Rautavaara, Hanuš, Mahler

Municipal House Smetana Hall
Obecní dům, a.s. nám. Republiky 5 110 21 Prague 1
Czech Republic
(+420) 222 002 101

PRAGUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The Finnish conductor Pietari Inkinen is well known to the Prague public primarily because of his collaborations with the Prague Symphony Orchestra, with which he made his first appearance back in 2007. Pietari Inkinen’s Prague Spring debut will be, at the same time, his inaugural concert as the principal conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra.

The first work on the programme will be A Relay Race Op. 63 by the Czech composer Jan Hanuš – in 2015 we shall be commemorating the hundredth anniversary of his birth. The composer dedicated this symphonic allegro, written in 1968, “To the Czech Radio announcers and technicians in May of 1945 and August of 1968”. Next will be the Czech premiere of the final movement (Apotheosis) from the Symphony No. 6 “Vincentiana” by the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara. In his music, he combines elements of modernism and ‘mystical romanticism’, and he finds inspiration mainly in the area of metaphysics and religion. The music of the composer’s Symphony No. 6 “Vincentiana” is taken from his opera Vincent, which deals with the life of the painter Vincent van Gogh. In it, Rautavaara uses tonal music as well as elements of serialism, and he is a master of orchestration, as is excellently demonstrated by the symphony’s final movement that we will be hearing. The evening will end with Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor with its famous Adagietto, which Mahler is said to have composed as a profession of his love for his wife Alma.



Jan Hanuš : A Relay Race op. 63
Einojuhani Rautavaara : Apotheosis from Symphony No. 6 “Vincentiana”
Gustav Mahler : Symphony No. 5 in C sharp minor