taking Czech music overseas. We have prepared three works by Leoš Janáček, two pieces by Bohuslav Martinů, and three symphonies by Antonín Dvořák. We combine them with contemporary American music: Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson, and William Bolcom. Personally, I am most looking forward to playing my long-time friend Philip his own “Lodger” with my orchestra,” Davies said. The Philharmonic will be joined by world-class soloists such as five-time Grammy winner and world music star Angélique Kidjo and one of today’s most in-demand organists, Christian Schmitt.
The orchestra performed Glass’s symphony with them twice already in 2021 – in the Czech premiere at the Prague Spring Festival and six months later at the opening of the Moravian Autumn Festival. Before the New York performance, they will give a concert together at the Leipzig Gewandhaus. “We are also the first orchestra in the world to have also recorded the work in which Glass composed the solo vocal part directly for Kidjo,” said Brno Philharmonic director Marie Kučerová.
In addition to Kidjo and Schmitt, the orchestra will also play with American composer, musician and performer Laurie Anderson, who will join the Philharmonic in Kansas City. Her piece Amelia tells the story of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the ocean, and nine years later whose plane disappeared without a trace. Interestingly, she was born a few miles from where the orchestra will perform. “In addition to our home stage, we have taken Amelia to festivals in Linz, Austria, and Bratislava, for example, always with great success and always to sold-out audiences,” said Pavel Šindelář, the orchestra’s manager.
The orchestra returns to the United States after 50 years. In 1973 it played nineteen concerts there in one month, two of them in sold-out Carnegie Hall. The first of these, on 31 January 1973, featured not only the then State Philharmonic Orchestra of Brno under the baton of Jiří Bělohlávek, but also the then twenty-year-old violinist Václav Hudeček.
The complete programme of the American tour:
February 8: New York, Carnegie Hall
Martinů: Thunderbolt P-47 , Janáček: Taras Bulba , Glass: Symphony No.12
February 10: Ann Arbor, MI
Janáček: Sinfonietta, Bolcom: Humoresk, Janáček: Glagolitic Mass
February 13: Palm Desert, CA
Martinů: Sinfonietta “La Jolla”, Janáček: Taras Bulba, Dvořák: Symphony No. 6
February 14: Santa Barbara, CA
Martinů: Sinfonietta “La Jolla”, Janáček: Taras Bulba , Dvořák: Symphony No. 6
February 15: Northridge, CA
Martinů: Thunderbolt P-47, Janacek: Taras Bulba , Dvořák: Symphony No. 8
February 18: Kansas City, MO
Dvořák: Othello, Martinů: Thunderbolt P-47, Laurie Anderson: Amelia
February 20: Lubbock, TX
Martinů: Thunderbolt P-47, Janacek: Sinfonietta , Dvořák: Symphony No. 8
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