Czech Philharmonic • Magdalena Kožená

Like on many past occasions, Magdalena Kožená is returning to her homeland with her husband, Sir Simon Rattle. Kožená, a graduate of the Brno Conservatoire and of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava, came to worldwide attention thanks in part to victory at the International Mozart Competition in 1995; four years later she signed an exclusive contract with the label Deutsche Grammophon, for which she has released many award-winning recordings (Gramophone Award, Echo Klassik, Diapason d’Or etc.). She divides her performing activities between recitals, concert appearances, and operatic roles including regular guest appearances at New York’s Metropolitan Opera. She also performs in such non-classical genres as swing and flamenco. Her classical repertoire is of remarkable breadth, ranging from the baroque era and collaborations with ensembles specialising in early music to the classical and romantic repertoire, in which she has won fame in part as a proponent of Czech music, and onwards to the music of today. Kožená, who has been honoured with the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, has sung the role of Anna in Weill’s work under her husband’s baton several times, most recently in the 2023/24 season at the Staatskapelle Berlin.

Aleš Briscein studied clarinet, saxophone and opera singing at the Prague Conservatory. He has participated in prestigious festivals (Edinburgh International Festival or Prague Spring) and collaborated with outstanding orchestras and conductors, including Christoph von Dohnányi, Valery Gergiev, Sir John Eliot Gardiner or Tomáš Netopil.

Recent highlights include Der fliegende Holländer in Prague, War and Peace in Geneva, Makropulos Affair at Salzburg Festival, Dalibor and Die Königskinder in Frankfurt, Die tote Stadt in Berlin and Dresden, From the House of the Dead in Munich, Wozzeck in Vienna, Jenůfa in Bologna, Così fan tutte and Mazeppa in Berlin, Lohengrin in Erl and Two Widows in Angers and Nantes. His concert repertoire includes, among others, Mahler’s 8th symphony, Beethoven's 9th symphony and Missa solemnis, Dvořák’s Stabat mater, as well as Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, or Stravinsky’s Les Noces.

“Had I not become a singer, I would have opened a focacceria”, says the graduate of Cambridge University and of London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama, Alessandro Fisher, a native of Milan. However, the young tenor’s musical career is still on the rise: his prestigious post as a BBC New Generation Artist was recently succeeded by an equally prestigious fellowship from the Borletti-Buitoni Trust; he appears at famous festivals (Glyndebourne, Salzburg, BBC Proms), in important opera houses and concert halls (Royal Opera in London, Wigmore Hall), and with famous orchestras (London Symphony Orchestra etc.). Although his repertoire covers nearly all of music history, we can observe his special affinity for the baroque period and the music of today. This is shown, for example, by new albums with music by Ian Venables and Ralph Vaughan Williams, as well as by many roles in operas by contemporary composers (Matthew Rogers, Luke Styles). Although Fisher has not yet appeared with the Czech Philharmonic, Weill’s work has previously brought him together with Sir Simon Rattle, Magdalena Kožená, and Florian Boesch.

Although the Czech baritone Lukáš Zeman appears in operas from time to time in this country (at the theatres in Ostrava and Pilsen) and on Czech concert stages (Collegium 1704), he has become especially famous abroad, where his studies took him: after studying singing and bassoon at the Jan Neruda Grammar School, he studied singing at the Mozarteum in Salzburg, the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague, the Luigi Cherubini Conservatoire in Florence, and the Dutch National Opera Academy in Amsterdam. On such famed opera stages as the Komische Oper in Berlin, the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, Florence’s Teatro Maggio, and the Opéra National de Lyon, he has sung a number of roles from his vast repertoire ranging from Monteverdi to works of the 20th and 21st centuries, including the opera Die Soldaten by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, which he performed with the ensemble Il canto di Orfeo at La Scala. Besides appearing in Europe, he has also visited concert stages in India, Israel, the USA, and China. His discography includes recordings of some forgotten works, reflecting not only operatic, concert, and chamber literature, but also Zeman’s interest in the art song.

The Austrian baritone Florian Boesch is a versatile singer in terms of genre and range of repertoire. This is perhaps best seen in his operatic roles, where he feels equally at home in Purcell or Weill, Mozart or Berg. Notwithstanding his many solo performances with distinguished orchestras and conductors, in the concert hall he has come to listeners’ attention mainly thanks to his close professional relationship with Nikolas Harnoncourt. He made his debut with the Czech Philharmonic in the 2023/24 season as a soloist in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. His recordings reflect great interest in romantic song cycles, for the interpretation of which he has received such honours as the BBC Music Magazine Award. He is heard in song recitals at the festivals in Salzburg and Edinburgh, at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, at New York’s Carnegie Hall, and at London’s Wigmore Hall, where he has also served as an artist-in-residence. Boesch received his vocal training first from his grandmother Ruthilde Boesch and then from Robert Holl at the Musikhochschule in Vienna. He now teaches at Vienna’s Universität für Musik und darstellende Kunst.

