Czech Philharmonic • Giovanni Antonini

Since winning the London Handel Singing Competition in 2018, Helen Charlston has crafted a place for herself at the forefront of the classical music scene in the UK and abroad. A founder participant of the Rising Star of the Enlightenment programme, she regularly works alongside the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, appearing in their film version of Dido’s Lament inspired by Coldplay’s iconic video of ‘The Scientist’. She is a BBC New Generation Artist (2021‒2023), was a member of Le Jardin des Voix academy with Les Arts Florissants in 2021‒2022 and won the Loveday Song Prize at the 2021 Kathleen Ferrier Awards. In July 2022, Helen was announced as one of Classic FM’s Rising Stars (30 under 30).

Last season, Helen sang the title role in Dido & Aeneas with William Christie in Versailles, and Sorceress/Spirit in the same piece at The Grange Festival, Handel’s Israel in Egypt with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and the role of Irene Theodora with the Philharmonia Baroque in San Francisco, both with Richard Egarr, and Handel’s Judas Maccabaeus with the RIAS Kammerchor at the Berlin Philharmonie with Justin Doyle.

This season, she returns to the Scottish Chamber Orchestra for Bach’s B minor Mass, tours the St John Passion with Les Arts Florissants in Asia, Handel’s Messiah with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra, Monteverdi Vespers in Geneva, and Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore & Coronation Mass with the Handel & Haydn Society in Boston.

Helen made her BBC Proms debut in 2022 and performs Mendelssohn’s Elijah at the 2023 Proms. An avid recitalist she has given performances at Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Leeds Lieder and Cheltenham Festival.

In 2022, Delphian Records released her second solo album, Battle Cry: She Speaks with Toby Carr for which she won the vocal award at the BBC Music Magazine Awards.

Patrick Grahl was born in Leipzig and was initially a member of the St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig under Georg Christoph Biller; he then went on to complete his singing training at the Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy Academy of Music in Leipzig with Professor Berthold Schmid, graduating with distinction in the master-class examination. Patrick Grahl attended master-classes held by Peter Schreier, Gotthold Schwarz, Gerd Türk, Ileana Cotrubaş and Prof. Karl-Peter Kammerlander which gave him decisive momentum for his artistic development. While still a student Patrick Grahl was able to work on and perform roles such as Alfred (in Die Fledermaus by Johann Strauß), Tamino (in Mozart’s Die Zauber Flöte) and Albert (in Albert Herring by Britten). He was also to be heard as the Young Servant in Elektra by Richard Strauss, and as Shepherd / Voice of a Young Sailor in Richard Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the Opéra National de Lyon. During the current season Patrick Grahl gives guest appearances as Don Ottavio in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Teatro La Fenice di Venezia.

In 2016 the tenor won 1^st prize at the XX International Johann Sebastian Bach Competition in Leipzig. He is already much in demand as an oratorio and concert singer and has been invited to perform as soloist with orchestras such as the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, the Dresden Philharmonic, the NDR Radio Philharmonic, the Gürzenichorchester Cologne as well as the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the London Symphony Orchestra; he has worked with conductors such as Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Daniele Gatti, Hartmut Haenchen, Ludwig Güttler, Peter Schreier, Andrew Manze and Leopold Hager. Patrick Grahl still has close ties with the St. Thomas Choir of Leipzig and with the Dresdner Kreuzchor.

Patrick Grahl’s concerts in the 2018/2019 season include Mendelssohn’s Lobgesang in the Maulbronn monastery, Bach’s Mass in B minor with the Münchener Bachchor in Moscow, Bach’s Christmas Oratorio in Leipzig with the Gewandhaus Orchestra and the St. Thomas Choir, Mozart’s Requiem with Bachakademie Stuttgart conducted by Hans-Christoph Rademann, Mozart’s Mass in C minor in Turin under the direction of Omer Meier Wellber, Bach’s St. Matthew Passion in Dresden with Dresdner Kreuzchor, Leopold Mozart’s Missa solemnis at the Mozart Festival in Augsburg with the conductor Alessandro de Marchi and Haydn’s Creation in Bonn under the baton of Paul Krämer. The highlights of the season are Mendelssohn’s Elijah with the Basel Chamber Orchestra conducted by Christopher Moulds, a tour with the Collegium Vocale Gent, and Mozart’s Requiem with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Manfred Honeck

Besides his many commitments on the concert and opera stage Patrick Grahl also has a dedicated interest in chamber music projects and recitals, for instance with his male voice quartet Thios Omilos or the ensemble Barockwerk Ost, with which in 2014 he won 1^st prize of the Advancement prize for Early Music awarded by Saarland Radio and the Academy of Ancient Music in the Saarland. Until 2013 Patrick Grahl was also awarded a scholarship by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation in Bonn.

