Bereft blues as the Santa Cecilia and Hrůša play at Prague Spring

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Jakub Hrůša

Kirill Gerstein

By Frank Kuznik, 21 May 2024

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“the clanking of swords was audible in the finale's tumult”

Reviewed at Municipal House: Smetana Hall, Prague on 18 May 2024

Martinů, The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, H 352

Gershwin, Piano Concerto in F

Levant, Blame It on My Youth

Rachmaninov, Symphonic Dances, Op.45

Smetana, The Bartered Bride: dances

Kirill Gerstein, Piano

Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia

Jakub Hrůša, Conductor

Yunchan Lim, Daniel Harding and the Santa Cecilia in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 4th December

Daniel Harding and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia choose proportion over spectacle as their Asian tour reaches Seoul.

****1

Sir Antonio Pappano returns to Santa Cecilia for Mozart and Bruckner

Pia Maltri, 30th October

Now Director Emeritus of the Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the rarely heard Mass in F minor by Anton Bruckner.

****1

Lorenzo Viotti conducts the death and rebirth of Spring in music

Alissa Balocco, 8th February

The Swiss conductor returns to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, presenting a triptych of pieces by Schumann, Debussy and Zemlinsky inspired by the season of renewal.

****1

Kirill Gerstein: a Mozartian master with the Santa Cecilia

Alissa Balocco, 25th January

The pianist enchants the audience with Mozart's Piano Concerto no. 20 in D minor, conducted by Leonidas Kavakos.

***11

Pappano and Levit take the Santa Cecilia on an incredible journey

Alissa Balocco, 2nd November

Levit offers impeccable Beethoven, while Pappano enchants the Rome audience with Cherubini and Sibelius.

****1

Despair, violence and lyricism from Kantorow in Évian

David Karlin, 3rd July

The French pianist gives a performance of Prokofiev's Second Piano Concerto to remember; Tugan Sokhiev and an inconsistent Santa Cecilia thrill in Tchaikovsky.

****1

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Frank Kuznik

Frank Kuznik is the former Editor-in-Chief and Culture Editor of The Prague Post, Central Europe’s premier English-language weekly newspaper. He currently divides his time between Prague and his hometown in the US, Cleveland, where he covers northeast Ohio's dynamic classical music scene. In Prague he is an habitué of the Rudolfinum, National Theater, State Opera and other storied classical music venues, and an unabashed fan of Czech music.

Bereft blues as the Santa Cecilia and Jakub Hrůša play at Prague Spring