The renowned British musician Thomas Adès has put together an evening dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Pierre Boulez’s birth. Perhaps as a tribute to Boulez, he will appear in both roles for which Boulez was known: as a composer and a conductor.
Subscription series A
Programme
György Kurtág Petite musique solennelle – En hommage à Pierre Boulez 90 (Czech premiere)
Pierre Boulez Messagesquisse
Thomas Adès The Exterminating Angel Symphony (Czech premiere) Air – Homage to Sibelius for violin and orchestra (Czech premiere)
Ferruccio Busoni Tanzwalzer, Op. 53, BV 288
Maurice Ravel La Valse
Performers
Josef Špaček violin Václav Petr cello
Thomas Adès conductor Czech Philharmonic
Rudolfinum — Dvořák Hall
“Writing an opera is a bit like pregnancy. It is exhausting. Really, it’s like a black hole, it pulls everything into it, it just sucks everything in. For the spectator, the experience of an opera should be the discovery of a whole universe.” – Thomas Adès
The British composer, conductor, and pianist Thomas Adès regards composing an opera as a process that cannot be rushed, so he thinks the three he has so far written is a good number. His first opera Powder her Face (1995) secured him a place among today’s musical elite. Besides symphonic works and chamber music, there followed the operas The Tempest (2004) and Exterminating Angel (2016), which he is performing with the Czech Philharmonic in a concert version.
The opera is a musical setting of Buñuel’s 1962 film The Exterminating Angel, in which a group of guests try in vain to leave a party. Adès, the son of Dawn Adès, an expert on surrealism, calls the traditional understanding of the film as surrealism a misinterpretation: “Actually, it’s completely realistic. To me, the question Buñuel is asking isn’t ‘Why don’t they leave?’ but ‘Why do they want to leave?’ What is it that makes any of us want to do anything, change anything, go from one room into another?” When that urge is frozen, the Exterminating Angel comes.
“My work is often the result of a process of subtraction rather than addition. It was the same with composing The Exterminating Angel. When I started writing, I took as wide a swing as I could to map out exactly what I was dealing with, and then I condensed it as much as possible.”
For audiences at the Rudolfinum, this is not the first encounter with Adès, who describes composing as a process of organising chaos. In 2018, he came here to lead the Czech Philharmonic in a performance of his Totentanz (Dance of Death) and of Haydn’s Symphony No. 45, known as the “Farewell Symphony”.
Once again, Adès is not coming just to do his own music. His Dvořák Hall programme is dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Pierre Boulez’s birth. Like Adès, that French representative of serialism both composed and conducted. In his Messagesquisse we will here the soloist Václav Petr with six more cellists. Boulez was not the composer of the first work on the programme, but György Kurtág dedicated it to him as a sign of respect. And it was under Kurtág that Thomas Adès studied piano in Hungary.
But that is not the end of connections in the music world. Adès gave his composition for violin and orchestra the title Homage to Sibelius. Jean Sibelius greatly admired his teacher Ferruccio Busoni, who in turn dedicated the composition Tanzwalzer to Johann Strauss. At the conclusion, we return to the waltz with Adès’s favourite composition by Maurice Ravel.
Performers
Josef Špačekviolin, guest artist
“Working with Josef Špaček is amazing. He is a wonderful person with good heart. You can feel this in his playing, which is gracious, teeming with emotion. And his technique is marvellous. He is one of the greatest solo violinists of the present time,” says the conductor Manfred Honeck, under whom the young virtuoso has regularly given concerts, in the Czech Television documentary Devět sezón (Nine Seasons) The 2023 film provides an interesting account of Špaček’s life, also shedding light on his nine-year tenure as the Czech Philharmonic’s concert master.
Although not having been a member for several years, Josef Špaček has not ceased to collaborate with the Czech Philharmonic, pursuing numerous joint projects. And even though appearing as a soloist with celebrated orchestras worldwide and as a chamber player at the most prestigious concert venues, he continues to perform in Czech towns and remote villages.
Josef Špaček is a member of the exciting international Trio Zimbalist, giving performances all over the globe. He has regularly appeared in the Czech Republic with the cellist Tomáš Jamník and the pianist Miroslav Sekera, with whom he has created critically acclaimed albums. He has also made recordings with the Czech Philharmonic (featuring Janáček’s and Dvořák’s violin concertos, and Suk’s Fantasy), the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Petr Popelka (Bohuslav Martinů’s music).
