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Tuesday, September 19, 2017, 8.00 pm
Chamber Series

Programme

Alexander Zemlinsky: Hunting PieceHans Krása: Dance for String TrioLeone Sinigaglia: RomanceDavid Popper: Hungarian Rhapsody, Op. 68David Popper: Elfentanz, op. 39Lev Kogan: Hasidic MelodiesGustav Mahler: The Youth’s Magic Horn—selection from the song cycle

This concert joins pieces from the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries by composers of Jewish ethnicity, mostly having strong connections with Prague and reflecting also the Czech and German elements of this multicultural environment. Melancholy and the sense of a nation’s destiny, a distinctive personal wit, the survival of these pieces despite attempts at cultural extermination, and the song form of Mahler’s collection will be rendered by an instrumental ensemble of the Schoenbergian type aiming to show this music not only in a new light but in a fresh instrumentation. The Mahler songs will sound in an arrangement by Tomáš Ille and Radek Baborák.

Aftertalk moderated by Jiří Vejvoda with Kateřina Kněžíková and Tomáš Ille will be held in the concert hall after the concert.

  • Dress code: dark suit
  • Doors close: 19.55
  • End of concert: 21.30
  • Aftertalk

Artists

Kateřina Kněžíková

Soprano Kateřina Kněžíková is one of the most striking figures among the young generation of Czech singers in both operatic and concert repertoire. She graduated from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and has won honours in many events including for example the Antonín Dvořák International Singing Competition in Karlovy Vary. Since 2006 she has been a regular soloist with Prague's National Theatre Opera, on whose stages she has performed Mozart's Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro, Mysliveček's Aristea in L'Olimpiade, and Dvořák's Terinka in The Jacobin among other roles. She also appears as a guest in other opera houses both at home and abroad, such as the Moravian-Silesian National Theatre in Ostrava, L’Opéra Royal de Versailles, and the Theatre Royal de La Monnaie. She works with important conductors like Serge Baudo, Manfred Honeck, and Tomáš Netopil, and with such renowned ensembles as the BBC Symphony Orchestra, Collegium 1704, and the Czech Philharmonic. With Jiří Bělohlávek she recorded a new official version of the Czech national anthem.

Martina Bačová

Violinist Martina Bačová is one of the most striking representatives of the rising generation of Czech musicians. She gained her training at the Janáček Conservatoire in Ostrava and the Prague Conservatoire, and from 2008 to 2010 was a pupil of Ivan Ženatý at the Carl Maria von Weber College of Music in Dresden where she obtained a scholarship from the government of Saxony. She has won honours in many competitions, including First Prize and the prize for the best performance of a work by Beethoven in the Beethoven International Violin Competition in Hradec nad Moravicí in 2002. Based on a recording she received a scholarship to the Encore School for Strings in Cleveland. She is often invited to collaborate with such ensembles as the Janáček Philharmonic of Ostrava, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the chamber orchestras Camerata Janáček and St. Gellert Academy. In 2009 Štefan Margita invited her to perform in his world music project Ja Ra Laj. Ms. Bačová’s solo recording debut is the compact disc Elegant Provocations with pieces by Mácha, Janáček, Enescu, and Bartók, which in September 2009 was deemed an Outstanding Recording by the International Record Review.

Martina Bačová - violin

Hana Baboráková

Cellist Hana Baboráková is a sought-after chamber player who collaborates with members of the philharmonic orchestras of Berlin, Munich, and St. Petersburg. She has performed in the most prestigious venues including Carnegie Hall, L’Opéra de Paris, La Scala, and the Berlin Philharmonic. At the Bavarian State Opera in Munich she played under the batons of Zubin Mehta and Wolfgang Sawallisch, and as a member of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra she worked with Daniel Barenboim. Since 2010 she has been cello section leader in the Czech Sinfonietta and the Prague Chamber Soloists.

Claudio Bohórquez

Cellist Claudio Bohórquez graduated from the College of Music in Lübeck as a student of the famous pedagogue David Geringas. Three years later he became a pupil of Boris Pergamenshchikov, first at Cologne, from which he followed the teacher to the Hanns Eisler College of Music in Berlin. While still a student he won honours in several prestigious international competitions including the Tchaikovsky Youth Competition in Moscow and the Rostropovich Cello Competition in Paris. He appears regularly with the most important orchestras, including the Gewandhausorchester of Leipzig, the Tonhalle Orchestra of Zürich, and the Cleveland Orchestra, working with illustrious conductors like Daniel Barenboim, Christoph Eschenbach, Manfred Honeck, and David Zinman. He also performs regularly as a chamber player, especially in international chamber music festivals in London, Warsaw, Bilbau, and Berlin.

Claudio Bohórquez - violoncello

Miroslav Sekera

Miroslav Sekera has been playing piano since the age of three, when his uncommon talent was discovered by the pedagogue Zdena Janžurová. Thanks to his ability to play both piano and violin he was cast in the role of the child Mozart in Miloš Forman’s Oscar-winning film Amadeus. In 2002 he won the Johannes Brahms International Competition in Pörtschach, Austria. Then in 2006 Multisonic issued his first solo compact disc with support from the Czech Music Fund Foundation, featuring works by Brahms, Scarlatti, and Moszkowski. In the United States he recorded three compact discs for the contemporary composer Joseph Summer of Boston, and in 2013 he recorded a compact disc with violinist Josef Špaček for Supraphon. He works regularly with Czech Radio and often performs with such artists as mezzo-soprano Dagmar Pecková and hornist Radek Baborák.

others:

In addition to the above, other outstanding soloists will be introduced: Dalibor Karvay - violin, Ondřej Martinovský - viola, Karel Untermüller - viola, Clara Dent - oboe, Petr Valášek - clarinet, Radek Baborák - French horn, Mikuláš Koska - French horn, Jan Musil - French horn, Bence Bogányi - bassoon, Svatopluk Čech - percussion, Štěpán Kratochvíl - double bass

St. Agnes Convent

The Convent of St. Agnes in the 'Na Františku' neighbourhood of Prague's Old Town is considered the first Gothic structure not only in Prague but in all of Bohemia. It was founded by King Wenceslas I in 1233–34 at the instigation of his sister, the Přemyslid princess Agnes of Bohemia, for the Order of Saint Clare which Agnes introduced into Bohemia and of which she was the first abbess. The convent was preceded by a hospital. The 'Poor Clares' originated as an offshoot of the Order of St. Francis of Assisi, and the convent was at one time known as the Prague Assisi. Agnes was an outstanding figure in religious life of the thirteenth century. Besides this Clarist convent she also founded the only Czech religious order – the Hospital Order of the Knights of the Cross with the Red Star. She was canonized in 1989.