Petr Popelka & Josef Špaček with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
Stravinsky's The Firebird, Dvořák's The Noon Witch, and Bohuslav Martinů's Violin Concerto No. 2,
featuring the outstanding soloist Josef Špaček, will be performed at a concert in the Municipal House in Prague.
The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra will perform there on Monday, November 4, at 7:30 PM, under the baton of chief conductor Petr Popelka. Subsequently, the orchestra will take this program to Hamburg, where they will play in the sold-out Great Hall of the Elbphilharmonie, which seats 2,100.
La Bagarre (The Brawl) is an innovative piece from 1926, a composition filled with the modern energy of large masses of people. After the orchestral “football” rondo Half-Time, La Bagarre is another logical outcome of the composer’s life in Paris. In a setting where modern artistic trends combined with inspiration from technology and sports, he sought to transcend previous limitations and, finally, take his compositional path in a personal anti-Romantic direction. And he succeeded!
The second of Bohuslav Martinů's two violin concertos was composed in 1943 during his exile in the USA. Here, the composer began writing music that was epic, vivid, emotionally colored, and clear. The concerto was inspired by the famous violinist Mischa Elman, who premiered the work on the last day of 1943 with Serge Koussevitzky conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
In 1896, after returning from America, Dvořák composed four symphonic poems based on themes from Erben's collection Kytice (Bouquet). Their notable feature is their detailed imagery. The private premiere of The Noon Witch was held in June 1896 by the orchestra of the Prague Conservatory, while the public premiere took place on November 21, 1896, in London, where the Queen’s Hall Orchestra performed it under the baton of conductor Henry J. Wood.
The Firebird is a colorful ballet fairytale written for Sergei Diaghilev and his Ballets Russes. The vivid story tells of enchanted maidens, the sorcerer Kashchei, and Prince Ivan, who, with the help of a magical golden bird, defeats the evil wizard. The music is at times picturesque, yet it can also sound almost orgiastic, ultimately culminating in an unusually celebratory finale. The piece was met with great acclaim at its 1910 premiere.
For the record, northern German audiences will enjoy Josef Suk's suite Fairy Tale instead of Stravinsky’s work, but otherwise, the program remains the same, offering a selection of representative works of Czech music.
