Kožená & Rattle & BRSO

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO), according to prestigious international rankings one of the three greatest orchestras in the world, gave a superb concert of Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 at the Prague Spring in 2023. With this performance still fresh in our minds, the ensemble is returning to the festival, now with its new Chief Conductor, Sir Simon Rattle. Together they will present two programmes in Prague on 14 and 15 May. Their first concert will feature supreme symphonies by two Viennese classics – Joseph Haydn and Johannes Brahms and the Czech premiere of the piece Where are You? by Ondřej Adámek, whose solo part was written specifically for mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená. “Ondrej is a great composer. In Where are You? he creates a gripping drama about the search for God with quasi-ritual traits,” states Sir Simon Rattle. In this work Adámek treats texts from the Bible, from the sacred Hindu scripture Bhagavad Gita, also from the autobiography of St Teresa of Ávila, and even the Moravian folk song Kdo víno pije, muzice platí (He who drinks wine pays for the music). In addition to Where are You? the programme also includes Brahms’s last symphony, the Fourth, with its imposing closing Passacaglia, and the majestic Symphony No. 86 from the cycle of “Paris” symphonies by Joseph Haydn, whose humorous and universal spirit Simon Rattle describes as “an eternal elixir”.

Tickets: 1 050 – 9 000 CZK