Honeck and the Power of Youth

The legacy of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and its founder Claudio Abbado lives on. Manfred Honeck and Renaud Capuçon will prove it on stage.

It is easy to associate youth with inexperience. But when speaking of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester—founded by Claudio Abbado himself—any such notion must be dismissed immediately. Over the past decades, this orchestra has served as a launching pad for musicians who now hold leading positions in the world’s top orchestras, including those in Berlin, Vienna, and Prague.

Korngold’s Violin Concerto and Bruckner’s monumental Ninth Symphony are no place for beginners. These works demand more than passion alone—they require absolute mastery of one’s instrument and the ability to function within a large ensemble at the highest level. The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester is a masterclass in itself, a gateway to the professional musical world. It was also the first youth orchestra in the West to welcome members from former communist countries, setting a precedent for international collaboration. Over the years, some of the greatest conductors have shaped it into a first-class ensemble, specialising in the grand symphonic repertoire of German Romanticism—a tradition that thrives under the baton of Manfred Honeck.

Korngold’s Violin Concerto, his most frequently performed concert work, was written after the composer fled Nazi-occupied Vienna and became a pioneering figure of Hollywood film music. And Bruckner’s vast symphonies, once dismissed and misunderstood, are now regarded as one of the towering masterpieces of the symphonic repertoire, performed by the world’s greatest orchestras.

Ticket prices: 390 – 3 290 CZK