Dvořák Prague Festival • Chan, Shaham & Czech Philharmonic

Bohuslav Martinů came from Polička, and his childhood is associated with St James’ Church and the immediate vicinity of the town. In his youth he learned to play the violin, and he later studied the instrument at the Prague Conservatoire, but he did not finish school because of the distractions of other interests. At the same time he began composing his first pieces for strings and later for piano and other instruments. In 1912 he passed a remedial state examination as a violinist and became a member of the Czech Philharmonic second violin section. He also had his first successes as a composer—there was a performance of his Czech Rhapsody, and later the National Theatre premiered his ballet Istar. Martinů returned to composing and spent a year studying under Josef Suk at the Prague Conservatoire. From the autumn of 1923 he was on scholarship for studies under Albert Roussel in Paris. In his initial period as a composer, he was seeking a compositional style of his own—Martinů took as his departure point the strong traditions of Czech music, the works of Smetana and Dvořák, and the music of the French impressionists. He was also captivated by Richard Strauss’s orchestration. It was Paris, however, that opened up new horizons to him. There he became familiar with the music of not only Roussel, but also Stravinsky, Les six, and jazz. In Martinů’s second period in the 1930s, his music began to be influenced by Baroque forms and especially by folk music. Folk inspiration stayed with the composer until his death, influencing the creation of many larger and smaller works (Czech Nursery Rhymes, The Chap-Book, Czech Madrigals etc.). The Munich Agreement and the Nazi invasion of France forced Martinů to depart for the USA, where he composed his symphonies and also found a new public and pupils. While he was there, his compositions achieved worldwide fame. After the war he never returned home, living successively in Italy, France, and Switzerland, where he died. The composer’s last works were again devoted mainly to large forms, cantatas, and operas, while he was devoting less attention to instrumental works.

Martinů composed his Overture for orchestra, H. 345, in five days of November 1953 while staying in Nice, and he dedicated it to the Association of Parents and Friends of the Mannes College of Music in New York. The composition inventively highlights the smaller sections of the orchestra to bring to mind the composer’s interest in concerto grosso techniques.

Antonín Dvořák wrote his Suite in A major, known in the English-speaking world as the American Suite, in New York City in early 1894. After his return to Bohemia, he created an orchestral version, which was published posthumously.

Dvořák wrote great works in large-scale genres like symphonies, oratorios, and operas, but he lavished great care on his miniatures as well, crafting pieces that always perfectly capture something essential and beautiful. Famous examples of this are his Moravian Duets and Slavonic Dances. The Suite in A major also consists of perfect miniatures. Each of the five movements lasts about four minutes and is complete and satisfying, while also contributing to a beautifully balanced set.

The first movement begins with a sunny pentatonic theme that seems to yawn, not with boredom, but with complete contentment. As the music becomes livelier, the American mask comes down a bit, and we see the Bohemian face of the composer. The vigorous second movement is in a minor key, but the turbulence is never threatening. The gentle middle section is as beautifully melodic as anything Dvořák ever wrote. The third movement is a polonaise, but a graceful one, a far cry from Chopin’s patriotic fervour or Tchaikovsky’s imperial splendour. Three minor-key episodes introduce moments of sorrow and wistfulness. The nostalgic fourth movement brings to mind Dvořák’s Gypsy Songs or his much earlier Cypresses. Sophisticated harmony lies just beneath the surface of the seemingly innocent melody. Movement five begins as a wild dance with pounding tympani. Suddenly the music switches to the major mode, the drum subsides with just a triangle keeping the beat, and primitive athleticism gives way to graceful syncopation. And just when we expect the athletic beginning to return, we instead get the opening theme of the first movement, now triumphant. Dvořák then surprises us with a light-hearted ending that perfectly draws the curtain on possibly the most sublimely happy music he ever wrote.

