The PRSO in Litomyšl: The monumental Symphony of a Thousand and Aneta Langerová
Two really splendid – and at the same time very different – tasks await the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra at the next domestic festival of music, the 58th Smetana’s Litomyšl International Opera Festival.
Staging Mahler’s Symphony of a Thousand is a mammoth task. (At the biggest Czech music festival, the Prague Spring, it has been performed only twice, with the second at the O2 Arena in 2011 entering the annals of the festival as its biggest and most expensive event).
A huge dream of the organisers will be fulfilled in Litomyšl on 19 June. Also in attendance will be the PRSO and Czech Radio, which will broadcast the evening live including a preceding hour-long discussion with musicians and organisers.
Also taking part in this exceptional production of one of the essential pieces in the world music canon will be the soloists Maida Hundeling, Eva Hornyáková, Kateřina Kněžíková, Terézia Kružliaková, Veronika Hajnová, Lars Cleveman, Jakub Kettner and Peter Mikuláš, as well as the ensembles the Kühn Children’s Choir, under choirmaster Jiří Chvála, Petr Fiala’s Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno and the Bratislava Municipal Choir, who choirmaster is Ladislav Holásek. Ondrej Lenárd will wield his baton over this enormous structure.
Mahler’s Eighth Symphony has been known as the Symphony of a Thousand since its Munich premiere in 1910 featuring over 1,000 musicians. The composer’s aim was to create a piece “detached from the everyday and from regular concert life”. The texts he employed were intended to express a desire for a world of harmony, peace and love.
The second project follows the very next day, June 20. The PRSO will need to make a rather significant reorientation, as it will be accompanying the singer-songwriter Aneta Langerová, chiefly on songs from her album Na Radosti, for which she won four Academy of Popular Music Angel awards. Members of Aneta Langerová’s band will also appear on stage, as will conductor Martin Kumžák.
