The Zemlinsky 150 Festival in Prague will present world music guests
The guests of the Zemlinsky 150 Festival will be opera soloist Johanni van Oostrumová, baritone Michal Nagy or cellist Claudio Bohórquez. The festival will feature ensembles Zemlinsky Quartet, Karl-Heinz Steffens and Friends, Choir and Orchestra of the State Opera.
The German cellist Bohórquez will perform at the opening concert, which will take place on October 8 at the Czech Museum of Music. Works by Johannes Brahms, Alban Berg and Alexander Zemlinsky will be performed. The festival continues on October 9 with a concert at the State Opera entitled Zemlinsky – Schönberg – Berg. Under the baton of the music director of the State Opera Karel-Heinz Steffens, mezzo-soprano Štěpánka Pučálková will perform with the State Opera Orchestra. Saturday’s program will continue at the Czech Museum of Music, where the Zemlinsky – Schönberg program will be offered by the Zemlinsky Quartet and mezzo-soprano Markéta Cukrová. The Zemlinsky Quartet will also play in the Spanish Synagogue on October 10. The concert is mainly subtitled Zemlinsky – Mozart.
South African-Dutch soprano van Oostrum will perform with baritone Michael Nagy at the closing concert on October 10 at the State Opera. The concert entitled Zemlinsky 150 will include works by the Lyric Symphony and Secrets, but above all a fragment from the as yet unreleased opera Malva. Zemlinsky wrote it based on a short story by Maxim Gorky. Malva was musically adapted for this purpose by Antony Beaumont, a musicologist and expert on Zemlinsky’s work. The final concert will be filmed by Czech Television and will be performed on the ČT art channel on October 11. The festival is complemented by a number of accompanying programs. More information can be found at pages festival.
Conductor, composer and pedagogue Alexander Zemlinsky worked in Prague as the head of the opera of the New German Theater from 1911 to 1927 and led this scene to many international successes. He expanded her repertoire, presented a number of works at the world premiere – such as the monodrama by Arnold Schönberg Expectations, which will be performed again at the State Opera in November. During his artistic direction, works by Ernst Křenek, Paul Hindemith, Erich Wolfgang Korngold and Franz Schreker are also performed. In addition, we have to bring him to Prague prominent artists of his time. In 1933, after Adolf Hitler came to power, Zemlinsky had to flee Berlin, where he worked, first to Vienna and then to the United States.