Rachmaninoff – Prokofiev – Deutsch

Bernd Richard Deutsch: Phantasma, Czech premiere 13 min.
Sergei Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini 22 min.
break 20 min.
Sergei Prokofiev: Symphony No. 5 46 min.

Han-Na Chang conductor
Adam Znamirovský piano

The Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra will be led by South Korean conductor Han-Na Chang, currently chief conductor of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra in Norway. Her musical background is in cello, which she studied in the USA in the 1990s with Mstislav Rostropovich, an exiled Russian cellist and conductor. She debuted as a conductor much later, in 2007. For her Czech premiere, she will present a new composition called Phantasma by contemporary Austrian composer Bernd Richard Deutsch. The composer was inspired by Gustav Klimt’s famous Beethoven Frieze of 1902, which depicts the Ninth Symphony and its famous Ode to Joy with elaborate artistic devices. Deutsch’s imaginative use of a large orchestra can be seen by the listener as the musical equivalent of Klimt’s use of colour. The next part of the concert features two magnificent scores by Russian classical composers from the first half of the 20^th century. Sergei Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini is a virtuoso work conceived in the spirit of the composer’s piano concertos. The fifth of Sergei Prokofiev’s seven symphonies, his best known, most accessible and most popular, dates from 1944, the penultimate year of the Second World War. Prokofiev himself described it as “a hymn to free and happy man, to his mighty powers, to his pure and noble spirit”. It reminds us of the fundamental difference between the two composers, who both reacted to the Bolshevik revolution of 1917 by emigrating to the West. Rachmaninoff never returned to his homeland, but Prokofiev was tempted by the Soviet regime to return in the 1930s.

The concert is broadcast live by Czech Radio station Vltava. Czech Radio D-dur broadcasts the concert every following Wednesday.

Individual tickets: CZK 1,100 | CZK 900 | CZK 700 | CZK 500 | CZK 300 | CZK 180

Small subscription, 6 concerts: CZK 3,200 | CZK 2,800 | CZK 2,400 | CZK 2,000 | CZK 1,600

Large subscription, 12 concerts: CZK 4,500 | CZK 4,100 | CZK 3,700 | CZK 3,400 | CZK 2,100 

The organiser reserves the right to change the list of scheduled performers.