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 Lithuanian National Philharmonic Society, in cooperation with the Embassy of the Czech Republic, invites to its second edition. On 9 November, the concert The Power of Czech Music will feature the Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra (LNSO) and guests from the Czech Republic – pianist Lukáš Vondráček and the maestro of the baton, Marek Prášil. The concert programme will include picturesque works by Czech composers highlighting the evening’s performance with Antonín Dvořák’s famous symphony Z nového světa (From the New World).

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 presentation of Czech music certainly is not complete without the works of another Czech composer, Antonín Dvořák. This time, the programme includes the Czech Romanticist’s last Symphony, No. 9, Z nového světa (From the New World) (1893). 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. His Symphony No.9 is one of the most anticipated works in the concert halls.

The Czech music programme will be enriched with the Hungarian music coryphée Béla Bartók’s work, which is linked to the aforementioned New York – his Third Concerto for piano and orchestra, written in New York during the final months of the composer’s life (1945).

This opus was chosen by the famous Czech pianist Lukáš Vondráček for his concert in Vilnius. He 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. The pianist 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.

Marek Prášil, who will grace the  podium, is already well known to our audience, having performed with the LNSO several times on the National Philharmonic stage. Maestro is the conductor of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre and debutant of the Prague Spring 2022 International Music Festival. Prášil has collaborated with many Czech theatres and orchestras. In recent years he has been frequenting foreign stages: Switzerland, the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Lithuania, Poland, South Korea and other countries.

Orchestral music concert The Power of Czech Music. LNSO, Lukáš Vondráček, Marek Prášil will take place on Saturday, 9 November at 19.00 in the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Concert Hall. The concert is organised in cooperation with the Embassy of the Czech Republic in Vilnius. For full information about the LNPhS concerts, please visit www.nationalphilharmonic.lt. NORFA is the patron of the LNPhS 84th season.

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