PRAGUE SPRING DEBUT
Programme
- Sergej Prokofjev: Romeo a Julie, suita z baletu č. 2 op. 64ter
- Jan Novák: Capriccio for cello and small orchestra
- Ottorino Respighi: Pini di Roma
Performers
- Prague Symphony Orchestra
- Alena Hron - conductor
- Tomáš Jamník - cello
The Prague Spring Debut is dedicated to the most promising young conductors, whose talent, musical quality, and artistic potential we assert with conviction. On Monday 22 May 2023 the festival stage will welcome the conductor Alena Hron at the head of the Prague Symphony Orchestra. Her first-ever festival performance will showcase an unorthodox programme consisting of Sergei Prokofiev’s popular ballet Romeo and Juliet, Ottorino Respighi’s richly coloured evocation of the Eternal City Pines of Rome, and Capriccio for Violoncello and Orchestra by the 20th-century Czech classic Jan Novák. “Novák’s composition is not a concerto in the sense of a dogged struggle between soloist and orchestra, but a caprice in the true sense of the word,” notes the soloist of the evening Tomáš Jamník, who is one of the most prominent figures in the Czech music scene. “It is a whimsical piece that allows the audience to forget the outside world and join us in a joyful musical adventure brimming with imagination and wit.” The Prague Spring Debut was established on the impetus of the erstwhile President of the Artistic Board of the Prague Spring Jiří Bělohlávek. The platform has since enabled the most promising young conductors to build ties with the best Czech orchestras and gain invaluable experience and has provided a space where they can show their character. A debut performance at the Prague Spring jumpstarted the careers of promising artists such as Pavel Trojan, Marek Šedivý, Jiří Rožeň, Robert Kružík, František Macek, or Marek Prášil. Besides Czech conductors, the platform has also hosted two winners of the conducting contest in Besançon, France – Jonathon Heyward and Ben Glassberg.
Alena Hron is the first female conductor to appear in this special event.
“To stand alongside the Prague Symphony Orchestra and be a part of the Prague Spring is a great honour, and I am looking forward to our collaboration immensely,” she says. Even as a student, she conducted a number of symphony orchestras, including the Prague Philharmonia, the Hradec Králové Philharmonic Orchestra, the North Czech Philharmonic Teplice, or the Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra. She has been working with the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava since 2022; together, they have recorded the complete orchestral works of Vítězslava Kaprálová. She co-established the chamber choir Punkt, which won several awards at prestigious international competitions under her leadership. She currently also serves as assistant choirmistress of the Prague Philharmonic Choir. In the upcoming season, she will assist Kaspar Zehnder in preparing a new production of Rusalka in Metz, France; she will also perform in Opava and conduct concerts with the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra. “I see Jan Novák’s work as rather underappreciated, and I am very much looking forward to his Capriccio with the excellent soloist Tomáš Jamník,” remarks Hron about her debut at the Prague Spring. “I have had a close connection to Respighi’s Pines of Rome ever since I conducted parts of the composition during my studies in Norway. The suite from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet forms something of a bridge between the two other works. The ballet was premiered in Brno in 1938, when Jan Novák was attending grammar school there. At the same time, the ballet’s story has a close link to Italy,” she comments on the programme.
Tomáš Jamník is a laureate of the Prague Spring International Music Competition, and he is well known to the public as an excellent soloist, chamber musician, and original organiser and promoter of classical music. He played with the Berliner Philharmoniker as an academic and has performed as a soloist with leading Czech and international orchestras, including the London-based Philharmonia, or the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. “What I like about Alena is her ever-present smile and her sincere love of music. I’m very much looking forward to this event,” says Jamník with regard to the young conductor’s upcoming festival debut.
