Ticket sales for the festival begin on 11 November.Photo credit: Prague Spring Festival, via Facebook.
Prague, Nov 9 (CTK) – The 78th Prague Spring international music festival will open on 12 May 2023 with the traditional opening concert, Bedrich Smetana’s “My Country” cycle of symphonic poems. For this edition, it will be performed by the Welsh National Opera Orchestra with its Czech chief conductor Tomas Hanus, said festival director Pavel Trojan today.
The artist-in-residence at next year’s festival will be French viola player Antoine Tamestit, who will perform four concerts, Trojan told journalists.
Concerts will also be performed by the Bavarian Radio Symphonic Orchestra with conductor Daniel Harding, and the Essen Philharmonic with their Czech conductor Tomas Netopil.
Czech orchestras will play under the baton of John Adams, Klaus Makela and Oksana Lyniv, among others, Trojan said.
Hanus, who is a member of the festival’s artistic council, only rarely performs in the Czech Republic. The last time he performed at Prague Spring was ten years ago, with Ensemble intercontemporain. He has headed the Welsh Opera Orchestra for six years, developing the British audience’s interest in Czech music. In doing so, he follows the efforts of conductor Charles Mackerras and theatre director David Pountney, the current artistic director of the Welsh National Opera based in Cardiff.
The artist-in-residence at the festival’s Prague Offspring weekend of contemporary music will be Georg Friedrich Haas, whose compositions will be played by the Klangforum Vienna ensemble.
Old music will be represented by Les Talens Lyriques with its founder Christoph Rousset, and countertenor Andreas Scholl.
The Prague Spring debut will present Czech female conductor Alena Jelinkova, who will perform with the Prague Symphonic Orchestra.
The festival will close traditionally with Beethoven’s Symphony 9, under conductor Christoph Eschenbach.
Ticket sales for the festival begin on 11 November.
