Kateřina Englichová and Marek Šedivý with PRSO

• Czech Radio Studio 1, Monday 26 April 2021 at 8:00 pm. Live broadcast of the concert by ČRo Vltava. Re-runs offered by ČRo D-dur. Watch the video stream on PRSO's Facebook profile. The video is also available for listeners who do not have a FB profile – find the link for watching at socr.rozhlas.cz

The evening's opening is reserved for string players. We will hear their rendition of Bohuslav Martinů's Partita for Strings, composed in 1931 in Paris, a composition that is terse in its expression, in places even perhaps harsh, yet at the same time scintillating and joyous.

Kateřina Englichová|foto:Ilona Sochorová

After that the musical formation will be joined by harpist Kateřina Englichová. The Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Flute, Clarinet and String Quartet by Maurice Ravel is a composition that is refined, poetic and dramatic, born during eight days and three sleepless nights. The composer was commissioned to write it by Érard, a company that was producing a new pedal harp, thus responding to the existence of a new chromatic harp from the competing company Pleyel (which had enlisted another great figure of the musical world of the time, Claude Debussy). The solos on wind instruments will be performed by orchestra members flautist Mario Mesany and clarinettist Lukáš Dittrich.

In the evening's finale, Kateřina Englichová's harp will become the notional "voice" of the mythical Orpheus. We will hear the music from the eponymous neoclassical ballet by Igor Stravinsky, which was produced in collaboration with the famed choreographer George Balanchine and significantly contributed to the birth of the no less famous New York City Ballet.

PROGRAMME:

Bohuslav Martinů: Partita for Strings
Maurice Ravel: Introduction and Allegro for Harp, Clarinet and String Quartet
Igor Stravinsky: Orpheus

Marek Šedivý – conductor
Kateřina Englichová – harp
Mario Mesany – flute
Lukáš Dittrich – clarinet