The late maestro Jiří Bělohlávek would have turned 80 last month, an occasion worth celebrating for the orchestra that he founded, the Prague Philharmonia. If the program for his memorial concert – Britten, Bartók and Beethoven – was notably not Czech, the performance nonetheless offered a vivid reminder of Bělohlávek’s lasting imprint on the ensemble. Golden strings, close attention to detail and a sophisticated combination of technical excellence and emotional expression endure as a tribute to his tutelage.
How far the orchestra’s range has expanded was clear in Britten’s Simple Symphony. With current chief conductor Emmanuel Villaume on the podium, the piece started in a light, brisk mode with strings almost too elegant for a dance. The Playful Pizzicato movement featured sharp technical finesse, while the Sentimental Sarabande offered a study in balance, imbuing airy melodies with deep feeling. A vivacious finale capped smart treatment of a work that demands fluid changes in mood and tone, which the orchestra handled with aplomb.
Villaume is in his eleventh season with the orchestra. The bond he has forged with his players was evident in an exceptionally tight performance of Bartók’s Concerto for Viola and Orchestra. The conductor prefers to work mostly sans baton and, in this case, subtle hand gestures were enough to craft a seamless fit between supportive orchestral work and captivating solos from Sào Soulez Larivière. The winner of the 2023 Prague Spring International Competition, Larivière plays with an unusual intensity for someone so young, adding emphasis with plenty of body language. He showed impressive technical command of a complex piece, and if his reading seemed bloodless at times, it was in keeping with the overall dark tone of the music. Villaume gave him a lot of space and wove a spell of his own with the orchestra, fashioning striking sonorities and groaning horns before joining Larivière for a frantic, high-volume finish.
Larivière had an opportunity to show another side of himself in an exuberant encore, with concertmaster Pavla Tesařová joining him for a spirited rendition of Martinů’s Madrigal for Violin and Viola no. 1. They both played with warmth and a heady sense of unbridled enjoyment that drew an enthusiastic response from an appreciative audience.
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony is where the orchestra lives, deep in the Central European repertoire, and the ensemble’s expertise shone in the smooth, almost liquid style and elegance of the playing. All a good conductor needs to do is get out of the way, but Villaume added extra dimensions and depth to the performance with expert control of the dynamics and a fine finish on the sound, crisp on the top with power welling up from underneath. The storm was explosive and the calm afterward gentle before he returned to the ebullient energy of the opening movement for a surging close.
“Surging” is not a bad overall description of the Prague Philharmonia these days. Launched in 1994, the orchestra has more than 90 CDs to its credit, along with a fistful of awards and the distinction of having backed almost every major singer that has visited Prague over the past 20 years. And it continues to set the bar higher, concluding a recent American tour with a debut performance at Carnegie Hall that sold out and generated positive reviews. Jiří Bělohlávek would be proud.
