Czech Philharmonic, Ingo Metzmacher, Václav Petr • Dvořák Prague Festival

One of the finest Czech cellists, Václav Petr has served as concert master of the Czech Philharmonic cello section for over a decade. He has performed as a soloist since the age of 12. As a member of The Trio, he has also devoted to chamber music.  

Václav Petr learned the rudiments of viola playing at the Jan Neruda School in Prague from Mirko Škampa and subsequently continued to study the instrument at the Academy of Performing Arts in the class of Daniel Veis, graduating under the guidance of Michal Kaňka. He further honed his skills at the Universität der Künste in Berlin under the tutelage of Wolfgang Boettcher, and also at international masterclasses (in Kronberg, Hamburg, Vaduz, Bonn and Baden-Baden). He has garnered a number of accolades, initially as a child (Prague Junior Note, International Cello Competition in Liezen, Talents of Europe) and then in Europe’s most prestigious contests (semi-final at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann, victory at the Prague Spring Competition).

At the age of 24, after winning the audition, he became one of the youngest concert masters in the Czech Philharmonic’s history. As a soloist, he has performed with the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden.

Václav Petr has made a name for himself as a chamber player too. Between 2009 and 2020, he was a member of the Josef Suk Piano Quartet, with whom he received first prizes at the competitions in Val Tidone and Verona (Salieri-Zinetti), as well as at the highly prestigious Premio Trio di Trieste. In 2019, he, the violinist and concert master Jiří Vodička, and the pianist Martin Kasík formed the Czech Philharmonic Piano Trio, later renamed The Trio. During the Covid pandemic, they made a recording of Bohuslav Martinů’s Bergerettes (clad in period costumes), which would earn them victory at an international competition in Vienna.

In December 2023, Václav Petr and the young Czech pianist Marek Kozák gained acclaim at the Bohuslav Martinů Days: “The interpretation of all the compositions reveals the signature of seasoned chamber musicians. The audience savoured the duo’s splendid work with tempo, agogics, dynamics and colour,” wrote Jiří Bezděk for the OperaPlus server. And who knows? Perhaps – just as at the festival – the two musicians will delight us with a piano-four-hands encore. 

Innovative programs and a passionate commitment to the music of the 20^th century have always been Ingo Metzmacher’s trademark and firmly established him as a leading international conductor.

Recent concert performances include returns to the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony and BBC Symphony orchestras. He also continues to work closely with the Bamberg Symphony, Vienna Symphony orchestras and the Orchestre de Paris. This autumn he started a series of concerts over two seasons as Conductor in Residence with the New Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo.

His 2013/14 season sees the continuation of Dieter Dorn’s new production of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen in Geneva. Das Rheingold opened in March 2013 and will be followed by Die Walküre, Siegfried and Götterdämmerung in autumn 2013 and spring 2014, with two complete cycles in May 2014. In the summer of 2013 he returned to the Salzburg Festival for a new production of Sir Harrison Birtwistle’s opera Gawain, directed by Alvis Hermanis. Further appearances at the Salzburg Festival have included the world premiere of Wolfgang Rihm’s opera Dionysos; Prometeo and Al gran sole carico d’amore by Luigi Nono, as well as Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten. Other opera highlights of recent seasons were The Rake’s Progress and Die tote Stadt at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Königskinder, Tristan und Isolde, Der ferne Klang, Tannhäuser, From the House of the Dead, The Nose, and Palestrina at the Zurich Opera House; and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District and Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny at the Vienna State Opera.

From 2007 to 2010 Metzmacher was Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. His thematic concert cycles during this time entitled ‘From The German Soul’, ‘Breakthrough 1909’, and ‘Temptation’ made a lasting impact on Berlin’s music life. Previously he had been Chief Conductor of The Netherlands Opera (2005–8) in Amsterdam. Highlights of his tenure included performances of Henze’s The Bassarids, directed by Peter Stein; Die tote Stadt and Die Gezeichneten with the Concertgebouw Orchestra; a cycle of the three Da Ponte operas by Mozart in productions by Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito; and a Pierre Audi production of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise. As General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera (1997–2005), he conducted a series of internationally acclaimed productions, many of them in collaboration with stage director Peter Konwitschny. Highlights included Lohengrin, Wozzeck, Freischütz, Don Carlos and Moses und Aron.

Ingo Metzmacher’s discography includes live recordings of his New Year’s Eve concerts in Hamburg from 1999 to 2004, entitled ‘Who is afraid of 20^th Century Music?’; a complete recording of Karl Amadeus Hartmann’s symphonies with the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra; the world premiere of Hans Werner Henze’s Ninth Symphony with the Berliner Philharmoniker; Olivier Messiaen’s Illuminations of the Beyond… with the Vienna Philharmonic; Hans Pfitzner’s Von deutscher Seele with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, and a live recording of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk from the Vienna State Opera. Available on DVD are the Salzburg Festival productions of Wolfgang Rihm’s Dionysos and Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Die Soldaten, the Zurich Opera House production of Engelbert Humperdinck’s Königskinder, Pierre Audi’s production of Messiaen’s Saint François d’Assise for the Holland Festival 2008, and the Amsterdam productions of Mozart’s Da Ponte operas, directed by Jossi Wieler and Sergio Morabito.

Ingo Metzmacher was born in Hanover. He studied piano, music theory and conducting in his home town and in Salzburg and Cologne. He found his first artistic home in Frankfurt, with the Ensemble Modern and the Frankfurt Opera under the artistic directorship of Michael Gielen. His international career began in 1988, during Gerard Mortier’s tenure as director of the La Monnaie in Brussels, when he stepped in to conduct a new production of Franz Schreker’s Der ferne Klang.