LITHUANIAN NATIONAL SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
(artistic director and principal conductor Modestas Pitrėnas)
Soloist LUKÁŠ VONDRÁČEK (piano, Czechia)
Conductor MAREK PRÁŠIL (Czechia)
BEDŘICH SMETANA – Šárka from Má vlast (My Fatherland), the cycle of symphonic poems (to mark the composer’s 200th birth anniversary)
BÉLA BARTÓK – Concerto for piano and orchestra No. 3, Sz 119, BB 127
ANTONÍN DVOŘÁK – Symphony No. 9 in E minor, Op. 95, From the New World, B. 178
The Czech music concert at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall a few years ago attracted a great deal of interest from the audience, therefore the National Philharmonic, in cooperation with the Embassy of the Czech Republic, invites to the second edition of the Power of Czech Music. This year marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of the composer Bedřich Smetana, so the concert will open with his symphonic poem Šárka (1875, about the ancient Czech female warrior Šárka) from the cycle Má vlast (My Homeland). The concert will close with the last Symphony, No. 9, Z nového světa (From the New World) (1893) by Czech romantic composer Antonín Dvořák. The composer wrote it while living in America, which was then often referred to as the New World. In the USA, Dvořák not only was the head of the New York Conservatory, but also drew inspiration from the local culture, studying Indian melodies and epic, and taking an interest in African American songs.
Pianist Lukáš Vondráček has earned worldwide recognition as a prize-winner of many international piano competitions, including the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels (Grand Prix, 2016), the Van Cliburn Piano Competition, the San Marino Piano Competition, the Unisa Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa. He has appeared at the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, Wiener Konzerthaus, Concertgebouw in Amsterdam under the baton of Paavo Järvi, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Christoph Eschenbach, Gianandrea Noseda, Jakub Hrůša and others. Vondráček will perform Hungarian composer Béla Bartók’s Third concerto for piano and orchestra, composed in New York during the final months of his life (1945).
The Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra will be led by Marek Prášil, conductor of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre and debutant of the Prague Spring 2022 International Music Festival. Already well-known to our audience, Prášil has collaborated with many Czech theatres and orchestras, and in recent years he has been frequenting foreign stages: Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Lithuania, Poland, South Korea and other countries.
Concert organised in cooperation with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Vilnius
