The Czech Phil: Live in your living room IV • Tomáš Netopil

Born in Slovakia, Stanislav Masaryk (1993) has been playing the trumpet since the age of nine. As an exceptional student aged 13, he joined the class of JUDr. Michal Janoš at the Bratislava Conservatory and was enrolled there in the following year. He later continued at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava with Mgr. art. Rastislav Suchan ArtD. He finished 2nd in the Slovak Conservatories Competition in 2009 and took the 1st prize in 2012. In 2015, he won the Yamaha Scholarship Award. He was awarded the 1st prize and the title of the overall winner at the International Competition for Wind Instruments Brno 2017 among more than 60 trumpet players from the Visegrad Four countries.

He joined the hot-jazz orchestra Bratislava Hot Serenaders (led by trumpeter Jurej Bartoš) in 2009. In 2012–2015, he was a member of the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra. In 2017 and 2018, he was the first trumpeter of the National Theatre Opera Orchestra in Prague. During that time, he started regularly collaborating with the Czech Philharmonic. He also occasionally plays as a guest in the Slovak Philharmonic and is currently the first trumpeter of the Slovak National Theatre Opera Orchestra.
As a soloist, he has performed with the Slovak Philharmonic, Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Slovak Chamber Orchestra of Bohdan Warchal, Košice State Philharmonic, Cappella Istropolitana, State Chamber Orchestra Žilina, the chamber as well as the symphony orchestra of the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and the Slovak Youth Orchestra.

He has joined the Czech Philharmonic as the first trumpeter in September 2020.

At the age of 26, the trumpeter Walter Hofbauer has already captivated music critics with his outstanding artistic performances and to achieve exceptional results and recognition. He comes from the Czech town Třešť and was raised in a musical family. At age 8 he began studying trumpet with Evžen Mašát, and he soon won first prize at several nationwide competitions. In September 2009 he entered Jiří Jaroněk’s studio at the Prague Conservatoire, and he soon became the overall winner of the conservatoire competition. Already as a second-year student, he played first trumpet in the orchestra of the Prague Conservatoire at the opening concert of the Prague Spring Festival under the baton of Jiří Bělohlávek, the chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. Two years later, he won the audition for the Orchestral Academy of the Czech Philharmonic. He graduated from the conservatoire in 2015, and that same year he was admitted to the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, where he continued his studies under the guidance of Vladimír Rejlek. As a laureate of the Concertino Praga International Radio Competition, he appeared at the Rudolfinum as a soloist with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and he became a full-time member of that orchestra in 2014. Since the 2017/2018 he has also been a member of the Orchestra of the National Theatre.

Praised for his remarkable range of colours, his confident and concentrated stage presence, his virtuosity and technical poise as well as the beauty of his tone Josef Špaček has gradually emerged as one of the leading violinists of his generation. He appears with prestigious orchestras and collaborating with eminent conductors. He equally enjoys giving recitals and playing chamber music and is a regular guest at festivals and in concert halls throughout Europe, Asia and the USA. Josef Špaček studied with Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School in New York, Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and with Jaroslav Foltýn at the Prague Conservatory. He was laureate of the International Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. By the end of the 2019/2020 season he served as concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the youngest in its history. Josef Špaček performs on the ca. 1732 “LeBrun; Bouthillard” Guarneri del Gesù violin, generously on loan from Ingles & Hayday.

An inspirational force in Czech music, Tomáš Netopil holds the position of Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. In early Spring 2018 he led the orchestra on an extensive UK tour, and conducted Má vlast in the opening concert of the 2018 Prague Spring Festival, which was televised live. In the 2020/2021 season, his engagements with them included conducting at the Smetana's Litomyšl Festival in June 2021.

Tomáš Netopil celebrates his tenth and final season as General Music Director of the Aalto Musiktheater and Philharmonie Essen in 2022/23. This season features Wagner’s Tannhäuser, Kampe’s Dogville and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro. This season will also see him lead a production of Janáček Káťa Kabanová at Grand Théâtre de Genève.

