Filharmonie at the Theatre I (FJD I)

EDWARD ELGAR

The Black Knight, Op. 25, symphony for chorus and orchestra

ALFRED SCHNITTKE

“Seid nüchtern und wachet…” (Faust Cantata)

Iva Bittová voice, Jan Mikušek countertenor, Richard Samek tenor, Jiří Brückler baritone

Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, choir director Petr Fiala

Filharmonie Brno, conductor Dennis Russell Davies

Faust is a topic that accompanied Alfred Schnittke throughout his creative life. When looking for the text for his “Faust Cantata” (1982), he deliberately avoided Goethe’s Romantic version and chose a 1587 chapbook. The moral of the story begins with the words “Be sober and watch”, which were adopted by Schnittke for the title of his cantata. Depicting Faust’s death, the seventh part of the work serves as its focal point; Schnittke conceived it as a tango, dominated by Mephistophelia’s contralto, thundering over the orchestra with the aid of a modern sound system.

Iva Bittová, one of the most distinctive figures of the Czech alternative music scene, first performed the part of Mephistophelia in Schnittke’s cantata in 2008. Her spontaneity, her vocal talent and her expression allowed her to embody this role perfectly, as later convincingly demonstrated to the Brno audience as well as to Vladimir Spivakov, who invited her to perform the “Mephistophelian tango” in September 2019.

The compositional oeuvre of Edward Elgar (1857–1934) was influenced by the English tradition of choral singing and church music and cultivated by German neo-Romanticism. One of the works standing on these foundations is The Black Knight, a cantata in four movements written in 1889–1893 and described by the composer as a symphony for chorus and orchestra.

Subscription on sale from 7/6/2021 from 12 AM

Individual tickets and Season of your choise on sale from 21/6/2021 from 12 AM

EDWARD ELGAR

The Black Knight, Op. 25, symphony for chorus and orchestra

ALFRED SCHNITTKE

“Seid nüchtern und wachet…” (Faust Cantata)

Iva Bittová voice, Jan Mikušek countertenor, Richard Samek tenor, Jiří Brückler baritone

Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, choir director Petr Fiala

Filharmonie Brno, conductor Dennis Russell Davies

Faust is a topic that accompanied Alfred Schnittke throughout his creative life. When looking for the text for his “Faust Cantata” (1982), he deliberately avoided Goethe’s Romantic version and chose a 1587 chapbook. The moral of the story begins with the words “Be sober and watch”, which were adopted by Schnittke for the title of his cantata. Depicting Faust’s death, the seventh part of the work serves as its focal point; Schnittke conceived it as a tango, dominated by Mephistophelia’s contralto, thundering over the orchestra with the aid of a modern sound system.

Iva Bittová, one of the most distinctive figures of the Czech alternative music scene, first performed the part of Mephistophelia in Schnittke’s cantata in 2008. Her spontaneity, her vocal talent and her expression allowed her to embody this role perfectly, as later convincingly demonstrated to the Brno audience as well as to Vladimir Spivakov, who invited her to perform the “Mephistophelian tango” in September 2019.

The compositional oeuvre of Edward Elgar (1857–1934) was influenced by the English tradition of choral singing and church music and cultivated by German neo-Romanticism. One of the works standing on these foundations is The Black Knight, a cantata in four movements written in 1889–1893 and described by the composer as a symphony for chorus and orchestra.

Subscription on sale from 7/6/2021 from 12 AM

Individual tickets and Season of your choise on sale from 21/6/2021 from 12 AM

RICHARD STRAUSS

Serenade in E-flat major, Op. 7

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

“Giunse alfin il momento . . . Al desio di chi t’adora”, recitative and aria, K 577

“Ch’io mi scordi di te? . . . Non temer”, soprano scene and rondo, K 505

GUSTAV MAHLER

Symphony No. 4 in G major

Martina Janková soprano

Filharmonie Brno

conductor Dennis Russell Davies piano

When Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) conceived the idea of composing his Fourth Symphony in 1899, he was already an admired and feared director of the Vienna Opera. His plan for the work started from the song in the finale, which returns to an earlier piece for voice and orchestra from 1892, from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The song, “Das himmlische Leben”, describing the bucolic and epicurean delights of heaven, thus served Mahler as the conclusion of his symphony. Compared to earlier symphonies, the orchestral apparatus in the Fourth is much reduced. In the second movement, a scherzo, the composer used a part for solo violin, whose unusual, mystic sound is due to the instrument being tuned a whole tone higher than normal, in the Baroque fashion. In the context of Mahler’s oeuvre, where tragedy is a constant, the Fourth, completed in summer 1900, appears as a divertimento, as a lyrical intermezzo. Hiding behind the apparent simplicity, however, is rich invention and a carefully thought-out compositional work.

