Alternative Prague Spring music festival will stream concerts online for free

Trojan, the event’s spokesman, recalled that Prague Spring, which annually starts on May 12 and ends in early June, will take place online due to the current restrictions aimed to combat the novel coronavirus.

The programme will offer concerts of the Czech Radio Symphonic Orchestra (SOCR), the Prague Symphonic Orchestra FOK, the PKF – Prague Philharmonia and the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra (CF).

“We have agreed on alternative programmes involving a smaller number of players,” festival programme manager Josef Trestik said.

On May 27, the SOCR will play in live transmission under the baton of Robert Kruzik. The programme will include the Adagio by Krzysztof Penderecki, the renowned Polish composer who passed away recently.

The PKF concert on May 29 will be the Czech premiere of Michael Nyman’s harpsichord concert, with soloist Mahan Esfahani and conductor Jiri Rozen.

The FOK orchestra with conductor Tomas Brauner will offer the Verklarte Nacht by Arnold Schonberg, among others.

CF will offer two concerts each led by one of the orchestra’s chief guest conductors. The programme of the concert with Tomas Netopil is still under preparation. The other concert, under the baton of Jakub Hrusa, will present Ludwig van Beethoven’s compositions adapted for a string orchestra.

One Prague Spring concert will be held for the first time in Brno this year. On May 20, the Brno Contemporary Orchestra will play world repertoire compositions plus the world premiere of Wild at Heart, a new composition Czech Jan Ryant Drizal has written for the festival.

A programme specially tailored for Prague Spring will also be offered by the Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704 ensembles led by Vaclav Luks. Their May 18 concert in Prague Crossroads, a former church, will offer a confrontation of music of Johann Sebastian Bach and Czech Baroque author Jan Dismas Zelenka.

At a concert transmitted on May 25, renowned Czech baritone Adam Plachetka will perform Franz Schubert’s Winterreise cycle of songs, accompanied on the piano by National Theatre Orchestra’s conductor David Svec.

Multi-genre composer Lukas Sommer will play his compositions in Prague’s Technical Museum, surrounded by unique exhibits such as historical transport means. The concert will also feature countertenor Jan Mikusek.

Bedrich Smetana’s My Country cycle of symphonic poems, which annually opens the festival, each time with a different orchestra and conductor, cannot be performed live this year. However, Czech Television will broadcast selected fragments of the festival’s best opening concerts on May 11, on the eve of Smetana’s (1824-84) death anniversary.