In Summer 2018 Tomáš Netopil created the International Summer Music Academy in Kroměříž offering students both exceptional artistic tuition and the opportunity to meet and work with major international musicians. In Summer 2021, in association with the Dvořák Prague Festival, the Academy established the Dvořákova Praha Youth Philharmonic with musicians from conservatories and music academies, coached by principal players of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra.

Operatic highlights beyond Essen include Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden (La clemenza di Tito, Rusalka, The Cunning Little Vixen, La Juive, The Bartered Bride, and Busoni’s Doktor Faust), Vienna Staatsoper (his most recent successes include Idomeneo, Der Freischütz, and a new production of Leonore) and for Netherlands Opera (Jenůfa). His concert highlights of recent seasons have included Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich as well as engagements with Orchestre de Paris, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Orchestra Sinfonica della Rai and Aspen Music Festival.  

Tomáš Netopil’s discography for Supraphon includes Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass (the first ever recording of the original 1927 version), Dvořák’s complete cello works, Martinů’s Ariane and Double Concerto, and Smetana’s Má vlast with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. During his tenure in Essen, he has recorded Suk Asrael and Mahler Symphonies No.6 and 9.

From 2008–2012 Tomáš Netopil held the position of Music Director of the Prague National Theatre. He studied violin and conducting in his native Czech Republic, as well as at the Royal College of Music in Stockholm under the guidance of Professor Jorma Panula. In 2002 he won the 1^st Sir Georg Solti Conductors Competition at the Alte Oper Frankfurt.

From the family of a musketeer all the way to the court in Vienna – that is how one might simply summarise the life and career of Pavel Josef Vejvanovský, one of the most prominent figures of Czech music in the seventeenth century. We have little information about how his life began. Scholars have deduced his date and place of birth from later documents in which either he or his father appears. He was born either in 1633 in Hlučín, where his father was serving as a musketeer, or in 1639, by which time his father was commander of the guard at the palace of the Archbishop of Olomouc in Hukvaldy. It is certain that from 1656 to 1660, Vejvanovský studied at the Jesuit grammar school in Opava. That period was crucial for the direction his career would take. Thanks to the Jesuits, he gained experience as a musical performer and learned repertoire, and especially sacred music, and he began learning to play the trumpet. Moreover, two of his fellow students would later go on to be important composers and colleagues of Vejvanovský: Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber and Philipp Jakob Rittler. After his studies, in 1661 Vejvanovský entered the services of Leopold Wilhem, Bishop of Olomouc, and he obtained the title of “field trumpeter”. Because he held what was basically a military rank, he underwent training in Vienna at the bishop’s expense. In 1664 Karel Liechtenstein-Castelkorn became the Bishop of Olomouc. He had an imposing palatial residence built in Kroměříž, where he created a musical ensemble of superior quality with Biber at its helm. In 1670, however, Biber “deserted”, leaving for the court of the Archbishop of Salzburg, so Vejvanovský took his place in charge of the music, and he carried out his duties conscientiously until his death in 1693. He was responsible for all musical events at the residence: obtaining repertoire, making copies, and rehearsing for performances. By no means did Vejvanovský compose everything that was played in Kroměříž. He made trips to Vienna for music, or he had new musical works sent to him, and he copied them. His personal music collection has been preserved, and there are more compositions in the diocesan archives. It was originally thought that he had also composed all of the works written in his hand. We are now aware of easily more than 50 compositions of his own (instrumental and sacred), while the rest is documentation of how varied and up-to-date the repertoire of music by other composers was in Kroměříž at the time. Thanks to his knowledge of that music, Vejvanovský also developed his skill at composing – the musical style that he absorbed bears elements of the Italian music that was so plentifully performed at the imperial court in Vienna.

