PRESS RELEASE Brno, September 14, 2026
When Johannes Brahms took the stage at Brno’s Reduta on November 24, 1867, he was not yet a famous composer or one of the central figures of 19th-century European music. He arrived in Brno as a 34-year-old pianist, accompanied by the renowned violinist Joseph Joachim. Nearly 160 years later, his music will be performed at the opening of the Brno Philharmonic’s 71st season. This takes place as part of the season’s theme, “All Roads Lead to Brno.” “Among other things, we are revisiting significant moments in Brno’s musical history, and Brahms’s concert at the Reduta is one of them. Contemporary critics at the time described the young musician as ‘a true artist of soulful piano performance’ and noted the full house and the extraordinary success of his performance,” said Marie Kučerová, director of the Brno Philharmonic. She added that the concert will be conducted by the orchestra’s former chief conductor, Petr Altrichter.
Brahms’s Second Symphony was composed ten years after his Brno concert, in the summer of 1877. The work is often compared to Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony for its bright, natural atmosphere; however, beneath the apparent calm, melancholic and dramatic undertones repeatedly emerge.
The opening tones of the gala concert on Sunday, September 20, will, however, belong to César Franck’s symphonic poem *Psyche*, inspired by the ancient story of Psyche and Eros. In this work, the composer interprets the myth of the beautiful Psyche—who breaks the ban on seeing her lover and must undergo a series of trials for her transgression—as a parable of the human soul. Yet he does not tell the story descriptively; rather, he portrays the inner states of the characters—innocence, desire, guilt, suffering, and redemption. The orchestra will be joined by the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, which, much like the chorus in ancient drama, provides commentary on the action. In its scope and conception, *Psyché* transcends the conventional notion of a symphonic poem and approaches that of a secular oratorio.
Both compositions are among the great Romantic works, yet they offer entirely different answers to the question that preoccupied composers, critics, and audiences alike in the second half of the 19th century: whether music should tell a story and refer to something outside itself, or whether it should speak for itself. “It was one of the most passionate and intense theoretical and aesthetic debates of its time. The first tendency attributed to music the ability to express extra-musical content, thereby giving rise to the tradition of program music, while the second tendency—manifesting as a Classical-Romantic synthesis—emphasized purely musical qualities. “It sharply distanced itself from any connection to a literary program,” explained Vítězslav Mikeš, program director of the Brno Philharmonic.
Franck’s Psyché draws on a specific myth but transforms it into an exceptionally intimate musical statement. Brahms, on the other hand, needs no story—his Second Symphony creates its own world exclusively through musical means. “Putting these two works side by side is therefore not just a striking contrast. It is an encounter between two ways of thinking about all that music can be,” Mikeš emphasized.
Tickets can be purchased in advance, online on the Philharmonic’s website, or at the venue before the concert begins.
Media contact: Kateřina Konečná, Head of PR and Marketing, Brno Philharmonic, +420 775 426 040, katerina.konecna@filharmonie-brno.cz
