30. 1. 2014
2014 - A YEAR OF CZECH MUSIC
Calendar years ending in the figure 4 have a special affinity in our country's musical life as years of Czech music. They are an occasion to remind ourselves of our immense cultural heritage, and to highlight composers and musicians whose work reaches out not only to our own country, but to the wider world too. They also present a good opportunity for our orchestras to raise the profile of Czech music by bringing it to ever wider audiences.
What is the significance of this special figure 4 in Czech music? Well, take Bedřich Smetana - born in 1824, died in 1884, or Antonín Dvořák - died in 1904, Leoš Janáček - born in 1854, Josef Suk - born in 1874. And the figure 4 also features as a birth or death year for Jan Antonín Koželuh, Vilém Blodek, Pavel Haas, František A. Míča, Josef Förster, Pavel Bořkovec, and Iša Krejčí, to name but a few.
So the year 2014 sees the Philharmonic presenting two subscription concerts. In the first, on 23rd January, we hear works by V. Kalabis, B. Martinů, L. Koželuh and L. Janáček with our Chief Conductor Stanislav Vavřínek, the piano soloist Gloria Campaner, and the violinist Sergey Krylov.
Then on 20th March we have B. Smetana, B. Martinů a A. Dvořák, again conducted by Stanislav Vavřínek with the cellist Michaela Fukačová.
On both occasions there is a pre-concert talk by Jaromír Javůrek at 6.00 p.m. in the Congress Centre's Small Auditorium in our series Talking About Music.
The Zlín region sees a number of other concerts in June and July focusing on Czech music - in Vsetín, Uherské Hradiště, Zlín and Kroměříž, and our Christmas concert continues the theme with works by Fr. Tůma, Z. Lukáš a J. J. Ryba.
