Czech Philharmonic
| Česká filharmonie | |
|---|---|
|
|
| legal form | public-benefit corporation |
| founding | 1896 |
| Seat | Prague |
| Website | www.ceskafilharmonie.cz |
The Czech Philharmonic ( Česká filharmonie in Czech ) is an internationally recognized orchestra in the Czech Republic . In a survey of music critics carried out by the French music magazine Le Monde de la Musique for the October 2006 issue , the Czech Philharmonic was selected among the ten best orchestras in Europe, and in the December 2008 issue of the British magazine “Gramophone” among the 20 best orchestras worldwide.
A typical characteristic of the orchestra is its "soft sound", almost all reference recordings with music by Czech composers were made with the Czech Philharmonic.
history
The Czech Philharmonic was formed from members of the Prague National Theater orchestra and gave its first concert under its current name, where Antonín Dvořák conducted his own compositions, on January 4, 1896. However, it was not until 1901 that the orchestra became fully independent. In 1908 Gustav Mahler conducted the world premiere of his 7th symphony. The orchestra first became internationally known under the direction of Václav Talich , who led it from 1919 to 1931 and then again from 1933 to 1941 as chief conductor.
From 2003 to 2007 the Czech conductor Zdeněk Mácal was the orchestra's chief conductor, but announced his resignation in September 2007, allegedly because of bad reviews in the feature pages of Czech newspapers due to the conservative programming. The Austrian Manfred Honeck has been the first guest conductor since the 2008/2009 season , who took over this position from Sir Charles Mackerras . From autumn 2012 until his death in 2017, Jiří Bělohlávek was chief conductor, who led the orchestra from 1990 to 1992. One of the frequent guest conductors with the orchestra is Semyon Bychkov , who became chief conductor of the Philharmonic for five years from the 2018/2019 season.
The orchestra accompanies the Australian band Silverchair to some of the songs on their fifth album, Young Modern .
Awards
The Czech Philharmonic has won ten Grand Prix du Disque of the Charles Cros Academy , 5 Grand Prix du Disque de l'Académie Française and several Cannes Classical Awards (most recently in 2003). In 2005 the Czech Philharmonic was nominated for a Grammy Award (symphonies 3 and 4 by Bohuslav Martinů under Jiří Bělohlávek ). It also won the “ Wiener Flötenuhr ” twice for outstanding interpretations of a work by Mozart.
Chief conductor
- Semyon Bychkov (since 2017)
- Jiří Bělohlávek (2012-2017)
- Eliahu Inbal (2009-2012)
- Zdeněk Mácal (2003-2007)
- Vladimir Ashkenazy (1996-2003)
- Gerd Albrecht (1993–1996)
- Jiří Bělohlávek (1990-1992)
- Václav Neumann (1968–1989)
- Karel Ančerl (1950–1968)
- Rafael Kubelík (1942–1948)
- Václav Talich (1933–1941)
- Václav Talich (1919–1931)
- Vilém Zemánek (1903-1918)
- Ludvík Vítězslav Čelanský (1901–1903)
Web links
- Official website
- Archive for František Sláma : authentic documents, photographs, sound recordings (English). Chapter Conductors of the Czech Philharmonic - Part 1– 3 - Václav Talich - Talich's orchestra players and the younger generations - The Czech Philharmonic in contemporary documents
- The Top Ten European Orchestras