Born in 1986 in Třebíč, Bohemia, Josef Špaček showed his exceptional talent at an early age. Music was a natural part of his childhood (his father has been a cellist of the Czech Philharmonic for over three decades, and his siblings played instruments too), as described by his mother in the book Špačci ve fraku. After graduating from the Prague Conservatory (under the tutelage of Jaroslav Foltýn), Josef went on to study in the USA, where he attended the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia (his teachers included Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo) and The Julliard School in New York (tutored by Itzak Perlman).
After completing his formal education, he returned to his homeland, where he was named the youngest ever concert master of the Czech Philharmonic. At the same time, he performed as a soloist and chamber player, garnering international recognition. A watershed in his career was victory at the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, whereupon he began receiving invitations from the world’s most renowned institutions. Due to his having an ever more challenging and busy schedule as a musician – and to his family situation, especially following the birth of three children – he resigned from the post of concert master of the Czech Philharmonic so as to focus solely on being a soloist. Owing to his immense talent and great diligence, his childhood dream to become a famous violinist has come to pass.
Václav Petrcello
One of the finest Czech cellists, Václav Petr has served as concert master of the Czech Philharmonic cello section for over a decade. He has performed as a soloist since the age of 12. As a member of The Trio, he has also devoted to chamber music.
Václav Petr learned the rudiments of viola playing at the Jan Neruda School in Prague from Mirko Škampa and subsequently continued to study the instrument at the Academy of Performing Arts in the class of Daniel Veis, graduating under the guidance of Michal Kaňka. He further honed his skills at the Universität der Künste in Berlin under the tutelage of Wolfgang Boettcher, and also at international masterclasses (in Kronberg, Hamburg, Vaduz, Bonn and Baden-Baden). He has garnered a number of accolades, initially as a child (Prague Junior Note, International Cello Competition in Liezen, Talents of Europe) and then in Europe’s most prestigious contests (semi-final at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann, victory at the Prague Spring Competition). At the age of 24, after winning the audition, he became one of the youngest concert masters in the Czech Philharmonic’s history. As a soloist, he has performed with the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden.
Václav Petr has made a name for himself as a chamber player too. Between 2009 and 2020, he was a member of the Josef Suk Piano Quartet, with whom he received first prizes at the competitions in Val Tidone and Verona (Salieri-Zinetti), as well as at the highly prestigious Premio Trio di Trieste. In 2019, he, the violinist and concert master Jiří Vodička, and the pianist Martin Kasík formed the Czech Philharmonic Piano Trio, later renamed The Trio. During the Covid pandemic, they made a recording of Bohuslav Martinů’s Bergerettes (clad in period costumes), which would earn them victory at an international competition in Vienna.
Thomas Adèsconductor
Thomas Adès was born in London in 1971. Renowned as both composer and performer, he works regularly with the world’s leading orchestras, opera companies and festivals. His compositions include three operas : the most recent of which The Exterminating Angel premiered at the 2016 Salzburg Festival and subsequently has been performed at the Metropolitan Opera, New York and the Royal Opera House, London all conducted by the composer; The Tempest (Royal Opera House and Metropolitan Opera); and Powder Her Face. His orchestral works include Asyla (CBSO, 1997), Tevot (Berlin Philharmonic and Carnegie Hall, 2007), Polaris (New World Symphony, Miami 2011), Violin Concerto Concentric Paths (Berliner Festspiele and the BBC Proms, 2005), In Seven Days (Piano concerto with moving image – LA Philharmonic and RFH London 2008), Totentanz for mezzo-soprano, baritone, and orchestra (BBC Proms, 2013), and Concerto for Piano and Orchestra (Boston Symphony Orchestra, 2019). His compositions also include numerous celebrated chamber and solo works.
Thomas Adès has been an Artistic Partner of the Boston Symphony Orchestra since 2016 and will conduct the orchestra in Boston and at Tanglewood, perform chamber music with the orchestra players, and lead the summer Festival of Contemporary Music. He coaches Piano and Chamber Music annually at the International Musicians Seminar, Prussia Cove.
