Czech Philharmonic • Velvet Revolution Concert

Nänie for mixed choir and orchestra, Op. 82 (14')

Johannes Brahms

Johannes Brahms took inspiration for several of his works from subject matter referring to the cultural treasures of antiquity. In ancient Rome, a “naenia” was a song of lament that accompanied a funeral procession. The poem Nänie by Friedrich Schiller (1759–1805) was published in 1800, and Johannes Brahms wrote a musical setting for mixed choir and orchestra 80 years later in reaction to the death of his friend, the painter Anselm Feuerbach (1829–1880), and dedicated it to the artist’s mother Henrietta Feuerbach. Schiller’s verses are a lament for abstract beauty; the dead hero is not identified in the poem, nor is the ruler of the underworld mentioned by name. Knowledge of mythology was widespread in those days, and readers recognised the combining of several motifs – the familiar Orpheus and Euridice motif, Aphrodite weeping over her dead lover Adonis, the inability of the sea nymph Thetis to save the life of her son, the Trojan War hero Achilles, and her grief, which the gods of Olympus shared with her.

The composition’s three formal sections make plentiful use of tone painting corresponding to the poem’s structure. After an orchestral introduction, the first section mourns the death of beauty (the central idea is entrusted to a solo soprano). The second part describes the inexorability of death. The lament of the sea nymph Thetis constitutes the third part of the composition. The premiere took place on 6 December 1881 at the Tonhalle in Zurich with Brahms conducting a programme consisting exclusively of his own works, including the Second Piano Concerto, in which he also appeared as the soloist, the Tragic Overture, and the First Symphony. More performances of Nänie soon followed in Dresden, Hamburg, Frankfurt, London, and elsewhere.

Janine Jansen

violin

Janine Jansen was born to a Dutch family. Her father, an organist, pianist, and harpsichord player, and her mother, a singer, taught music to all their children from an early age. Little Janine sang in the church choir and began playing the violin at age six under the guidance of the famed pedagogue Coosje Wijzenbeek and making music with her father and brothers. “There was no escaping music at home; life without it was unthinkable,” she recalls. She also witnessed the rehearsals of early music ensembles because some of the biggest names in the field of historically informed interpretation in those days were among her family’s friends, and that had such an influence on her that there was even a time when she played with a Baroque bow and gut strings. Ultimately, however, she decided to go the “traditional” route and to pay her respects to historically informed interpretation in other ways (like by the style of her phrasing), and that gives her playing a personal touch.

She made her debut at Amsterdam’s famed Concertgebouw at age 15, and even the sudden death of Philippe Hirschhorn, her teacher at the time, could not stop her rise to fame. Another teacher, Boris Belkin, followed, and shortly after her 20th birthday, she launched her international career and began making recordings on the Decca Classics label. Since her Vivaldi recording, which broke sales records, she has become famous all around the world.

For years now, top musical ensembles have been vying for her attention. In March 2024 at the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, the inaugural Janine Jansen Bach Festival will take place, at which the violin superstar will play roles in planning the programmes and performing. Besides the traditional repertoire, this season also features contemporary music including the double concerto Distans by the English composer Sally Beamish and the world premiere of a violin concerto by Britta Byström. There is also plenty of touring squeezed into her busy schedule. The longest tour is to the Far East with the Oslo Philharmonic and Klaus Mäkelä, but there will be plenty of appearances in Europe as well. One tour includes an appearance with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Sir Antonio Pappano, with whom she has a long history of professional friendship.

Under his baton, Janine Jansen has make recordings including works by Brahms and Bartók, but they came into even closer contact when she made her latest CD titled “12 Stradivari”, a recording that the journal Gramophone even called “a beautiful testament to her very special musical friendship with Pappano”. Jansen came up with the truly original idea of creating a kind of study of twelve Stradivarius violins, presenting them in the repertoire for which those instruments were the inspiration, the goal being to let the outstanding qualities of each instrument come to the fore. And she invited none other than her “old friend” Pappano to accompany her at the piano. 

Besides Pappano, Jansen also works closely with the pianist Denis Kozhukhin, with whom she will be appearing in December at Wigmore Hall as the season’s artist-in-residence, and she is playing in a trio established with Martha Argerich and Mischa Maisky. She already got a taste of chamber music at home as a child, and her teacher Coosje Wijzenbeek strongly fostered that interest. Chamber music has had an indispensable place in her career, as is also shown by the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, which has been under her artistic supervision from its founding until what is now its 20th season.