British bass-baritone Ashley Riches read English at the University of Cambridge where he was a member of the King’s College Choir under Stephen Cleobury and later studied at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. A former Jette Parker Young Artist, he has performed at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, later at the English National Opera, Potsdamer Winteroper or in Tokyo, appearing at the Glyndebourne and Grange festivals too.

Highlights on the concert platform include performances with the Berlin Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Simon Rattle, and also with Sir John Eliot Gardiner in Carnegie Hall.

An accomplished recitalist, and former BBC New Generation Artist 2016–2018, Ashley has collaborated with pianists including Graham Johnson, Iain Burnside, Julius Drake, Joseph Middleton or Anna Tilbrook. His debut solo recital disc, A Musical Zoo, was released in 2021.

The Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC), founded in 1935 by the choirmaster Jan Kühn, is the oldest professional mixed choir in the Czech Republic. Their current choirmaster and artistic director is Lukáš Vasilek, and the second choirmaster is Lukáš Kozubík.

The choir has earned the highest acclaim in the oratorio and cantata repertoire, performing with the world’s most famous orchestras. In this country, they collaborate regularly with the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Philharmonia. They also perform opera as the choir-in-residence of the opera festival in Bregenz, Austria.

Programmes focusing mainly on difficult, lesser-known works of the choral repertoire. For voice students, they are organising the Academy of Choral Singing, and for young children there is a cycle of educational concerts.

The choir has been honoured with the 2018 Classic Prague Award and the 2022 Antonín Dvořák Prize.

Lukáš Vasilek studied conducting and musicology. Since 2007, he has been the chief choirmaster of the Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC). Most of his artistic work with the choir consists of rehearsing and performing the a cappella repertoire and preparing the choir to perform in large-scale cantatas, oratorios, and operatic projects, during which he collaborates with world-famous conductors and orchestras (such as the Berlin Philharmonic, the Czech Philharmonic, the Israel Philharmonic, and the Saint Petersburg Philharmonic).

Besides leading the PPC, he also engages in other artistic activities, especially in collaboration with the vocal ensemble Martinů Voices, which he founded in 2010. As a conductor or choirmaster, his name appears on a large number of recordings that the PPC have made for important international labels (Decca Classics, Supraphon); in recent years, he has been devoting himself systematically to the recording of Bohuslav Martinů’s choral music. His recordings have received extraordinary acclaim abroad and have earned honours including awards from the prestigious journals Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and Diapason.

In the modern history of the Czech Philharmonic, when the first steps were being taken towards an educational programme, the idea arose in 2006 – while Václav Riedlbauch was still the executive director – of giving symphonic concerts for student audiences, i.e. for a new generation of listeners. The choice fell to the former Prague (later Czech) Youth Orchestra, an ensemble with many years of tradition of a youthful, enthusiastic approach to music. This worked wonderfully because the students in the audience saw their peers on stage. Bound by their love of music, these musicians gave performances from 2006 to 2010 under the leadership of the conductor Marko Ivanović, playing such works as Janáček’s Sinfonietta, Dvořák’s New World Symphony, Cello Concerto, and Te Deum, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition, and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet ballet suite.

When new management took over in 2011, the Czech Philharmonic greatly expanded its educational activities, and that was an opportunity for renewal of the student orchestra’s activities, renamed as the Czech Youth Philharmonic. The idea is to give the rising generation of musicians – mostly students at music schools, whether grammar schools with a music emphasis, conservatoires, or academies of music – the regular opportunity of rehearsing and performing great symphonic, concertante, and choral works. Over time, the efforts turned towards creating a permanent orchestra that would support its members in the perfecting of their ensemble playing and in the creation of long-term relationships and mutual understanding. The Czech Youth Philharmonic musicians also serve as “bearers of light” in relation to their peers by showing them that young people can love classical music and can present it enthusiastically to others.

Since the 2013/2014 season, the orchestra has been performing regularly at concerts of the Czech Philharmonic’s educational series Four Steps to the New World (under the baton of Marko Ivanović), and at the series Penguins at the Rudolfinum (with Vojtěch Jouza) and Who’s Afraid of the Philharmonic? (with Ondřej Vrabec). In April 2019, the Czech Youth Philharmonic appeared with Ida Kelarová and the Čhavorenge children’s choir at Šun Devloro concerts – musical celebrations of International Romani Day. In November 2019, the orchestra played under the baton of Robert Kružík at the Students’ Day Concert with the participation of Joachim Gauck and Petr Pithart.

