The Czech orchestra, a guest of the George Enescu Festival, will have two concerts this week – on Wednesday and Thursday at the
Romanian Athenaeum
The Czech Philharmonic, one of the oldest orchestras in Europe, is coming to Bucharest for two concerts this week at the Romanian Athenaeum, as part of the George Enescu Festival.
The program of the orchestra’s first concert (Wednesday 30.08 at 5 pm) combines a purely modern Concerto for Two Pianos by Bryce Desner and Tchaikovsky’s classic Fifth Symphony. Manfred Honeck will lead the Czech Philharmonic joined by the piano duo of Katia and Marielle Labèque.
The Czech Philharmonic’s second concert at the George Enescu Festival (Thursday 31.08 at 4 pm) will feature Enescu’s symphonic poem Vox Maris with the Romanian tenor Cosmin Ifrim and the George Enescu Philharmonic Choir, led by choirmaster Ion Iosif Prunner. Conductor Manfred Honeck included Beethoven’s First Symphony and Tomáš Ille’s arrangement of melodies from Rusalka.
Founded in 1896, the Czech Philharmonic is one of the oldest in Europe, recognized as one of the top orchestras worldwide and appreciated for its specific warm tone. Starting this season, PPF Group, an international investment company with over 60,000 employees worldwide and operating in 26 countries, including Romania, is the Czech Philharmonic’s global partner, contributing to its international tours. PPF Group has been supporting the institution and its distinctive sound since 2015, by acquiring instruments, crafted by master instrument makers, for the orchestra’s string section.
About the Czech Philharmonic:
On 4 January 1896, the 127-year-old Czech Philharmonic gave its first concert in the famed Rudolfinum Hall in the heart of Prague. The concert was conducted by Antonín Leopold Dvořák and the program featured the world première of his Biblical Songs, Nos. 1-5. The Czech Philharmonic has been a constant champion of Czech composers and in tandem with the special relationship it has to the music of Brahms and Tchaikovsky – both friends of Dvořák – and to Mahler who in 1908 conducted the Orchestra in the world première of his Symphony No. 7, the Orchestra is renowned for its definitive interpretations.
About the performers:
Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their ensemble of synchronicity and energy. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwinʼs Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music) and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide.
They are regular guests with the most prestigious orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Filarmonia della Scala, Philadelphia Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Amsterdam and Vienna Philharmonic. They have appeared with Baroque music ensembles such as The English Baroque Soloists with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini, Musica Antica with Reinhard Goebel and Venice Baroque with Andrea Marcon, il Pomo d’Oro with Maxim Emelyanychev and also toured with The Age of Enlightenment & Sir Simon Rattle.
Over the last quarter century, Manfred Honeck has firmly established himself as one of the world’s leading conductors, renowned for his distinctive interpretations and arrangements of a wide range of repertoire. For well over a decade, he has served as Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, celebrated in Pittsburgh and abroad. Together, they have continued a legacy of music-making that includes several Grammy nominations and a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra serve as cultural ambassadors for the city as one of the most frequently toured American orchestras.
In his own words, the composer understands the two pianos “more like one gigantic instrument than like two contrasting voices”, and the perfect ensemble playing of Katia and Marielle Labèque reinforces that impression. The concerto is in the classical three-movement form with an alternation of fast and slow passages, and the orchestra sound is enhanced by a wide range of percussion including various metal objects. The work was composed in 2017 and premiered in April 2018 in London with the London Philharmonic Orchestra accompanying Katia and Marielle Labèque.
