Vzhledem k posledním vládním opatřením a po zvážení výhledu na příští týdny a měsíce jsme se s těžkým srdcem rozhodli zrušit tento slavnostní koncert, na kterém měl při příležitosti předání Ceny Antonína Dvořáka významné operní pěvkyni Gabriele Beňačkové vystoupit tenorista Piotr Beczała a další umělci. Je nám neobyčejně líto, že ani naše pohotová reakce a přeložení koncertu z původního dubnového termínu na prosinec celou událost neuchránila. Držitelé platných vstupenek mohou požádat o vrácení vstupného, případně přispět na vzdělávání mladých umělců ponecháním vstupného pořadateli.

Vrácení vstupného: Do 31. 12. 2020 můžete požádat o vrácení vstupného prostřednictvím formuláře na webu společnosti Colosseum Ticket.

Podpora řady Pro budoucnost v roce 2021: V případě, že jste se rozhodli pro tuto variantu, stačí odeslat e-mail na adresu info@colosseumticket.cz. Ten by měl obsahovat jednoduché čestné prohlášení, že chcete uhrazené vstupné ponechat pořadateli. Dále je třeba uvést jméno a příjmení, termín a název představení a také číslo vstupenky (11místné číslo). Všechny takto získané finanční prostředky budou pořadatelem využity na podporu řady Pro budoucnost v rámci mezinárodního hudebného festivalu Dvořákova Praha v roce 2021.

Věříme, že naše rozhodnutí pochopíte. Předem Vám také děkujeme za pomoc a věříme, že se v roce 2021 opět setkáme v koncertních sálech za příznivějších okolností.

 Gabriela Beňačková: Stříbrný hlas pro celý svět číst.

The Polish tenor Piotr Beczała is one of the world’s top singers in his vocal category. His brilliant career began in 1996 at the Landestheater in Linz, and a year later he became a member of the opera ensemble in Zurich. In April 2004 he made his Covent Garden debut. Two years later he presented himself for the first time in Milan at La Scala as the Duke in Verdi’s Rigoletto, and thereafter he made his Metropolitan Opera debut in the same role. Another important milestone of his artistic career came in 2009 when he stood in for Rolando Villazón at the last moment for a performance of Donizetti’s Lucia di Lammermoor, which was broadcast live worldwide as part of the Metropolitan Opera’s “Live in HD” project. He is also a successful concert artist with a repertoire ranging from Mozart and Haydn to Schubert, Schumann, Dvořák, and Brahms. He has already appeared several times in the Czech Republic: in April 2014 in a recital at the Municipal House in Prague, in June 2016 in Ostrava, and twice in February 2017 as the Prince in Dvořák’s Rusalka at Prague’s National Theatre.

The outstanding Czech pianist and teacher Ivan Klánský is a graduate of Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts. Already at an early stage of his artistic career, he became a laureate of prestigious international competitions (Bolzano 1967, Naples 1968, Leipzig 1968, Warsaw 1970, Barcelona 1970, Fort Worth 1973, Santander 1976). He gives concerts regularly in Europe, Asia, Australia, the USA, and South America, and his total number of performances is approaching five thousand. He is also a sought-after chamber music partner, and his name has long been associated with the superb Guaneri Trio Prague. Along with his activities as a performer, he is exceptionally successful as a teacher. He has been a professor at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague since 1983 and head of the Department of Keyboard Instruments since 1997. Since 1991 he has been a professor at the Lucerne School of Music, and he has led master classes in Dublin (1982–1986) and Bad Sulgau (since 1997). He was awarded the Antonín Dvořák Prize in 2017.

As a performer of unusual emotional power and depth, Ivo Kahánek has earned a reputation as one of the most impressive artists of his generation. He takes ample advantage of his talent to establish instant emotional ties with the public in works ranging from the Baroque to the modern eras, with the Romantic era representing the bulk of his repertoire. Abroad, he is also regarded as a specialist in the interpretation of Czech music.

In 2004, he was the overall winner of the Prague Spring International Music Competition, and before that he had already won many important competition prizes at both home and abroad (the Maria Canals Piano Competition in Barcelona, the Vendome Prize in Vienna, the Stiftung Tomassoni Wettbewerb in Cologne, the Fryderyk Chopin International Competition in Mariánské Lázně, Concertino Praga etc.).

Following successful debuts at the Beethovenfest in Bonn and at the Prague Spring Festival, he received an invitation from the BBC Symphony Orchestra to appear at London’s BBC Proms in Royal Albert Hall, where in August 2007 he played Bohuslav Martinů’s Fourth Piano Concerto (“Incantation”) under the baton of Jiří Bělohlávek, which was broadcast live by BBC television and radio and by Czech Radio Vltava. That critically acclaimed debut is available from the German label Deutsche Grammophon as a digital download. It is no wonder that Sir Simon Rattle chose Ivo Kahánek for two appearances with the Berlin Philharmonic in November 2014, which were enthusiastically received by music critics and the general public. The young pianist became just the second Czech pianist (after Rudolf Firkušný) to appear with that world-famous orchestra in its history. Ivo Kahánek also performs regularly with the Czech Philharmonic, and he has made successful appearances with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow, the Essener Philharmoniker, the WDR Orchestra in Cologne, the Zurich Chamber Orchestra, the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Brno Philharmonic, and many other orchestras. Just a few of the other artists with whom he has collaborated include conductors Semyon Bychkov, John Eliot Gardiner, Jakub Hrůša, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Rafael Payare, Pinchas Steinberg, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Tomáš Netopil, Andrey Boreyko, Libor Pešek, and Zdeněk Mácal, violinist Daniel Hope, cellist Alissu Weilerstein, violist Paul Neubauer, the Pavel Haas Quartet, the Tetzlaff Quartet, soprano Martina Janková, and tenor Pavel Černoch. In 2018, he won the Classic Prague Award for solo performance of the year.

