Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, Christian Schmitt and Robert Jindra at the Municipal House
Impressive works of American and French music will be performed at the subscription concert of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra on Monday, November 3.
The atmosphere of Smetana Hall and its majestic organ will undoubtedly enhance the experience. The program includes Toccata Festiva by Samuel Barber with organist Christian Schmitt, the Piano Concerto in E-flat major by Jules Massenet with Marek Kozák, and Saint-Saëns’s Symphony No. 3 “Organ”.
Samuel Barber composed Toccata Festiva for the inauguration of the new organ at the American Academy of Music. The premiere of this opulent work took place in 1960, featuring organist Paul Callaway from the National Cathedral in Washington and the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy.
“I am studying Chopin’s Etudes, but even more so Beethoven and Bach,” Massenet wrote in a letter from Rome, where he began sketching ideas for his future concerto in the 1860s. However, he did not complete his Piano Concerto until 1902. If the work bears some resemblance to Beethoven, the third movement comes as a surprise—its subtitle says it all: it is based on an unspecified Slovak melody. It also evokes the virtuoso passages of Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies.
The Symphony No. 3 “avec orgue” is one of Camille Saint-Saëns’s most famous works. In this romantic composition, the organ resonates with expressive lyrical themes and a captivating atmosphere, both in its quiet, subtle, accompanying role and in its other, monumental, dominant one. The piece was commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society in London, where it premiered in 1886 under the composer’s own direction at St James’s Hall. It was later published with a dedication to Franz Liszt, who passed away that same year.
Tickets available here.
