33rd Season – Orchestral Series

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Prague Philharmonia's thirty-third season is conceived as a carefully considered arc — from the Baroque to the present day, from intimate confession to monumental gesture. Music Director Emmanuel Villaume has shaped a dramaturgy that is not merely a survey of styles, but a journey: eight evenings, eight musical chapters, together forming a single compelling narrative.

The opening concert serves as a bridge — between Europe and America, between home and exile, between tradition and the New World. Martinů's Sinfonietta La Jolla recalls his homeland from across the Atlantic, while American composer Samuel Barber wrote his Violin Concerto on European soil. The soloist will be Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot, with whom we made a triumphant appearance at Carnegie Hall — and the programme carries echoes of our acclaimed American tour from the previous season. Above it all soars Beethoven's Fifth Symphony, a timeless testament to human will and the struggle against fate.

The second evening belongs to energy and fire. Mexican conductor Iván López Reynoso brings temperament and spark, while pianist Andrew von Oeyen unleashes Prokofiev's Third Piano Concerto like a musical firework display. Schubert's Ninth then gives the orchestra full room to shine.

Petr Altrichter opens the gates to spiritual depth in the third subscription concert. Dvořák's Biblical Songs, performed in the atmosphere of All Saints' Day, become a quiet moment of reflection — a prayer in sound. Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony, his last, offers the opposite: a reckoning with a life lived, suffused with irony, memory, and bitter wisdom.

The fourth evening plays with space itself. Conductor Oscar Jockel will set the orchestra resonating from every corner of Dvořák Hall — in the spirit of Gabrieli's legendary Venice performances. Then comes Grieg's Piano Concerto, a confession of the Nordic soul, delivered by Charles Richard-Hamelin, laureate of the Chopin Competition.

The fifth concert places the human voice at its heart. Music Director Villaume and countertenor Hugh Cutting lead us into the worlds of Mozart and Gluck — a universe of emotion concealed within simplicity. Mozart's Linz Symphony brings the evening to a close with lightness and clarity, a joyful breath of air after the voice's intimate storytelling.

The sixth evening bridges Baroque and Classicism. Conductor Marc Minkowski presents Rameau with distinctly French elegance, and Haydn and Schubert with an exhilarating, historically informed vitality. The Prague Philharmonia's own traditions meet a fresh and inspiring perspective.

The seventh concert unfolds as a stimulating European dialogue. Beethoven's Fourth Symphony might be playfully called his "Polish" symphony — he wrote it during a stay with his Silesian patron — and it will be conducted by Polish maestro Łukasz Borowicz, who also brings music by the great Polish composer of the twentieth century, Henryk Górecki. The rugged lyricism of the North arrives with Sibelius's Violin Concerto, performed by the outstanding Jan Mráček.

The final concert of Subscription Series A brings together, under the baton of our Music Director, an iconic pairing: Dvořák's deeply personal and melodically immediate Cello Concerto in B minor and Brahms's heroic, magnificently constructed First Symphony. The subscription season closes with an evening that can, without exaggeration, be called a cathedral in music.

Beyond the subscription series, one more extraordinary event awaits — a Wagner gala concert featuring a star of the upcoming Bayreuth Festival, bass-baritone Nicholas Brownlee. For the orchestra and its Music Director alike, this will be an exceptional interpretive challenge. Wagner's scores demand vast forces, prominent wind writing, and the highest standards of stylistic discipline and sonic imagination. The ideal of the Gesamtkunstwerk will be evoked here in its full musical breadth — resulting in an evening of intense artistic and emotional power, and a worthy, magnificent finale to Prague Philharmonia's thirty-third season.

Partner of the Orchestral Series