The 78th Prague Spring International Music Festival will be opened on May 12 and 13, 2023 by the Welsh National Opera Orchestra from Cardiff and its chief conductor Tomáš Hanus with Smetana's My Country.
The appearance of Tomáš Hanus, who is also a member of the artistic advisory board of the festival in the Czech Republic, is a very special occasion. The last time he appeared at the festival was ten years ago, when he led the Ensemble intercontemporain. For the past six years he has been at the helm of the Welsh Orchestra, ensuring that British audiences remain interested in Czech music.
He follows in the footsteps of conductor Charles Mackerras, who premiered Bohuslav Martinů's Greek Passion in Cardiff, and director David Pountney, the former artistic director of Welsh National Opera. The director, whose works have also been seen in Brno and Prague, introduced Janáček's Stepdaughter to Cardiff audiences back in 1975.
Christoph Eschenbach, will conduct the traditional closing concert © Manu Theobald
The violist Antoine Tamestit, who will be heard in four concerts, is artist-in-residence at the Prague Spring Festival. Daniel Harding and Tomáš Netopil will lead foreign orchestras; the Czech orchestras will be conducted by John Adams, Klaus Mäkelä and Oksana Lyniv. Georg Friedrich Haas is composer-in-residence at the Prague Offspring Weekend for Contemporary Music; his compositions will be performed by the Klangforum Wien ensemble.
Early music will be represented by Les Talens Lyriques, Christophe Rousset, the harpsichordist and pianist Jean Rondeau and the countertenor Andreas Scholl. This year, the festival will continue its tradition of closing concerts with Beethoven's Ninth Symphony conducted by Christoph Eschenbach.
May 12 to June 2, 2023
