Concert in the Dark – The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra plays for Světluška
Municipal house, Saturday 2 February 2027 at 7.30 p.m.
Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Robert Kružík – conductor
Bedřich Smetana: Vltava (12′)
Gustav Mahler: Adagietto from Symphony No. 5 (9′)
Antonín Dvořák: The Water Goblin (20′)
Claude Debussy: La Mer (23′)
Music is a supplement to the soul that makes the world more human.
Claude Debussy
The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra will appear in an unusual format – a Concert in the Dark organised for the Czech Radio Foundation’s Světluška project. The audience listens in complete darkness and focuses entirely on sound, colour, and space. The programme opens with Bedřich Smetana’s symphonic poem Vltava, followed by the intimate and lyrical Adagietto from Mahler’s Symphony No. 5.
The programme continues with Antonín Dvořák’s symphonic poem The Water Goblin, composed in 1896 after the ballad from Kytice by Karel Jaromír Erben. It belongs to the group of Dvořák’s late symphonic poems inspired by Erben’s poetry and follows the dramatic story of the ballad in music – from the mysterious atmosphere of the water realm to its tragic conclusion.
The evening concludes with La Mer by the French composer Claude Debussy. Written between 1903 and 1905, the composer described the work as “three symphonic sketches”. Debussy does not attempt to depict the sea precisely in music, but rather to capture the atmosphere of the moment – from the calm shimmer of the surface to the dramatic dialogue of wind and waves. This work is a masterpiece of musical Impressionism.
Robert Kružík is one of the prominent figures of the younger generation of Czech conductors. He is Chief Conductor of the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic and also works with the Janáček Opera of the National Theatre Brno. He is a recipient of the Jiří Bělohlávek Award (2020), and in 2025, at the Moravian Autumn Festival, he received the prestigious Sir Charles Mackerras Prize for young Czech conductors, awarded by the Leoš Janáček Foundation only once every ten years.
The evening offers an unusual experience: listening to music without visual stimuli reveals every note, every orchestral detail, and every harmony, allowing listeners to experience familiar works in a new and deeply personal way.
Ticket prices range from 700 to 1,100 CZK.
