Saturday, September 21, 2024
Guests:
- Jan Simon, Director, Dvořák Prague International Music Festival
- Jakub Hrůša, Chief Conductor, Bamberg Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor, Czech Philharmonic
Program
- Investigating the background to the world premiere in 1908 of Gustav Mahler’s Seventh Symphony reveals a fascinating mix of personal, political, and musical circumstances.
- The composer, who had suffered the loss of his daughter the previous year, was reinventing himself, his worldview, and his personal style in the creation of Das Lied von der Erde.
- The Austrian Empire was celebrating the 60th anniversary of Emperor Franz Joseph’s ascension to the throne, including an extravagant exhibition of culture and industry in Prague.
- At the same time, the Czechs were increasingly clamoring for nationhood, to free themselves from the German-speaking dominance of the Habsburgs.
- All of this and more came together when Mahler took the stage on the 19th of September to conduct an orchestra consisting of the Czech Philharmonic and musicians from the German Theater in the specially built music pavilion on the grounds of the Jubilee Exhibition.
- The premiere was heralded as a success by many who attended, not only due to the masterful music but also by the embrace of German and Czech identities in Mahler himself.
- It was in the spirit of building bridges and bringing attention to the central place of Central Europe that the Dvorak Prague International Music Festival presented a performance of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony on the exhibition grounds where it was first heard.
- We hear from the Director of the Festival, Jan Simon, and the conductor of the concert, Jakub Hrůša, how all of this came together and the significance of the event in the cultural context of today.
- Play now and Join us for this very special re-creation of the Premiere of Mahler’s
- Seventh Symphony!
Play now and join us for this very special re-creation of the Premiere of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony!
Hosted by Morten Solvik