IN THE ORCHESTRA: MUSIC AND HISTORY

GEORG FRIEDRICH HÄNDEL Alexander’s Feast, overture
LUDWIG van BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 3 in E flat major “Eroica” Op. 55 (selection from the 1st movement – Allegro con brio)
AARON COPLAND Portrait of Lincoln (selection)
DMITRY SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 9 in E flat major Op. 70 (1st movement – Allegro), Symphony No. 10 in E minor Op. 93 (2nd movement – Allegro)
BEDŘICH SMETANA Fanfares from the opera Libuše

Filharmonie Brno
conductor Stanislav Vavřínek
moderators Kristýna Drášilová and Vítězslav Mikeš
script Kristýna Drášilová

“You don’t invite the orchestra – if possible – into your apartment. It would probably be too small for him, the neighbours would grumble and it would literally cost you dearly” (Karel Šrom: Orchestra and Conductor, Prague 1961). That is why we go to the concert hall to see the orchestra. And let’s pour ourselves some pure wine: who hasn’t at least once fallen asleep in a concert hall and wanted to leave his seat in the audience as a listener to experience how an orchestral musician sees and hears music in a concert…

Now you have a unique opportunity to do so! The project called In the Orchestra makes it possible.

The orchestra will be placed all around the Besední dům hall and the audience will sit among the musicians. It’s impossible to be closer to the orchestra. Those who cannot fit into the orchestra pit can sit wherever there is a free space in the hall – around the orchestra or on the balcony.

The continuation of the successful project will this time be a “twist” on history: it will offer the context of music with historical figures and political and social events. Together with Georg Friedrich Handel, we will look back into the deep past to Alexander the Great. We will sketch Ludwig van Beethoven’s complicated relationship with Napoleon. With Aaron Copland, we look back to the time when the 16th President of the United States advocated the abolition of slavery and promoted democracy. We’ll see how Dmitri Shostakovich dealt with the brutal leader Stalin in his music. And not to end on a dark note, we will also remember a mythical figure of Czech history, Princess Libuše, through the celebratory music of Bedřich Smetana. Most of all, however, we will listen to powerful music, and from places we are not lucky enough to hear again, with the opportunity to hear and feel this music “from the inside”, in short, differently.

Tickets are sold by sector. Seats are not numbered.

Sector A: in and around the orchestra
Sector B: on stage
Sector C: in the balcony

When on sale?

You can buy the concert online from 29 April 2025 (8am) and at the Brno Philharmonic pre-sale from 12 May 2025 (8am).

In case you plan to create a tailor-made Season, in which the amount of your discount is influenced by the number of concerts and in which you want to have concerts bound in subscription series that will be released for sale later, you can book a concert. Reservations are set for a period of 30 days. You can then extend your reservation to include additional concerts while your reservation is valid.