The Sonata vespertina à 8 calls for two trumpets, two violins, three trombones, and basso continuo. Vejvanovský composed it in 1665, and today it is one of his best-known compositions. The title implies that it was intended either as special music for vespers (an evening worship service, vesperae in Latin) or for some other occasion taking place in the evening. The virtuosity of the trumpet parts demonstrates the masterful playing of Vejvanovský and of the unknown performer of the second trumpet part who played the sonata with Vejvanovský.

Allegro molto appassionato
Andante
Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace

On 3 February 1809, a son named Felix was born to the wealthy family of the banker Abraham Mendelssohn. He began playing piano and violin at the age of seven, at age nine he made a public appearance, and already at 12 he began composing. Wisely, Felix’s father did not stand in the way of the development of his son’s talent; to the contrary, he actively supported the boy – perhaps as a banker, he was well aware of how fleeting wealth was, and that the only thing that could immortalise his name was an act of artistic creativity. Felix was fortunate to have grown up surrounded by plenty in what was then one of Germany’s richest families, and never in his life did he have to concern himself with earning a living. Already as a child, he was composing symphonies, cantatas, songs, choruses, and attempts at musical drama. Many of these compositions (including symphonies!) were performed soon after they were written at regular Sunday household concerts, for which leading professional musicians were hired, so the young composer received immediate feedback – what would Antonín Dvořák have given to have had something like that! After the travels of his youth (Germany, England, Scotland, Italy), he became the conductor of the Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig, and he served in that capacity continuously from 1835 (with the exception of the years 1841–1842) until the end of his life. As its conductor, he improved the Leipzig orchestra, establishing its outstanding reputation, which continues to this day.

Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy worked for six years on composing his Violin Concerto in E minor for the concertmaster of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, his friend Ferdinand David. Already in July 1838, Mendelssohn wrote to David: “I would like to write a concerto for you for next winter. The opening melody in E minor keeps running through my head and gives me no peace.” Because of the hectic pace of the composer’s life, his work on the concerto was delayed. Mendelssohn consulted on the piece with Niels Gade and worked on instrumental aspects of the piece directly with David. This was all taking place by correspondence during his travels – the score spent more time in a stagecoach than on a desk. Mendelssohn wanted the concerto to be truly magnificent: “This is to be such a concerto that the angels shall rejoice in heaven!” At the premiere on 13 March 1845 in Leipzig, Niels Gade conducted the Gewandhaus Orchestra and Ferdinand David played the solo part. The concerto immediately won over the public, met with critical acclaim, and became a cornerstone of the repertoire of professional violinists. At the celebration of Joseph Joachim’s 75^th birthday in 1906, the famed virtuoso proclaimed: “The Germans have four violin concertos. The greatest, most uncompromising is Beethoven’s. The one by Brahms vies with it in seriousness. The richest, the most seductive, was written by Max Bruch. But the most inward, the heart’s jewel, is Mendelssohn’s.”

Allegro non tanto
Adagio
Scherzo: Presto
Finale: Allegro con spirito

Antonín Dvořákʼs Symphony No. 6 in D Major, Op. 60 is sometimes given the epithet “Czech”. Written in autumn 1880, it is the work of a mature composer whose music had just started to achieve worldwide recognition. Characteristically free of conflict, full of optimism and joy, it reflects a happy period in Dvořak’s life, when he achieved the success he desired with audiences, performers, critics and publishers. The contented atmosphere is ushered in by the first movement, Allegro non tanto, in sonata form. The second movement, Adagio, is an ardent nocturne. It opens with a brooding theme, which returns three times in minor variations, thus giving the movement the form of a rondo. The third movement, a scherzo (Presto), echoes Dvořák’s favourite Czech dance, the furiant, and recalls his somewhat earlier set of Slavonic Dances. The movement is framed by strongly rhythmic music which contrasts with a relaxed trio in the middle section. Like the first movement, the finale, Allegro con spirito, is written in sonata form. It underlines the joyful atmosphere of the work, achieving a full symphonic breadth and ends with a graduated coda which leaves the audience in no doubt that this is a work written by someone experiencing joyous moments as he was composing.