“I was at school. There was a knock on the door and a message: ‘Gil, can you come down to the principal’s office?’ That can’t be a good thing…am I in trouble? And London Symphony Orchestra representatives are there, looking for a violinist ready with the repertoire to stand in for Itzhak Perlman. I had to choose whether to go back to class or to board the Concorde with them and fly to London immediately. Thousands of metres above the ground, champagne on board, and an unprecedented reception! It took me just a few seconds to decide. They were overjoyed, and we took off,” says the now world-famous violinist Gil Shaham, recalling the watershed moment of his musical career. He was 18 years old, and although he had already achieved many successes by then—he made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic at age ten and a year later won the Claremont Competition in Israel, where he was staying with his parents at the time—he was still a “mere” student at New York’s Juilliard School.

Then the offer to stand in for Itzhak Perlman arrived. Thanks to Shaham’s great success at that concert with the London Symphony Orchestra led by Michael Tilson Thomas, invitations started pouring in for concerts and recordings; suddenly, his name was appearing in all the most important musical media. To this day, he thrills audiences at the world’s most famous concert halls with perfect technique supported by masterful musicianship and very amiable stage presence, as Svatava Barančicová writes for the OperaPlus portal: “His breathtaking virtuosity knows no bounds, yet on stage he makes a most delicate, modest impression. He is always smiling at the public and the orchestra players, and he connects with the musicians, following their playing and enjoying their passages just as he does his own. He does not tower over the orchestra in the pose of a virtuoso; he just puts his fingers on the fingerboard and fully demonstrates his exceptional skills: shocking speed, smooth execution of technically difficult figures that lie awkwardly for the violin, and upward leaps that slash through thickets of notes like the cold, precise flash of a steel blade. His double stops are perfectly in tune at any tempo and in every register. And he smiles disarmingly while doing all of this.”

The review is of a concert at last year’s Dvořák Prague Festival, when Gil Shaham appeared with the Israel Philharmonic. He has been a frequent guest in Prague, however: the Dvořák Prague Festival welcomed him back in 2016 with Antonio Pappano, then three years later he performed brilliantly with the Prague Philharmonia in Dvořák’s Violin Concerto, which he is playing this time in New York with the Czech Philharmonic. “I love Dvořák!” Shaham declares, adding that he listened to the composer’s symphonies already in his youth.

Shaham’s repertoire is large, of course. A few years ago he released a very successful recording of Johann Sebastian Bach’s complete solo sonatas and partitas, and besides traditional works of the classical and romantic eras, he also focuses on playing violin concertos of the 20th century. That is the direction his recording activities have taken in recent years, and one CD from the series “1930s Violin Concertos” was nominated for a Grammy. However, he already has a Grammy to his credit for the album American Scenes, which he recorded at age 27 with André Previn, and he has received many other important musical awards such as the Grand Prix du Disque, the Diapason d’Or, and the designation as Editor’s Choice from the magazine Gramophone.

At the Rudolfinum and around the world, audiences can see Shaham playing his rare “Countess Polignac” Stradivarius. He collaborates regularly with the Berlin Philharmonic, the Orchestre de Paris, the New York Philharmonic, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. However, he enjoys being at home in New York, where he has been living for many years with his wife, the violinist Adele Anthony, and their three children.

One of the most sought-after artists of her generation embodies the spirit of contemporary orchestral leadership with her crystalline precision and expressive zeal. She served as Principal Conductor of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra between 2019–2024 and Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra between 2018–2023.

Born in Hong Kong, Elim Chan studied at Smith College in Massachusetts and at the University of Michigan. In 2014, she became the first female winner of the Donatella Flick Conducting Competition and went on to spend her 2015/2016 season as Assistant Conductor at the London Symphony Orchestra. In the following season, Elim Chan joined the Dudamel Fellowship program of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. She also owes much to the support and encouragement of Bernard Haitink, whose masterclasses she attended in Lucerne in 2015.

Highlights in the 2025/2026 season include return engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra, or London Symphony Orchestra.