In June 2020, the conductor Simon Rattle came to Prague insisting that he did not want to conduct just the Czech Philharmonic, but also “some orchestra with young people.” When the choice fell to the Czech Youth Philharmonic, that was an enormous challenge for its members. Sir Simon enjoyed working with the young musicians, and he was unsparing in his praise: “The Czech Youth Philharmonic reminds me of the orchestra of the Verbier Festival, which is made up of the best music students from all around the world, led by players from the Metropolitan Opera. That’s the level they are on.” In February 2021, the Czech Youth Philharmonic first appeared under the baton of chief conductor Semyon Bychkov in the televised concert “A přece se učí” (“But Learning Continues”).

In the 2022/2023 and 2023/2024 seasons, the Czech Youth Philharmonic debuted as part of the Czech Philharmonicʼs subscription concerts with conductors Semyon Bychkov, Giovanni Antonini, and Jakub Hrůša. In the “Steps into the New World” series, young musicians, under the baton of Marko Ivanović, performed works by Bizet, Grieg, Smetana, Vivaldi, Piazzolla, Mussorgsky, and others.

A native of Milan, Giovanni Antonini has long been acclaimed worldwide for his innovative and polished approach to performing the Baroque and Classical repertoire while fully respecting the precepts of historically informed interpretation. However, the path of early music had not been his first choice of study. He had originally applied to the conservatoire as a violinist, and it was only because he did not succeed at his audition that he ultimately began studying the recorder, and he became a master of the instrument. It was thanks to his study of the flute at the Civica Scuola di Musica that Antonini fully discovered the world of Baroque music. In addition, as he himself recalls, it was a great advantage that as a flautist specialising in historical interpretation, he did not have many artistic models to rely on and simply imitate (after all, in the 1980s the field was still in its infancy), so he had to seek out his own interpretive approaches. He found further support in his studies at the Centre de Musique Ancienne in Geneva, but the urge never abandoned him to penetrate truly deeply into the music and to create his own language, which is now so appreciated for its uniqueness.

In 1985 he founded his own Baroque ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, with which he still appears all around the world in the dual role of soloist (whether on the recorder or the Baroque transverse flute) and conductor. Overall, perhaps the most ambitious project he threw himself into a few years back with the Basel Chamber Orchestra was to record the complete symphonies of Haydn, and to finish by the year 2032, the 300th anniversary of the composer’s birth. The project Haydn2032, of which Antonini is the artistic director, is daring not only for its scope (Haydn wrote 107 Symphonies, so it is necessary to release 2 CDs with three or four symphonies every year!), but also because of the interpretive difficulties of Haydn’s music. “Haydn is very difficult to perform well because many of the interpretive paths can sound boring. But Haydn is not boring, it’s just the matter of finding the key to the correct interpretation,” explains Antonini. So far, 14 CDs have appeared (most recently this September), so the Haydn symphonic repertoire he has already recorded, rehearsed, or prepared has also influenced the programming of Antonini’s concerts in recent years.

Of course, Antonini does not overlook other greats masters of the 16th through the 18th centuries, whose works he has recorded with Il Giardino Armonico (including the Vivaldi concerto on today’s programme) or performed in concert with such major orchestras as the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra and with renowned soloists like Cecilia Bartoli, Giuliano Carmignola, Isabelle Faust, and Katia and Marielle Labèque. He also devotes himself to opera; in recent years, for example, we have been able to see him at Milan’s La Scala (Giulio Cesare), the Zurich Opera House (Idomeneo), and the Theater an der Wien (Rappresentatione di Anima, et di Corpo). He is also the artistic director of the Polish music festival Wratislavia Cantans and the principal guest conductor of the Basel Chamber Orchestra.

When Beethoven’s piano concertos in C and B flat major were published, the composer was already striving towards a completely different musical language. He was re-evaluating every element of musical structure – from harmony and form to instrumental possibilities and orchestration. From a piano virtuoso, had had become a composer, and for entirely practical reasons: Beethoven was losing his hearing. In 1801 he confided in his friend Franz Wegeler: “It’s just that jealous demon, my poor health, that turned my luck for the worse: my hearing grows weaker and weaker.” In each new work of his mature creative period, Beethoven began experimenting with the possibilities of the given musical genre. His Symphony No. 4 in B Flat Major, Op. 60, is no exception, and although it is not one of his best-known symphonic works, it rightly won the respect of Hector Berlioz, Robert Schumann, and even Igor Stravinsky. Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony demands an attentive listener. In the first movement, the main theme is heard almost constantly (even as an accompaniment!), while the wind instruments divide the melody of the secondary theme among themselves. A monotonous dotted rhythm accompanies the whole second movement without becoming dull. In the third movement he tried out for the first time what one might call a five-part ternary form (the traditional trio of the minuet appears twice!). Beethoven wrote the Finale as a wild perpetuum mobile with Haydnesque “jokes” (for example, having the main idea appear at a slower tempo before the final fortissimo).