NEW YEAR´S CONCERT – FILHARMONIE BRNO 70!

ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK Slavonic Dances, selection from Series I, Op. 46
JAN NOVÁK Philharmonic Dances
BENJAMIN JUSUPOV Go Tango!
ARTURO MÁRQUEZ Danzón (Dance) No. 2
JOHN ADAMS The Chairman Dances, foxtrot for orchestra
ALBERTO GINASTERA Danzas (Dances) from the ballet Estancia

Filharmonie Brno
conductor Dennis Russell Davies

Philharmonie Brno 70

The Brno State Philharmonic was founded on 1 January 1956 by merging two ensembles: the Brno Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Brno Regional Symphony Orchestra. On the same day, a concert was held at the Stadium on Kounicova Street under the baton of Zbyněk Mrkos from the works of P. I. Tchaikovsky, but still under the banner of the regional orchestra. Nevertheless, this event can be regarded as the actual concert debut of the Philharmonic Orchestra, which has since then been holding its New Year’s concerts regularly (with the exception of 2021, when the concert was cancelled due to a pandemic) and thus symbolically not only welcomes the arrival of the New Year, but also celebrates its birthday, in 2026 its seventieth.

Birthday celebrations in a whirl of dances

What better way to celebrate an anniversary than by dancing, which we usually associate with the celebration of life and human energy. There will be a selection of Antonín Dvořák’s famous Slavonic Dances (during which some former members of the orchestra will also join the ranks of the current Philharmonic), as well as Jan Novák’s Philharmonic Dances, written in 1956 and premiered the same year in the Stadion Hall (Novák composed them for the then newly established Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra and used them to express his gratitude for their favour and courage, which the orchestra and its first chief conductor, Břetislav Bakala, had shown him when they presented him as a representative of new Czech music at the 1956 Warsaw Autumn Festival, despite the fact that Novák had made his critical attitude towards the communist regime and the doctrine of socialist realism very clear). There will also be exotic dances, with which the Brno Philharmonic and its American chief conductor Dennis Russell Davies will transport the audience across the ocean: to Mexico (Márquez’s Danzón no. 2 gained global popularity after Gustavo Dudamel included it in the European and American tour of the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela in 2007), to Argentina (Ginastera’s dances from the ballet Estancia are among the most popular numbers in popular orchestral programs, and in Go Tango! Benjamin Yusupov’s orchestra will be joined by the dancers) or to the United States (Adams’ 1985 foxtrot The Chair Man Dances combines jazz elements with minimalist ones, and over energetic and swinging rhythms, gives prominence to a captivating palette of orchestral colours).

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.