Prague Philharmonic Choir

The Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC), founded in 1935 by the choirmaster Jan Kühn, is the oldest professional mixed choir in the Czech Republic. Their current choirmaster and artistic director is Lukáš Vasilek, and the second choirmaster is Lukáš Kozubík.

The choir has earned the highest acclaim in the oratorio and cantata repertoire, performing with the world’s most famous orchestras. In this country, they collaborate regularly with the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Philharmonia. They also perform opera as the choir-in-residence of the opera festival in Bregenz, Austria.

Programmes focusing mainly on difficult, lesser-known works of the choral repertoire. For voice students, they are organising the Academy of Choral Singing, and for young children there is a cycle of educational concerts.

The choir has been honoured with the 2018 Classic Prague Award and the 2022 Antonín Dvořák Prize.

Lukáš Vasilek

choirmaster

Lukáš Vasilek studied conducting and musicology. Since 2007, he has been the chief choirmaster of the Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC). Most of his artistic work with them involves rehearsing and performing a cappella repertoire and preparing them to perform in large-scale cantatas, oratorios, and operatic projects in collaboration with world-famous conductors and orchestras (Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Kyiv Symphony Orchestra, etc.).

In addition to leading the PPC, he is active in a wide range of artistic projects, most notably in collaboration with the vocal ensemble Martinů Voices, which he founded in 2010. As a conductor and choirmaster, he appears on numerous recordings for major international labels, including Decca Classics and Supraphon. In recent years, he has focused systematically on recording the choral music of Bohuslav Martinů. His recordings have received extraordinary worldwie acclaim and have earned awards from prestigious publications such as Gramophone, BBC Music Magazine, and Diapason.

Antonio Pappano

conductor

The standing of Sir Antonio Pappano, a conductor adorned by multiple honours and awards, including the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic, the Order of the British Empire and the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society, is perhaps best illustrated by his current situation. In the 2023–2024 season, after more than two decades, he left the post of music director of the world-renowned Royal Opera House in London (a position subsequently taken over by Jakub Hrůša) and assume the role of chief conductor of the prestigious London Symphony Orchestra.

One of the presently most sought-after opera and concert conductors, Sir Antonio Pappano was born in 1959 in Epping, Essex, into a family who had moved to England from Italy. When he was 13 years of age, they relocated to Connecticut. The son of a distinguished voice teacher, he did not attend any music school, taking private lessons instead. After completing his training in piano (with Norma Verrilli), composition (with Arnold Franchetti) and conducting (with Gustav Meier), Sir Antonio worked as a pianist and rehearsal accompanist at opera houses in Europe and the USA. While at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, he attracted the attention of maestro Daniel Barenboim, who would name the gifted young artist his assistant. Following his first conducting experience, in Oslo, at the age of 31 Sir Antonio was appointed music director of Den Norske Opera. He served as music director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, principal guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and music director of the Orchestra dellʼAccademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome. In 2019, he and this orchestra appeared to great acclaim at the Prague Spring festival.

He has already established a collaboration with the Czech Philharmonic in the Czech capital—he made his debut at the Rudolfinum in November 2023 as part of the Velvet Revolution Concert, alongside violinist Janine Jansen and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. Two years later, he conducted three concerts there, featuring the Czech premiere of Luigi Dallapiccola’s opera The Prisoner in a concert performance and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 5. In addition to the Czech Philharmonic, during the 2025/2026 season he will collaborate with, among others, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and will make guest appearances with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal Danish Opera.

Sir Antonio Pappano’s wide-ranging discography primarily includes opera albums, yet he has also made numerous recordings of symphonic music, mostly by Romantic composers, as well as other works, with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the London Symphony Orchestra, the Berliner Philharmoniker and other feted orchestras. Since 1995, Sir Antonio has extensively recorded for Warner Classics. Besides the Royal Opera House in London, where he has conducted productions of operas ranging from Baroque to contemporary, Sir Antonio Pappano has recently appeared at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, the Wiener Staatsoper, the Staatsoper Berlin and Milan’s La Scala, as well as at the Bayreuther Festspiele.