Subscription on sale from 7/6/2021 from 12 AM

Individual tickets and Season of your choise on sale from 21/6/2021 from 12 AM

RICHARD STRAUSS

Serenade in E-flat major, Op. 7

WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART

“Giunse alfin il momento . . . Al desio di chi t’adora”, recitative and aria, K 577

“Ch’io mi scordi di te? . . . Non temer”, soprano scene and rondo, K 505

GUSTAV MAHLER

Symphony No. 4 in G major

Martina Janková soprano

Filharmonie Brno

conductor Dennis Russell Davies piano

When Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) conceived the idea of composing his Fourth Symphony in 1899, he was already an admired and feared director of the Vienna Opera. His plan for the work started from the song in the finale, which returns to an earlier piece for voice and orchestra from 1892, from the collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn. The song, “Das himmlische Leben”, describing the bucolic and epicurean delights of heaven, thus served Mahler as the conclusion of his symphony. Compared to earlier symphonies, the orchestral apparatus in the Fourth is much reduced. In the second movement, a scherzo, the composer used a part for solo violin, whose unusual, mystic sound is due to the instrument being tuned a whole tone higher than normal, in the Baroque fashion. In the context of Mahler’s oeuvre, where tragedy is a constant, the Fourth, completed in summer 1900, appears as a divertimento, as a lyrical intermezzo. Hiding behind the apparent simplicity, however, is rich invention and a carefully thought-out compositional work.

Subscription on sale from 7/6/2021 from 12 AM

Individual tickets and Season of your choise on sale from 21/6/2021 from 12 AM

MILOSLAV KABELÁČ

Symphony No. 5 in B-flat minor “Drammatica” for soprano and orchestra, Op. 41

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47

Jana Šrejma Kačírková soprano

Filharmonie Brno

conductor Robert Kružík

Subscription on sale from 7/6/2021 from 12 AM

Individual tickets and Season of your choise on sale from 21/6/2021 from 12 AM

MILOSLAV KABELÁČ

Symphony No. 5 in B-flat minor “Drammatica” for soprano and orchestra, Op. 41

DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH

Symphony No. 5 in D minor, Op. 47

Jana Šrejma Kačírková soprano

Filharmonie Brno

conductor Robert Kružík

Subscription on sale from 7/6/2021 from 12 AM

Individual tickets and Season of your choise on sale from 21/6/2021 from 12 AM

FRANZ SCHUBERT

Symphony No. 8 in B minor “Unfinished”, D 759

RICHARD WAGNER

Der Ring ohne Worte (The Ring Without Words) arranged by Lorin Maazel

Filharmonie Brno

conductor Dennis Russell Davies

Richard Wagner’s (1813–1883) opera tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen consist of four evening-long works: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung – in sum, about 15 hours of music. The premiere of the complete cycle, treating themes drawn largely from Icelandic mythology (though presented by Wagner as Germanic), took place from 13 to 17 August 1876 in Bayreuth, where Wagner had a theatre built for the purpose. Every subsequent performance of the tetralogy is a musical sensation and a tremendous experience. Can this musical colossus ever be turned into a “compressed” symphonic version without voices, to serve as a concert performance? Many conductors have attempted it, including Leopold Stokowski, yet it is the 1987 version by the Wagnerian conductor Lorin Maazel, premiered on 11 May 1990 by him with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, that is considered the best embodiment of the idea. Wagner’s Ring loses nothing of its essence as a musical drama here, and the chronological order of all the sections used has been faithfully preserved as well.

Subscription on sale from 7/6/2021 from 12 AM

Individual tickets and Season of your choise on sale from 21/6/2021 from 12 AM

FRANZ SCHUBERT

Symphony No. 8 in B minor “Unfinished”, D 759

RICHARD WAGNER

Der Ring ohne Worte (The Ring Without Words) arranged by Lorin Maazel

Filharmonie Brno

conductor Dennis Russell Davies

Richard Wagner’s (1813–1883) opera tetralogy Der Ring des Nibelungen consist of four evening-long works: Das Rheingold, Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung – in sum, about 15 hours of music. The premiere of the complete cycle, treating themes drawn largely from Icelandic mythology (though presented by Wagner as Germanic), took place from 13 to 17 August 1876 in Bayreuth, where Wagner had a theatre built for the purpose. Every subsequent performance of the tetralogy is a musical sensation and a tremendous experience. Can this musical colossus ever be turned into a “compressed” symphonic version without voices, to serve as a concert performance? Many conductors have attempted it, including Leopold Stokowski, yet it is the 1987 version by the Wagnerian conductor Lorin Maazel, premiered on 11 May 1990 by him with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, that is considered the best embodiment of the idea. Wagner’s Ring loses nothing of its essence as a musical drama here, and the chronological order of all the sections used has been faithfully preserved as well.

Subscription on sale from 7/6/2021 from 12 AM

Individual tickets and Season of your choise on sale from 21/6/2021 from 12 AM