Dvořák’s Prague showed the light of the musical future
The lion’s share of the professional performance of compositions is also played by the chief conductor and chief pedagogue of orchestral playing at the Prague Conservatory Miriam Nemcová. Conductor evening Petr Altrichter he also called her to the stage at the end of the concert and gave her a sincere hug as an expression of thanks. An excellent and fair gesture!
It was a great concert, in which the enthusiasm of the young, technically well-equipped orchestral players combined with the artistic maturity of the conductors. From the very first notes of the opening Borodinos Half-century dances it was clear how seriously the student orchestra takes its performance at the international festival Dvořák’s Pragueand that the completely filled auditorium of the Prague Rudolfinum can prepare for a real artistic experience.
In Borodin’s score there are many pitfalls in the area of rhythm and instrumentation, above all there are several virtuoso solos of wind instruments. All were performed with the bravura and confidence of an experienced orchestral practitioner. Admirable! Conductor Petr Altrichter expressed his sympathy for the young players and the orchestra next to him in the concepts that decorate it with every gesture. In Borodin’s composition, too, he achieved a fixed form and logic of everything that is part of the score – to the extent that under his baton everything seemed to be unquestionably self-evident. The young musicians gladly implemented his interpretation ideas.
With the same superlatives, we can crown the performance of the famous Concerto for violin and orchestra in D major Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. A young soloist stood in the “first line”. Daniel Matejča, who less than two months ago extended his extensive collection of competition victories by taking first place in the Eurovision Song Contest in Montpellier, France. He thus became the first awarded Czech in this competition.
Daniel Matejča’s radiation to the audience, his flawless performance in the enormously demanding violin concerto, his singing, emotion-inciting tone, but also his humble performance when bowing or his sovereignty when performing a brilliant encore can be characterized as a great promise for the new upcoming generation of concert violinists. With subtle and elegant sentimentality, the soloist included in his interpretation of Tchaikovsky’s concerto places with slight glissando transitions between notes (especially in the lyrical parts). I see it as a charming finesse. In the performance of the virtuoso passage, Matejča did not allow himself any routine – he strictly followed the rhythm and tempo, regardless of their difficulty. The dynamic range of the violinist was very wide, he always chose a specific dynamic progression with humility for the piece being performed.
Petr Altrichter and the student orchestra gave the soloist a lot of freedom in his solo performances, then he established a firm order in the accompaniments of the energetic tempo pieces. Here, too, the young players encountered the practice of a great conductor, and this experience will accompany them for many years to come.
Dvořák’s performance Eighth Symphony for the sake of brevity, we can only take it in the spirit of a festival concert. From all sides we hear about this author’s top composition and read that it is loose in form and that, based on supposed inspirations from nature, it approaches a suite. Maybe it comes out this way in other versions, but in Altrichter’s conception we encounter a strengthened symphony almost “Beethoven style”. I think he found here the key to knowledge of tempo relationships within and between sentences. A little explanation: the metronomic data of adjacent tempos can show a common difference or product of “two” (for example 120:60), then the tempos are brought closer to each other and the contrast of the music is inhibited, if neither the quotient nor the product shows the result of “two”, there is deepening contrast between adjacent parts. This mechanism can then be used freely, especially where the composer does not specify it. In the spirit of what was said, however, Petr Altrichter discovered an additional way to more formally concentrate the course of the second half of the symphony – he adds an attacca to the fourth movement (this instruction is not given in the score). This will offer the possibility of legibly working with other time relationships. This will be reflected in the result as the “healing power” of the structure, the strength of which could be threatened by incompetent interpretative manipulation.
Prague Conservatory is a quality school. We do not take this as a phrase. I can personally attest to that. For many years in the last decade, I worked here as an external chairman of one of the matriculation or graduation committees, and I always found the impression of an orderly institution with a central interest in each student. Many data can be read from the great late concert of her symphony orchestra. Among other things, one can imagine (within the intentions of a late concert) tens of thousands of hours of quality education for performing musicians. Simply put: Dvořák’s Prague made a very good selection in the youth category this year. The Symphony Orchestra of the Prague Conservatory set the bar very high for future artistic ensembles!
For the future – Prague Conservatory Symphony Orchestra
September 13, 2022, 8:00 p.m
Rudolfinum, Dvořák Hall
Program:
Alexander Borodin: Half-century dances from the opera Prince Igor
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky: Concerto for violin and orchestra in D major, Op. 35
Antonín Dvořák: Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88, B. 163, “English”
Performers:
Daniel Matejča – violin
Prague Conservatory Symphony Orchestra
Petr Altrichter – conductor