Thu, 21. 4. 2016, 7:00 p.m.

B6 IVO KAHÁNEK

Venue: Zlín Congress Centre  |  Organizer: Filharmonie Bohuslava Martinů, o.p.s.  | 

Ivo Kahánek took his rightful place some years ago now as one of the best Czech pianists of our time. This year he will be touring Japan with the Tchaikovsky B-flat minor piano concerto accompanied by the Brno Philharmonic, and performing at international festivals including the Styriarte in Graz, Austria, the Dresdner Festspiele (with the Dvořák Trio), the Dvořák Festival in Prague, not to mention concerts in Italy, Germany, Denmark, Poland and here at home. It is no surprise that its renowned Chief Conductor Sir Simon Rattle chose Ivo Kahánek for two performances with the Berlin Philharmonic in November 2014, delighting the critics and the music-going public alike. This young pianist is thus the second Czech pianist after Rudolf Firkušný to perform with this world-acclaimed orchestra. The concert will be conducted by Tomáš Hanus, who features regularly at opera houses abroad. He has conducted the Bavarian State Opera a number of times, for example, in performances of Jenůfa, Rusalka, and Hansel and Gretel. In 2015 he is working on The Makropulos Case in this country, and recently he has been working with the Royal Danish Opera, and the Teatro Real Madrid orchestra.

Gustav Mahler's most frequently played symphony is the No. 1 in D major written in 1888, originally described as a Symphonic Poem and then as the Titan. The third of the four movements features a funeral march whose canon is based on the song Frere Jacques. All of Mahler's symphonies carry a weighty intellectual and philosophical message. Josef Bohuslav Foerster wrote: "Mahler's life is convincing proof of the truth of Flaubert's saying 'The history of art is nothing but unending martyrdom'. Mahler not only composed his symphonies, he lived them. As a conductor he was the embodiment of will for power, energy, and strength - a string tightened to its utmost, a Napoleon at the conductor's podium. Mahler the composer, however, is the embodiment of love, which he shows in any number of variations - the yearning for love, which he seeks but does not find."