The Brno Philharmonic is returning to Carnegie Hall after half a century. A veteran of the last tour is also playing — ČT24 — Czech Television
The Brno Philharmonic performed in the United States for the last time in 1973. In one month, it played nineteen concerts, two in front of a sold-out Carnegie Hall. At the first of them, the twenty-year-old violinist Václav Hudeček introduced himself.
The violinist Bohumír Strnad was also a member of the orchestra at the time, who will play in front of the American audience this year as well. “It’s only today that I appreciate that we played there. Returning is important to me because the memories from fifty years ago are essentially faded,” he admits.
Both musicians and instruments need permission
Ninety musicians to America, the production preparation was released, the philharmonic has experience with long trips, for example from concert tours in Asia.
“Four years have passed since the first meeting with the American agency. We have to arrange work visas for this huge ensemble of people, the entire orchestra must also be vaccinated, we have to arrange cargo, insurance, certificates for the import of instruments with rare materials,” lists the director of the Brno Philharmonic, Marie Kučerová. The biggest instruments, such as the tympanum or the harp, are rented by the musicians on the spot.
Both Janáček and Glass are playing
On the current American tour, the Philharmonic will be led by its chief conductor and artistic director Dennis Russell Davies. “I am very happy that we are taking Czech music across the ocean. We prepared three works by Leoš Janáček, two compositions by Bohuslav Martinů and three symphonies by Antonín Dvořák. We combine them with contemporary American music, namely Philip Glass, Laurie Anderson and William Bolcom,” he said of the program.
He says he is most looking forward to Philip Glass, who is said to be his longtime friend, to hear his Symphony No. 12 Lodger performed by the Brno Philharmonic. The organist Christian Schmitt and the Beninese singer associated with world music Angélique Kidjová will perform as soloists with Brno musicians, for whom Glass composed a solo singing part.
In the same composition, the orchestra has already performed Glass’s symphony twice in 2021, namely at the Czech premiere at the Prague Spring Festival and half a year later at the opening of the Moravian Autumn Festival.
After New York, the Brno Philharmonic has concerts in Ann Arbor, Palm Desert, Santa Barbara, Northridge, Kansas City and Lubbock. In Kansas, the American musician and performer Laurie Anderson will join the orchestra. Her song Amelia tells the story of Amelia Earhart, the first woman to fly across the ocean, nine years later her plane disappeared without a trace.