The Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras are coming to Prague. The Prague Spring Festival has unveiled the first two programme highlights for 2025!
To celebrate its landmark 80th anniversary, the Prague Spring International Music Festival is preparing a truly magnificent programme for its fans, and now presents two exceptional projects. The Prague Spring 2025 will feature the Czech debut of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the first-ever festival performance by the Boston Symphony Orchestra. These two world-famous orchestras will be led by conductors Andris Nelsons and Jaap van Zweden. Tickets for both concerts are available from 3 June 2024 at www.festival.cz. The complete programme of the festival will be announced at a press conference on 22 October at 11 am, ticket sales will start the following day on Wednesday 23 October at 11 am.
“I see a certain symbolism in the performances of these two American orchestras, as it was at the Prague Spring in 1947 that the legendary American conductor Leonard Bernstein made his European debut, and his return to the festival in 1990 was the last European performance of his life. In 2025, we will also commemorate the 80th anniversary of the end of the Second World War, where Americans played a crucial role in liberating our country. Just as we worked tirelessly for years to secure the Berlin Philharmonic’s opening concert this year, we have been striving for decades to bring the orchestras from Boston and Chicago to the Prague Spring. We are delighted that in 2025, this ambitious mission will finally come to fruition, with wonderful conductors and works that have earned both ensembles international respect and acclaim,” says Pavel Trojan, Director of the Prague Spring.
The Boston Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by its current chief conductor Andris Nelsons on 14 May 2025. In the year when we will commemorate the 50th anniversary of the death of the composer Dmitri Shostakovich, they will perform his Symphony No. 11 and Violin Concerto No. 1 with soloist Baiba Skride. It is worth mentioning that the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s recording of the complete Shostakovich symphonies with Andris Nelsons for Deutsche Grammophon has won three Grammy Awards
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra will perform on 20 May 2025 under the baton of Jaap van Zweden, who is currently concluding his tenure as chief conductor of the New York Philharmonic. Under his direction, Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony – a work in which the composer not only foresaw the fateful events of his later life but also encapsulated all the passion and contradictions of his relationship with Alma Mahler – will be performed.
Both concerts will take place in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House in Prague. Tickets are available from 3 June on the Prague Spring website www.festival.cz. The complete festival programme will be published on 22 October. Ticket sales for all concerts of the 80th Prague Spring International Music Festival will begin on 23 October 2024 at 11 am at the festival.cz website.