In 2007, Ivo Kahánek signed an exclusive contract with the label Supraphon Music, and since then he has recorded 15 CDs of music by such composers as Frédéric Chopin, Antonín Dvořák, Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů, Gideon Klein, Miloslav Kabeláč, Jean Francaix, and Jacques Ibert. For his recording of piano concertos by Antonín Dvořák and Bohuslav Martinů accompanied by the Bamberg Symphony under the baton of Jakub Hrůša, he earned the prestigious BBC Music Magazine Award. That CD also won other important honours: recording of the month of the BBC Music Magazine, Choix de Classique HD, recording of the week on BBC Radio 3, an Angel Award in the Classical category, and a nomination from the International Classical Music Awards. For his album of songs by Bohuslav Martinů with Martina Janková and Tomáš Král, Ivo Kahánek also won a coveted Diapason d’Or from the French music journal Diapason and was named the choice of the month by the journals Opernwelt and Opera News. His latest important recording is the complete piano works of Antonín Dvořák on 4 CDs, which also received an International Classical Music Awards nomination in late 2021, earned the highest rating in the journals Gramophone and Diapason, and like his previous CD, won an Angel Award in the Classical category. He also makes recordings for Czech Radio, Czech Television, and the television station Mezzo.

Ivo Kahánek is a graduate of the Janáček Conservatoire in Ostrava and of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He also made a study visit to London’s Guildhall School of Music and Drama and has taken part in masterclasses led by Karl-Heinze Kämmerling, Christian Zacharias, Alicia de Larrocha, Imogen Cooper, Peter Frankl, and other instructors. At present he is teaching at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague and is leading piano masterclasses at the Summer Music Academy in Kroměříž and at the Prague Conservatoire Piano Courses.

The renowned Czech pianist Jan Simon graduated from Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts under the guidance of Ivan Moravec, and he further his studies in Zurich and Lübeck. He has won a number of prizes at prestigious international competitions, including the Prague Spring Competition and the Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels. He collaborates regularly with top orchestras (including the Czech Philharmonic, the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and the Israel Philharmonic), conductors (Gaetano Delogu, Jiří Bělohlávek, Vassily Sinaisky, Libor Pešek), and soloists (Josef Suk, Václav Hudeček, Jiří Bárta, Wolfgang Emanuel Schmidt). He has so far appeared in most European countries, Egypt, the USA, Canada, Australia, Japan, and China. He has made numerous acclaimed recordings, and his recording of Schulhoff’s piano concertos won the ’95 Cannes Classical Award. From 2001 to 2015 he was the executive director of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, and at present he is the programming director of the Dvořák Prague Festival.

David Mareček studied piano and conducting at the Brno Conservatoire, and he later continued his studies at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts in Brno in the field of piano, with doctoral studies on interpretation and the theory of interpretation. At the Brno Conservatoire he became the deputy director and professor of piano. From 2005 he was the director of programming of the Brno Philharmonic, and two years later he became its executive director. During his tenure with the Brno orchestra, he strove to attract young listeners and to increase the “visibility” of classical music to the public at large. He has been pursuing the same objectives since 2011 in his present post as chief executive of the Czech Philharmonic, where he has consistently had outstanding success at gaining prestigious opportunities for presenting the artistry of the leading Czech orchestra on the international scene. As a pianist, he has to his credit a recent, highly acclaimed recording of Schubert’s Winterreise with the bass Jan Martiník.

The Prague Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1934. From the beginning, the orchestra’s Czech name also included the abbreviation FOK, representing its three main areas of activity: film, opera, and concerts. The key figure responsible for building the orchestra into a first-class ensemble of international renown was the conductor, Václav Smetáček, who was at the orchestra’s helm for a full 30 years (1942–1972). Among his most illustrious successors as chief conductor have been Jiří Bělohlávek (1977–1990) and Jiří Kout (2006–2013). Beginning in the 2020/21 season, the chief conductor is Tomáš Brauner. Star soloists who have appeared with the orchestra include David Oistrakh, Arthur Rubinstein, Sviatoslav Richter, Mstislav Rostropovich, Edita Gruberová, and Renée Fleming. Besides appearing regularly on its home stage, the Dvořák Hall in Prague’s Municipal House, it is also a frequent guest abroad, having performed in most European countries, Japan, the USA, South America, Korea, Turkey, Israel, and other countries.

Italský dirigent a klavírista Marco Boemi je znám jako specialista na operní repertoár s neobyčejně širokým záběrem počínaje jevištními díly Mozartovými přes autory italského belcanta Belliniho, Donizettiho a Rossiniho až po opery Wagnera, Verdiho, Bizeta, Pucciniho, Strausse, Gershwina a mnoha dalších. Vystupuje v celé řadě renomovaných operních domů evropských metropolí (Řím, Milán, Mnichov, Paříž, Budapešť, Lisabon, Helsinky, Varšava, Moskva) i na mnoha prestižních koncertních pódiích, mezi něž patří např. Queen Elizabeth Hall v Londýně, vídeňský Musikverein, amsterdamský Concertgebouw či Suntory Hall v Tokiu. Mezi mnoha operními sólisty, s nimiž dosud spolupracoval, patří taková jména jako Lucianno Pavarotti, Anna Netrebko, Piotr Beczała, Vittorio Grigolo, Renato Bruson, Katia Ricciarelli, Edita Gruberová či Neil Shicoff. Pořídil řadu nahrávek pro vydavatelství Decca, Universal a Philips.