Mozart. Strauss. Beethoven

Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 “Eroica” is undoubtedly one of the biggest attractions to concert halls all over the world. The Prague Philharmonia has had it in its repertoire almost since our inception, and our players still especially remember our detailed, deeply immersive performances with the orchestra’s founder, Jiří Bělohlávek.

This time Louis Langrée, Music Director of the Opéra Comique of Paris, will guide us through its twists and turns as well as its message. Langrée became famous, among other things, for his American project “Beethoven Revolution”, in which he tried to show audiences how this composer changed the course of music history. Beethoven launched this revolution with his Eroica, which opened the door to the Romantic musical language.

However, the orchestra will open our German-Austrian evening with Mozart’s overture to the opera La clemenza di Tito, which still resonates in Prague; it was premiered at the Estates Theater on the occasion of the coronation of Leopold II as King of Bohemia.

In contrast, the iconic work Metamorphosen by the late Romantic German composer Richard Strauss will also be heard, allowing the string section of the orchestra to shine. In this piece, the composer reflects on the state of a bombed-out Europe in the final weeks of the Second World War, quoting the funeral march from the second movement of Beethoven’s Eroica at the end of the last movement, to which he has added the words “In memoriam”.