We have seen one of today’s most distinguished conductors, Sir Simon Rattle, relatively often at the Rudolfinum in recent years. His long-term cooperation with the Czech Philharmonic has led to his appointment together with his wife, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, as Artist-in-Residence for the 2022/2023 season. At his appearances with the Czech Philharmonic, he has performed a number of symphonic works and, most notably, compositions for voices and orchestra from the late 19th and early 20th centuries, the repertoire for which Rattle has been the most acclaimed. He appeared most recently at the Rudolfinum in February 2024 with the pianist Yuja Wang, with whom he made a Grammy-nominated recording from their joint tour of Asia in 2017. From the 2024/2025 season, he becomes the Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic.

A native of Liverpool and a graduate of the Royal Academy of Music has held a series of important positions in the course of his long career. He came to worldwide attention as the chief conductor of the Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was employed for a full 18 years (for eight years as its music director); next came 16 years with the Berlin Philharmonic (2002–2018; artistic director and chief conductor) and six years with the London Symphony Orchestra. He opened the 2023/2024 season as chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. He also leads the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with the title of “principle artist”, and he is the founder of the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. Besides holding full-time conducting posts, he maintains ties with the world’s leading orchestras and gives concerts frequently in Europe, the USA, and Asia.

He has made more than 70 recordings for EMI (now Warner Classics). He has won a number of prestigious international awards for his recordings including three Grammy Awards for Mahler’s Symphony No. 10, Brahms’s German Requiem, and Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, which he recorded with the Berlin Philharmonic.

Besides the prizes mentioned above, Rattle’s long-term partnership with the Berlin Philharmonic also led to the new educational programme Zukunft@Bphil, which has achieved great success. Even after moving on from that orchestra, Rattle did not abandon his engagement with music education, and he has taken part together with the London Symphony Orchestra in the creation of the LSO East London Academy. Since 2019, that organisation has been seeking out talented young musicians, developing their potential free of charge regardless of their origins and financial situation.

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK
1841–1904

Antonín Dvořák komponoval své Slovanské tancena objednávku berlínského nakladatele Fritze Simrocka, který před tím zaznamenal značný obchodní úspěch s vydáním Dvořákových Moravských dvojzpěvů. Simrock si představoval, že vznikne cyklus čtyřručních klavírních skladeb, jež budou českou paralelou Uherským tancům Johannesa Brahmse. Antonín Dvořák však raději sáhl po látkách z celého slovanského světa. Jeho cyklus tak po ideové stránce ústrojně zapadá do tzv. panslavismu, tedy myšlenky o slovanské vzájemnosti, která byla ve druhé polovině 19. století hojně rozšířena mezi intelektuály z porobených slovanských národů. Konkrétní nápěvy tanečního folkloru lidu ze slovanských krajin bychom však v cyklu hledali marně. Skladby totiž představují naprosto původní, vrcholně uměleckou stylizaci abstrahovaných melodických a rytmických prvků lidové hudby. Na kompozici osmi klavírních skladeb, jež dostaly opusové číslo 46, pracoval Dvořák od března do května 1878. Vydání cyklu zaznamenalo veliký úspěch a Simrock si proto u skladatele objednal také orchestrální instrumentaci. Tato verze byla přijata s ještě větším nadšením a stála vlastně na samém počátku Dvořákovy světové proslulosti. Nakladatel Simrock, který měl z tohoto zdaru značný finanční profit, ihned u Dvořáka objednal druhou řadu tanců. Skladatel na první cyklus dlouho odmítal navázat, až teprve v roce 1886 svolil a vytvořil dalších osm skladeb ve verzi pro čtyřruční klavír i pro orchestr. Dnes večer vyslechneme orchestrální verzi kompletní první řady Slovanských tanců.

Na počátku devadesátých let 19. století byl Antonín Dvořák již uznávaným skladatelem v západní Evropě i v zámoří. Nebylo tedy úplně překvapivé, že v roce 1891 dostal nabídku na post ředitele konzervatoře v New Yorku. Dvořák tuto umělecky i finančně zajímavou výzvu po jistém váhání přijal a v následujícím roce s rodinou odplul na druhý břeh Atlantského oceánu, kde pobyl více než dva a půl roku. Těsně před odjezdem uspořádal spolu s houslistou Ferdinandem Lachnerem a violoncellistou Hanušem Wihanem (dedikantem pozdějšího Dvořákova slavného Violoncellového koncertu) rozlučkové koncertní turné po českých a moravských městech. Na programu měli Dvořákovy skladby, zejména klavírní tria (skladatel byl u klavíru). Pro účely tohoto zájezdu zkomponoval Dvořák Rondo pro violoncello g moll,op. 94, s doprovodem klavíru, jež spolu s Wihanem poprvé představili na koncertě v Chrudimi. Roku 1894 pak skladatel klavírní doprovod Ronda rozepsal pro malý orchestr a v tomtéž roce skladba vyšla v Simrockově berlínském nakladatelství. Výrazně taneční charakter jeho hlavního tématu ústrojně zapadá do dramaturgie dnešního koncertu zaměřené na symfonické tance.