The Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra
Competitions
14.1.2011 10:00 1st Solo Contrabass
14.1.2011 11:00 Cello tutti
14.1.2011 12:00 2nd + 1st Oboe
21.1.2011 10:00 1st violin tutti
21.1.2011 11:00 CONCRT MASTER
Recording Studio Pilsen The building of the Czech Radio in Pilsen is very proud to disposo of its great Recording Studio, having the volume of 1473 cu.m. Its ground plan is trapezoidal with stepped floor and rugged ceiling, where also illuminating ramps are suspended. Perfectly balanced acoustic of this Studio is enabled by combining mobile sound-reflecting surfaces on desks in porous material absorbing sound waves. This contributes also to record solo playing music instruments. Thanks to its high-level acoustics and free space, this Studio is frequently much-sought-for for big orchestra auditions and recording. More on it, in the Studio are available the PETROF top-class concert piano, another piano as well as a top-class cembalo. |
The Czech Republic's fourth largest city , Pilsen (Plzen) , is the industrial and cultural capital of Western Bohemia.
Pilsen has had a long and distinguished musical history with its symphonic activities extending back nearly
a century when the city's first orchestra was formed by Václav Talich (1883-1961) in 1908.
In 1934 the first Pilsen Philharmonic emerged from the previous body only to be interrupted by WW II. In early
May, 1945, the U.S. forces liberated Pilsen and about two weeks later ,and on the 24th of May 1945 ,
the orchestra came together for a special concert to perform Smetana's "Má Vlast" (My Country) ; a program
which was broadcast live throughout the USA.
In 1946 the present ensemble was formed as the Pilsen Radio Orchestra, which was renamed after the Velvet
Revolution to The Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra.
In the last sixty years The Pilsen Philharmonic has made itself a firm reputation not only as one of the finest
Czech orchestras, but also a much sought-after musical body beyond the Czech Republic. Its professional
image has been shaped not only by several of its prominent principal conductors such as Gabriel Vágner,
Joseph Hrnčíř, Antonín Devátý, Martin.Turnovský, Bohumil Liška, Jan Chalupecký, Hynek Farkač and Jiři
Malát, but also by several other international musical personalities such as Rudolf Kerer, Leonid Kogan,
Gideon Kremer, Igor Oistrach, Mstislav Rostropovitch, Václav Talich, Alois Klima, Aram Chatchaturian,
Jiri Bělohlávek, Libor Pešek, Jiři Stárek, A.Katz, Oliver Dohnányi, Charles Mackerras, Vladivoj Sutej
and Serge Baudo.
The Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra has three full cycles of subsciption concerts including one that is focused
towards a children’s audience. Furthermore, it holds speciál concerts for festive occasions and concerts for
youth as well as other special occasions.
In the year 2001,the Orchestra hosted conductor‘s courses dedicated to the work of J. Sibelius lead by
renowned Finnish conductor pedagogue Jorma Panula. The Mexican tenor Ramon Vargas (Munich 2002)
and the Spanish diva Montserrat Caballé (Munich 2004) , Eva Urbanová and Dagmar Pecková., were among
a few of the international stars who appeared with the Philharmonic in recent years.
The very best of Czech instrumentalists appear in its cycles of its subscription series including Václav Hudeček,
Lubmír Brabec, Jiři Stivín, Ivan Ženatý, Pavel Šporcl, Jiří Bárta, Jana Boušková, Kateřina Englichová, Jana
Brožková, Radek Baborák, Roman Novotný, Ivan Klánský, Michal Kaňka, Jiři Hošek, Jitka Čechová, Marián
Lapšanský, Jan Pěruška, Jan Talich, Hana Kotková and Klaudia Dernerová. A number of interesting foreign
artists have also been performing in concert with the philharmonic in recent years including Ingmar Schwindt,
Janice Martin, Stephan Fraas, Natasha Korsakova, Victor von Montetton, Michinori Bunya, Ester Hilsberg,
Josua Epstein, Leu Guelbard, Roberto Guadagno, Charles Kalman, Jose Collado and Hana Pizka.
Apart from its concert activities in Pilsen, The Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra records for Czech Radio with
an important emphasis on the music of contemporary Czech and foreign composers. It has made dozens
of recordings from baroque music to contemporary music for various European producers. It has
a state-of-the-art digital recording studio at its disposal.
A landmark was achieved when recordings of the complete works of the French classicist George de Boulogne
were done. His work had fallen into oblivion for the last 200 years even though he was compared with Mozart
in his time.
The Philharmonic was also the final concert orchestra of the Opera Festival in 2005 and has also had
the pleasure of being the orchestra selected to accompany the finalists ,in public concerts ,at the Prague Spring
International Music Festival’s Piano Competition.
In recent years, the Philharmonic has also cooperated with the Conservatory in Pilsen and Academy
of Performing Arts in Prague for their public concerts.
The Pilsen Philharmonic Orchestra appears regularly on tour abroad where it represents not only the Pilsen City
but the whole region of West Bohemia. Venues include Berlin, Bayreuth, Posdam, Ulm, Ludwigshafen, Mainz,
Stuttgart, Munich, Zurich, Winterthur, Romanshorn, Schwanden,Feldkirch (Austria) and Milan.
Recent international tours have included Spain in October 2002 together with The Kubelik Trio, 17 concerts
in the USA in 2004, and 10 concerts in Germany in 2005.
