The Czech Philharmonic performed their first concert in January 1896 under the baton of Antonín Dvořák himself at the Rudolfinum in Prague. Fittingly, they open their 2023-24 season in the very same hall with a grand celebration of the legendary Bohemian composer, joined by maestro Semyon Bychkov and violin virtuoso Augustin Hadelich! The program begins with the enchanting concert overture In Nature's Realm, followed by the exquisite Violin Concerto in A minor—written during Dvořák's Slavonic period, when he broke from Germanic tradition and incorporated folk elements into a distinctive Czech style—with the solo role interpreted by Hadelich, one of today's most in-demand concert performers. Finally, Bychkov leads the orchestra in Dvořák's Eighth Symphony in G, suffused with color and warmth. Its final movement begins with a trumpet fanfare, about which the great Czech conductor Rafael Kubelik quipped: "Gentlemen, in Bohemia the trumpets never call to battle—they always call to the dance!"

Photo: Semyon Bychkov © Petra Hajská