Prague Spring Debut
Conductor Piotr Wacławik, pianist Sehyeok Son, winner of the Prague Spring Competition 2026, and a programme combining virtuosity, wit, magic and Mussorgsky’s spectacular Pictures at an Exhibition, brilliantly orchestrated by Maurice Ravel.
Programme
- Paul Dukas: L’Apprenti sorcier
- Franz Liszt: Piano Concerto No. 1 in E flat major
- Witold Lutosławski: Symphonic Variations
- Modest Petrovič Musorgskij: Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Maurice Ravel)
Performers
- Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra
- Piotr Wacławik – conductor
- Sehyeok Son – piano
The 13th Prague Spring Debut presents thirty-year-old Polish conductor Piotr Wacławik, who currently serves alongside Marin Alsop as Assistant Conductor with the Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra in Katowice. He held the same position for several seasons in the Warsaw Philharmonic and also undertook one season with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra in Hamburg. Despite his young age he has acquired valuable experience with a number of European, American and Asian orchestras and he has collaborated with eminent soloists such as Ivo Pogorelić, Bomsori Kim and Yulianna Avdeeva. His mentors include the legendary Jorma Panula, Leonard Slatkin, Alan Gilbert, Mikhail Jurowski, Cristian Măcelaru, Robert Spano, Mark Stringer and David Zinman. He studied conducting and the viola da gamba at the Karol Szymanowski Academy of Music in Katowice. He was awarded the Aspen Conductor Prize in 2024.
“I put together the programme for my Prague Spring debut from music which demonstrates the colourful palette and brilliance of the symphony orchestra, works which also have a personal significance for me,” he says. “I listened to Pictures at an Exhibition as a child – it fired my imagination and, thanks to this piece, I grew to love symphonic music and perhaps it even led me to take up conducting later on. I wanted to conduct Lutosławski’s Symphonic Variations from the moment I first heard it played live five years ago. As a Pole I am delighted to be able to come to Prague to present this rarely performed yet extraordinary work. My debut at the Prague Spring, one of the most important music festivals in the world, is a great honour for me and also a deeply personal endeavour. I have lived in the Czech Republic for over six years and it has become my second home. And so the opportunity to appear in the Rudolfinum with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra is something truly special for me.”
In addition to Symphonic Variations by Witold Lutosławski (1913–1994) and Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Petrovich Mussorgsky (1839–1881), a piece whose fame was undeniably assured by the superb orchestral version by Maurice Ravel (1875–1937), the programme also includes perhaps the best known work by French composer Paul Dukas (1865–1935) L’Apprenti sorcier (The Sorcerer’s Apprentice), based on the ballad by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Like Ravel, Dukas was also a master of instrumentation, as is evident from this piece about a mischievous apprentice, whose laziness almost causes him to flood the sorcerer’s hut. The enchanted broom which fetches the water, for instance, is wittily portrayed by the bassoon, which is then joined by the clarinet when the apprentice, in an attempt to avert disaster, splits the broom in two. The dazzling solo contribution to the programme will be Piano Concerto No. 1 by Franz Liszt (1811–1886), which the composer premiered himself in 1855. In Prague the solo part will be performed by winner of the Prague Spring piano competition 2026, nineteen-year-old Sehyeok Son.
Sehyeok Son
“He doesn’t know what performance limits are,” wrote the website operaplus.cz, aptly describing the way in which South Korean pianist Sehyeok Son handled the final of the Prague Spring competition 2026. However, this is by no means the only competition where the young artist has found success. We could mention the International Tchaikovsky Competition for Young Musicians or his victory in the Liszt International Piano Competition in Seoul. Thus it will be a real treat to hear his interpretation of Liszt’s Piano Concerto. “This piece has always fascinated me for its combination of virtuosity and a certain measure of psychology. I love how the piano and orchestra constantly interact as equal partners, almost like a dramatic dialogue between demons and angels, revealing the contrasting sides of Liszt himself. As for the pianist, rather than focusing on playing the right notes, he has to be able to convey this struggle to the audience from deep within his heart,” Sehyeok Son tells us ahead of his performance at the festival.
The history of the Prague Spring Debut
The Prague Spring Debut was established in 2014 by Jiří Bělohlávek, former President of the Prague Spring’s Artistic Board and Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. It has now become a traditional platform, which enables young male and female conductors to strengthen ties with leading Czech orchestras, to demonstrate their skills before public audiences, and to gain invaluable experience along the way. The Prague Spring Debut has played an important role in the early careers of such artists as Marek Šedivý, Jakub Klecker, Jiří Rožeň, Robert Kružík, František Macek, Marek Prášil and Jiří Habart. The first female conductor to appear in the event was Alena Hron in 2023, while the most recent debutant was Ondřej Soukup in 2026. In addition to these Czech conductors, the platform has also hosted two winners of the Besançon International Competition for Young Conductors in France – Jonathon Heyward and Ben Glassberg.
