Czech Philharmonic • Manfred Honeck

Over the last quarter century, Manfred Honeck has firmly established himself as one of the world’s leading conductors, renowned for his distinctive interpretations and arrangements of a wide range of repertoire. For well over a decade, he has served as Music Director of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, celebrated in Pittsburgh and abroad. Together, they have continued a legacy of music-making that includes several Grammy nominations and a 2018 Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance. Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra serve as cultural ambassadors for the city as one of the most frequently toured American orchestras.

Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck received his musical training at the Academy of Music in Vienna. Many years of experience as a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and the Vienna State Opera Orchestra have given his conducting a distinctive stamp. He began his career as assistant to Claudio Abbado and was subsequently engaged by the Zurich Opera House, where he was bestowed the prestigious European Conductor’s Award. Following early posts at MDR Symphony Orchestra in Leipzig and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, he was appointed Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm. For several years, he also served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. From 2007 to 2011, Manfred Honeck was Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart. As a guest conductor Manfred Honeck has worked with the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, London Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Accademia di Santa Cecilia Rome, and the Vienna Philharmonic, and is a regular guest with all of the major American orchestras. 

He also has a strong profile as opera conductor. In his four seasons as General Music Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, he conducted premieres of operas by Berlioz, Mozart, Poulenc, Strauss, Verdi, and Wagner. He has also appeared as a guest at leading houses such as the Semperoper Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, Théâtre de la Monnaie in Brussels, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, and the Salzburg Festival. In autumn 2022, he will make his debut at the Metropolitan opera in New York, leading a revival of Mozart’s Idomeneo.

Manfred Honeck holds honorary doctorates from several North American universities and was awarded the honorary title of Professor by the Austrian Federal President. An international jury of critics selected him as the International Classical Music Awards “Artist of the Year” 2018.

Příroda znamenala pro Ludwiga van Beethovena (1770–1827) útočiště a při dlouhých procházkách v okolí Vídně také nalézal inspiraci. „Ptáte se mne, odkud beru své myšlenky? To nejsem schopen s jistotou říci; přicházejí nevolány, nepřímo, bezprostředně, mohl bych je uchopit rukama v přírodě, v lese, na procházkách, v tichu noci, za časného rána, podníceny náladami,“ jak údajně prohlásil. Ve svém svérázném panteisticky orientovaném duchovním smýšlení vnímal přírodu jako odraz Boží činnosti a její prožívání jako prostor pro pociťování sounáležitosti s Bohem. Ne náhodou proto zamýšlel vyjádřit svůj obdivný vztah k přírodě v hudebním díle a navázat tak na tradici hudebních děl 17. a 18. století s přírodní tematikou.

Jeho Symfonie č. 6 F dur op. 68, „Pastorální“ v sobě integruje jak tradici instrumentálních děl přinášejících idylickou atmosféru života pastýřů, tj. pastorále, tak využívání ustálených rétorických figur evokujících určité přírodní děje. Bouře, která je zde užita, byla v hudbě 18. století častým a velmi charakteristickým elementem. Beethoven však svým dílem překračuje starší estetiku usilující o přímé napodobení přírody, snaží se o zachycení emocí, které příroda vzbuzuje. Na zadní stranu titulního listu prvních houslí zaznamenal příznačný podtitul symfonie: „Vzpomínka na venkovský život (spíše výraz pocitů nežli malba).“ Beethoven svou Šestou symfonii komponoval v letech 1807–1808 souběžně s Pátou. Obě symfonie byly společně premiérovány 22. prosince 1808 v Divadle na Vídeňce.

Pastorální symfonie je netradičně pětivětá, před finále je totiž vložena zmiňovaná Bouře. První, sonátová věta nese od Beethovena podtitul Probuzení radostných pocitů při příchodu na venkov. Její pozitivní ladění spojené s venkovským prostředím je podpořeno hudebními prvky evokujícími hru vesnických muzikantů – časté harmonie na základních funkcích, opakování krátkých hudebních motivů, houpavá melodika. Pomalá věta je idylickou žánrovou Scénou u potoka, založenou na charakteristickém triolovém motivu proudění vody, k němuž se připojuje zpěv ptáků. Slavík (flétna), křepelka (hoboj) a kukačka (klarinet) větu dokonce uzavřou sólistickými kadencemi. Scherzo, nazvané Veselé setkání venkovanů, je temperamentním selským kolovým tancem, který nečekaně přejde v působivou Bouři. Když se běsnící živel uklidní, do jeho posledních dozvuků zaznívá zbožně znějící chorálová melodie, k níž si Beethoven do jedné ze skic připsal slova „Pane, děkujeme ti,“ a která je přechodem k finále s podtitulem Šťastné a vděčné pocity po bouři. Jeho poklidná a jasná atmosféra nás navrací do nálady úvodní věty a symetricky uzavírá celé dílo.

One of the most famous compositions in the history of classical music – Ludwig van Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony – began around 1803, when its composer was recovering from his unrequited love for Count Joseph Deym’s young widow, Josephine von Brunswick, whom Beethoven taught to play the piano. At the same time, however, he had another serious personal crisis due to the struggle with his progressive hearing loss. This later prevented him from active as well as passive participation in the concert scene. From then on, he was only able to seek the meaning of his life exclusively in composing. Beethoven became deeply concerned with issues of heroism and noble ideas about the ultimate salvation of the universe, which was reflected in the increased pathos of his compositions. He was at the peak of his creative powers and released into the world one quality work after another, but at the time he was suffering from material deprivation.

The leitmotif of Symphony No. 5, known as “Schicksals-Sinfonie” (Fate Symphony), is the idea of the fight of one’s mind against metaphysically conceived fate, full of life crises and pain, while the result of this fight is the finding of inner harmony and peace. Beethoven worked on his first symphony in a minor key for an unusually long time simultaneously with the composition of his Sixth Symphony. He often returned to his Fifth, changing, reworking and revising many things. He was not satisfied with it until 1808, and on 22 December of that year the two new symphonies were performed for the first time before an audience at the Theater an der Wien.

Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony opens with a famous motif consisting of three Gs of equal duration followed by a sustained E flat below the G. This essentially very simple motif, which is to be found in several of Beethoven’s earlier and later works, was allegedly described by the composer as “fate knocking at the door”. Beethoven imaginatively develops the motif in the following energetic flow of music, adhering above all to its rhythmic structure. The slow second movement is based on variations of two contrasting themes – a lyrically peaceful one and a fanfare-like heroic one. The scherzo of the third movement suggests the continued defiance of fate, which is underlined, among other things, by the repetition of the rhythmic pattern of the opening motif. The final victory is announced by an optimistic-sounding finale in the major key, which follows after the scherzo attaca, i.e., without a pause. It is written in sonata form and mostly returns to the musical narratives of the High Classical period.