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festival overture
Sunday, September 2, 2018, 5.30 pm
Konvikt
On the Trail of Dvořák

When buying tickets in a package, i.e. to all four concerts of the series On the Trail of Antonín Dvořák, you pay CZK 500. The price is adjusted automatically when you put all of the tickets into your shopping cart. The number of packages is limited by the capacity of the concert halls.

Gallery

Programme

Johannes Brahms: Violin Sonata No. 1 in G Major, Op. 78Antonín Dvořák: Romantic Pieces, Op. 75, B. 150Antonín Dvořák: Mazurek, Op. 49, B 89

Konvikt is a historic building in Prague’s Old Town, and with the concert being held there, the festival audience will be commemorating the site as Dvořák’s first centre of activities in Prague. It was here that the composer, having arrived in Prague as a sixteen-year-old youth, began his studies at what was called the Organ School, and he made some of his first attempts at composing here as well. Two top soloists – Jiří Vodička and Martin Kasík – will be performing popular works for violin and piano not only from Dvořák’s oeuvre, but also from among the works of his friend and advisor Johannes Brahms. The concert is part of the traditional festival event On the Trail of Antonín Dvořák, which will take us this year to several places in Prague that are associated with the composer’s activities.

More about programme

  • Dress code: casual
  • End of concert: 18.30

Artists

Jiří Vodička

Jiří Vodička, who turned thirty this year, is one of the most prominent Czech performers of his generation. He already drew attention as a child by winning many competitions, and in 2002 he won first prize at the Beethoven’s Hradec International Violin Competition, then two years later he won the prestigious International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists in Weimar. He makes regular appearance as a soloist with many leading Czech and foreign orchestras (including the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Philharmonia, and the Neue Westfalen Philharmonie). He is regularly invited to festivals such as Prague Spring, Janáček May, Hohenloher Kultursommer, and Choriner Musiksommer. He has been a member of the Smetana Trio since 2012, with which he has recorded two CDs for the Supraphon label, which have won prestigious awards from the BBC and Diapason d’Or. In 2015 he became a concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic. He teaches at the Prague Conservatory and the University of Ostrava. He plays an instrument made by the Italian master Joseph Gagliano in 1774.

Jiří Vodička - violin

Konvikt

The history of the complex known as the Konvikt (a Czech word meaning an institution providing room, board, and educational supervision for students) reaches back to 1660 when it was erected by the Jesuits for that purpose. Later it was used in various other ways. Dvořák attended the organists’ school here in 1857–59, and after graduating returned here for visits to his former teacher Josef Leopold Zvonař and his friend Karel Bendl, both of whom lived in the complex. Starting in 1891 he himself taught for the conservatory in a building in a complex just to the west. Before the opening of the Rudolfinum in 1885 the main hall in the Konvikt served as an important concert venue that saw the world premieres of several works by Dvořák. The Konvikt was also known for its restaurant in which musicians including Bedřich Smetana regularly gathered.