As a conductor, Thomas appears regularly with the Los Angeles, San Francisco and London Philharmonic orchestras, the Boston, London, BBC and City of Birmingham, Symphony orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouworkest, Leipzig Gewandhaus and the Czech Philharmonic. In opera, in addition to The Exterminating Angel, he has conducted The Rake’s Progress at the Royal Opera House and the Zürich Opera, The Tempest at the Metropolitan Opera and Vienna State Opera, and Gerald Barry’s latest opera Alice’s Adventures Under Ground in Los Angeles (world premiere) and in London (European premiere). In the 2019–20 season Thomas has a residency with the Royal Concertgebouworkest and also conducts the London and Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestras and makes his debut with Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. In the USA, he returns to the Los Angeles and Boston Symphony Orchestras. Thomas also returns to the Royal Opera House twice this season, to conduct Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Under Ground and the premiere of his new ballet The Dante Project.
His piano engagements include solo recitals at Carnegie Hall (Stern Auditorium), New York and the Wigmore Hall in London, and concerto appearances with the New York Philharmonic. This season will see the release of his album of solo piano music by Janacek and he will also join Simon Keenlyside in a recital of Schubert’s Winterreise at the Vienna State Opera.
His many awards include the Grawemeyer Award for Asyla (1999); Royal Philharmonic Society large-scale composition awards for Asyla, The Tempest and Tevot; and Ernst von Siemens Composers' prize for Arcadiana; British Composer Award for The Four Quarters. His CD recording of The Tempest from the Royal Opera House (EMI) won the Contemporary category of the 2010 Gramophone Awards; his DVD of the production from the Metropolitan Opera was awarded the Diapason d'Or de l'année (2013), Best Opera recording (2014 Grammy Awards) and Music DVD Recording of the Year (2014 ECHO Klassik Awards); and The Exterminating Angel won the World Premiere of the Year at the International Opera Awards (2017). In 2015 he was awarded the prestigious Léonie Sonning Music Prize and in Spring 2020 he will receive the Toru Takemitsu composition award at Tokyo Opera City where he will conduct a concert of his own music.
Compositions
György Kurtág Petite musique solennelle – En hommage à Pierre Boulez 90
Pierre Boulez Messagesquisse
Thomas Adès The Exterminating Angel Symphony & Air – Homage to Sibelius
Ferruccio Busoni Tanzwalzer, op. 53, BV 288
Maurice Ravel La Valse
To end the programme, does France have anything even more impressive to offer celebrating the Belle Époque and, at the same time, the beginning of the new year? After so many different dance rhythms, it is time for the most famous of them all: La valse, which brought Maurice Ravel to worldwide attention. Make no mistake, however—there is nothing idyllic here! One of the leading representatives of Impressionism, Ravel had already turned away from the musical mainstream as a young man, inspired both by music of the Baroque and by jazz and modern trends. He enjoyed experimenting, and he proudly claimed his Basque roots. The man behind the creation of the great composition was again Diaghilev: after successful collaboration on the ballet Daphnis et Chloé (1912), he commissioned a new work from Ravel. They agreed on plans to celebrate the waltz by staging a representation of a grand ball at the Viennese court in the middle of the 19th century, but when Ravel introduced a two-piano version to Diaghilev, the ballet impresario was disappointed and cancelled their collaboration. Despite this, Ravel finished orchestrating the composition and had it performed at a concert in Paris in December 1920 with great success.
La valse is not a simple waltz—in it, Ravel sets a kaleidoscope of harmonies, tempos, and moods in motion, again exhibiting his genius as an orchestrator. The waltz is grotesquely distorted, as if there were menacing chaos simmering beneath the surface of the celebration of days gone by. The grotesquerie permeates the music more and more until the very end evokes visions of wildly whirling forces of darkness. The chaos Ravel creates represents the end of an idyllic time, cut short by a military conflict that would leave the composer deeply scarred. It was the end of the Belle Époque, but not the end of the music brought to us by France with an originality all its own.
À votre santé et une très belle nouvelle année!
Join 20 000+ readers
Get the latest news from the Czech Philharmonic, exclusive magazine content and news every two weeks
from Rudolfinum.
The renowned British musician Thomas Adès has put together an evening dedicated to the 100th anniversary of Pierre Boulez’s birth. Perhaps as a tribute to Boulez, he will appear in both roles for which Boulez was known: as a composer and a conductor.
1 / 6
In order to give you the best service, we need your consent.
We use cookies. They help our website work properly so you can quickly find what you are looking for and so we will not bother you with advertising from third-party websites that does not interest you. Your consent helps us keep the website in a familiar format and make further improvements to it.<