PRESS RELEASE April 25th, 2019
Two extraordinary pieces and both of them in an exceptional context. This is the concert of Filharmonie Brno in Musikverein. With his Chief Conductor Dennis Russell Davies for the first time.
Our orchestra will play Lebensstürme by Heinz Winbeck, a close friend of Davies, who died 26th March, only few days after Filharmonie Brno successfully presented his piece in the hall of Besední dům. „I was able to speak with Heinz by telephone and report to him of the wonderful success his „Lebensstürme“ was enjoying with our subscription audience, in three performances which I conducted in Brno with the Filharmonie Brno together with pianist Maki Namekawa and baritone Martin Achrainer. Tragically these will have been the last performances during the lifetime of this profound and intense musician and composer, and thus our Musikverein performance will be even more significant and meaningful. No one who has had the opportunity to perform or hear a major work by Winbeck has been left unmoved or unchanged by this experience, and I will do everything I can to see that an even wider circle can join in this experience,“ said Davies.
Lebensstürme is a forceful work, quodlibet on music by Franz Schubert, using his motifs for voice, piano and chamber orchestra. It was premiered by Martin Achreiner, Maki Namekawa and the Bruckner Orchestra Linz conducted by Maestro Davies in February 2011. At Musikverein, the work will be performed with the same soloists.
In the second half of the evening, the orchestra will play Antonín Dvořák´s Symphony No. 1 “The Bells of Zlonice”. It will sound in premiere in Musikverein. Dvořák´s early work will be performed with modifications made by Mr. Davies. “Very often Dvořák corrected his works, but in this case he couldn´t do so, because he had never heard it in his life. I made a bit of alternations in the scores leaning on my knowledge of Dvořák´s work and also based on a frequent work with young authors,” said Davies.
The concert of Filharmonie Brno will take place in the Grand Hall of Musikverein, which people know f. e. from the traditional New Year´s Concerts of the Vienna Philharmonic. “It is one of the most prestigious hall in the world. And Filharmonie Brno has a special connection with it in Theophil Hansen, the very same architect who gave the form also to our Besední dům. And farther more, our concert hall is a kind of a miniature of the Musikverein,” said Marie Kučerová, director of Filharmonie Brno.
Concert take place as a part of the Muzik der Meister and begins at. 7.30 PM.
Media contact:
Kateřina Konečná, Head of PR and marketing Filharmonie Brno
+420 775 426 040, katerina.konecna@filharmonie-brno.cz