Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra and Ion Marin invite you to musical Vienna

The programme will be broadcast live by ČRo Vltava on 25 Octoreb, and rebroadcast from recording by ČRo D-dur on 27 October from 8 p.m.

The Austrian metropolis was the home of the early Romantic composer Franz Schubert, who composed the “Tragic” Symphony No. 4 in 1816, when he was 19 years old. However, the symphony was not premiered until two decades after Schubert’s death. Vienna was also the fateful city for Gustav Mahler, a native of the Bohemian-Moravian highlands. His last completed work, the Adagio from his intended Symphony No. 10, symbolically closes the Romantic era, but, at the same time, its boldness reaches into the distant future. There is much in it – wistful infinite depth, long musings and stark contrasts, magical instrumentation and sharp musical lashes, ironic sneers and gravitas. It is the true epilogue of a gigantic, ground-breaking and unique legacy.

The evening will close with the subtle, yet bombastic choreographic poem La Valse, through which the Frenchman Maurice Ravel paid homage (albeit somewhat ironically at times) to the Viennese waltz. The 1920 composition depicts a large ballroom at the imperial court lit by chandeliers. It was created on the behest of Sergei Diaghilev, a Russian ballet impresario, who did not accept it in the end, because, according to him, it was not a ballet, nevertheless, it achieved a wonderful success as a concert piece.

Ion Marin

The Romanian-born Austrian artist Ion Marin is one of the few contemporary conductors who have managed to reach the absolute top in both opera and symphonic music. A regular guest at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, La Scala in Italy or the Bavarian State Opera, he also regularly performs with leading European ensembles. He studied composition, piano and conducting at the George Enescu Academy of Art and at the Mozarteum University in Salzburg.

Ion Marin with St. Petersburg Philharmonia|foto:Stas Levshin

In 1986, he fled the Romanian dictatorship and started a new life in Vienna, where he was granted residency as a conductor at the Vienna State Opera under the then director Claudio Abbado. In Vienna he also received expert guidance from Herbert von Karajan and Carlos Kleiber.