Programme
Nikolai Kapustin
Nearly Waltz, Op. 98
Elegy, Op. 96
Burlesque, Op. 97
Paul Schoenfield
Café Music
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky / arr. by Tomáš Ille
Pictures at an Exhibition
Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition is a famous work, but you probably have not yet heard the music played by eight cellos and a double bass. The idea for the new arrangement came from the concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic cello section Václav Petr, and he invited his colleagues from the orchestra to join in the performance.
Subscription series DK | Czech Chamber Music Society
Nikolai Kapustin
Nearly Waltz, Op. 98
Elegy, Op. 96
Burlesque, Op. 97
Paul Schoenfield
Café Music
Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky / arr. by Tomáš Ille
Pictures at an Exhibition
Jiří Vodička violin
Martin Kasík piano
Virtuosi di Basso
Václav Petr cello, artistic director
The sale of individual tickets for subscription concerts (orchestral, chamber, educational) will begin on Wednesday 7 June 2023 at 10.00 a.m. Tickets for the public dress rehearsals will go on sale on 13 September 2023 at 10.00 a.m.
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CHANGE
Dear listeners, the date of the concert will be moved from March 16 to April 6, 2024.
Thank you for your understanding.
Jiří Vodička violin
Jiří Vodička, concertmaster with the Czech Philharmonic, soloist and chamber musician, is one of the finest and most sought-after Czech violinists. An extremely gifted child, he made a name for himself by winning numerous prizes, notably in the Jaroslav Kocian International Violin Competition, the Prague Junior Note and Slovakia’s Čírenie talentov. In 2002, he came first in the Beethoven’ Hradec International Violin Competition, and received a prize for best pupil at Václav Hudeček’s violin classes. He later performed with Hudeček at dozens of concerts throughout the Czech Republic. In 2004, he became overall winner of the International Louis Spohr Competition for Young Violinists in Weimar. In 2008, he gained first and second prizes at the prestigious Young Concert Artists competition in Leipzig and New York.
At the tender age of 14, Jiří Vodička enrolled at the Institute for Art Studies at the University of Ostrava, where he studied under the renowned teacher Prof. Zdeněk Gola, graduating with a master’s degree in 2007.
Jiří Vodička has regularly performed as a soloist with a host of leading orchestras in the Czech Republic and further afield, including the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Philharmonia, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra and the Neue Philharmonie Westfalen. He has worked with Jiří Bělohlávek, Jakub Hrůša, Tomáš Netopil and other top conductors.
In 2014, he made his debut solo album, Violino Solo, released on Supraphon. Featuring some of the most challenging compositions for solo violin, it met with a positive critical response in the Czech Republic and elsewhere. Many of his concerts have been broadcast by Czech Television, Czech Radio and Germany’s ARD.
As a chamber musician, he has performed with the major Czech pianists Martin Kasík, Ivo
Kahánek, Ivan Klánský and Miroslav Sekera. In 2011, he was invited by the celebrated violinist Gidon Kremer to appear at his Kammermusikfest in Lockenhaus, Austria, together with many world-famous artists. He has regularly performed at such prominent festivals as the Prague Spring, Janáček’s May, the Grand Festival of China, the Hohenloher Kultursommer, and the Choriner Musiksommer. Since 2012, he has been a member of the Smetana Trio, with whom he has recorded two acclaimed CDs for Supraphon (BBC Music Magazine Award and Diapason d’Or).
In 2015, he was named concertmaster with the Czech Philharmonic. He teaches at the Prague Conservatory and at Ostrava University.
Jiří Vodička plays a violin made by Joseph Gagliano in 1767.
Martin Kasík piano
Martin Kasík is widely acclaimed for his inventive, poetic approach to performing, through which he captures the mood of the moment. He studied at the Janáček Conservatoire in Ostrava under M. Tugendliebová, the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under I. Klánský and participated in masterclasses under L. Berman, G. Ohlsson, and P. Badura-Skoda.
His path to stages around the world (Carnegie Hall, Wiener Musikverein,Gewandhaus Leipzig, Suntory Hall Tokyo etc.) was opened by victory at the 1998 Prague Spring Competition and at the 1999 Young Concert Artists Competition in New York. Since then, he has been collaborating with the most important ensembles including the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Rotterdam Philharmonic, or Czech Philharmonic. His recordings on the Supraphon and Arco Diva labels have won top honours in the journals Gramophone, Repertoire, and Harmonie.
He also teaches at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and at the Prague Conservatoire, and he is the artistic director of the Chopin Festival in Mariánské Lázně.
Václav Petr cello
Václav Petr is one of the most prominent cellists of his generation. He was a semi-finalist of the international cello competition Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann (Germany), the winner of the 70th Prague Spring competition (Czech Republic), and the overall winner of Talents for Europe. He began his studies with Mirek Škampa at the Jan Neruda Grammar School in Prague before moving on to study at the Music Academy of Performing Arts in Prague with Daniel Veis and graduating from Michal Kaňka’s studio. He developed his playing with Wolfgang Boettcher at Berlin’s Universität der Künste and took part in the European Music Academy in Bonn. In 2015, he completed the Carl Flesch Academy masterclass courses with a solo performance alongside the Baden-Baden Philharmonic. He started his solo career at just 12 years of age, and he has since appeared with such orchestras as the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and the Prague Philharmonia. Being only 24 years old when selected as the Czech Philharmonic’s cello concertmaster, he became one of the youngest musicians to hold that post in the orchestra’s history. Václav Petr plays the “Teschenmacher” cello (1757) from Giovanni Battista Guadagnini’s workshop, on loan from a private collection.