Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 7
This concert aims to recreate the 1908 premiere of Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. Although few structures from the Jubilee Exhibition remain today, the power of the music still lingers. It was here on the site of the Prague exhibition grounds that the successful premiere took place, performed under the baton of the composer himself by the combined orchestras of the Czech Philharmonic and the New German Theatre Orchestra of Prague. Following the post-war expulsion from Czechoslovakia, it was its former members who established the foundations of what is now known as the Bamberger Symphoniker in Bavaria.
The Jubilee Exhibition of the Trade and Business Chamber was an event that engrossed the Czech public and media from May to October of that year. The spectacular event showcased the Czech lands as the industrial heart of the Austrian Empire, bringing Czech culture to the fore. Alongside, the exhibition presented a fully constructed African village, inhabited by Indigenous people, and featured a slide that brought considerable amusement to the contemporary humour magazines. All that is gone. Nevertheless, the union of the Czech and German orchestras under the cosmopolitan Mahler’s conductorship reminds us that Prague can make a legitimate claim to the title of “the Heart of Europe”. Today, the Czech Philharmonic, the Bamberger Symphoniker, conductor Jakub Hrůša along with Mahler's Seventh rightfully take their place at the original premiere site for the upcoming open-air concert. They are also part of the Year of Czech Music in its broader sense, converging at this cultural hub in the heart of a united Europe.
7.00 pm concert venue opening for visitors
7.40 pm screening of a documentary about the 7th Symphony
8.15 pm first notes will be played - opening of the concert
Details of the United by Mahler project will be provided on the display panels next to the concert venue. The screening on the main stage will also include footage from the National Film Archive of the 1908 Jubilee Exhibition, where Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7 was premiered.
The open air concert will take place at the Prague Exhibition Grounds (Výstaviště Praha) in Holešovice in front of the Industrial Palace. There will be a easy-to-read map with navigation to each section and the festival information service will be available to all visitors. In the event of a visitor arriving less than 5 minutes before the start of the concert, the organiser reserves the right to seat them in the nearest available seat so as not to disrupt the start or progress of the concert.
More information about the concert can be found at spojenimahlerem.cz.
Chosen as Gramophone’s 2024 ‘Orchestra of the Year’, this season the Czech Philharmonic will be a guest in the most prestigious halls across East Asia – Taiwan, Japan and South Korea – as well as major cities in Germany, Italy, Austria, Luxembourg and Belgium. In the Czech Republic, the orchestra appears at its home, the Rudolfinum in Prague, at festivals including Prague Spring, Dvořák Prague and Smetana Litomyšl, as well as at international festivals such as Grafenegg, George Enescu and Bad Kissingen.
The Czech Philharmonic and its Chief Conductor and Music Director, Semyon Bychkov, launch the 130th season in Prague with two programmes that feature composers who have been particularly significant throughout Bychkov’s career: Tchaikovsky, with whom he initiated his tenure with the Czech Philharmonic; and Shostakovich, whose 50th anniversary is being commemorated across the world. Both programmes also feature works for piano: Ravel’s Piano Concerto and Strauss’ Burleske.
The Czech Philharmonic’s programmes with Bychkov this season feature Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, Stravinsky’s Pulcinella and The Rite of Spring, Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and concertos by Elgar, Brahms and Bryce Dessner, the 130th season’s Composer-in-Residence. In November, Bychkov will conduct Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with the 130th season Artist-in-Residence, Evgeny Kissin. Kissin will also give a solo recital as part of his residency.
2024 was the Year of Czech Music and the bicentenary of Bedřich Smetana, commemorated by the Czech Philharmonic and Bychkov with a new recording of Má vlast on PENTATONE. This recording, recently nominated for a 2025 BBC Music Magazine Award, was followed by the release of Dvořák’s Symphonies Nos. 7, 8 and 9, and the culmination of the Year of Czech Music in New York with a three-day residency at Carnegie Hall. In its review of the concerts, The New York Times described the Czech Philharmonic as “a timeless treasure… and an excellent steward for its country’s musical heritage.” In 2025, the orchestra celebrates the 150th anniversary of Vltava – the iconic second poem of Má vlast – with performances in Prague and East Asia.
The two Principal Guest Conductors of the Czech Philharmonic, Sir Simon Rattle and Jakub Hrůša, both conduct the orchestra this season. In December, Rattle leads the Czech Philharmonic and the women of the Prague Philharmonic Choir in music by Debussy, Messiaen and Mahler, as well as a programme of works by Berlioz, Lutosławski and Beethoven with the Czech Philharmonic Youth Orchestra (CPYO). In September, PENTATONE release Dvořák’s Slavonic Dances conducted by Rattle, and with Jakub Hrůša continue their exploration of music by Josef Suk. Hrůša will also conduct music by Sibelius, Britten and the Czech premiere of Dessner’s St. Carolyn by the Sea for two electric guitars.
Each year the CPYO collaborates with a conductor appearing with the Czech Philharmonic and this season, in addition to Rattle, they will also work on Beethoven’s Symphony No. 4 with Giovanni Antonini. Antonini is of course just one of the many guest conductors invited by the Czech Philharmonic during its 130th season. Audiences can also look forward to the return of Dalia Stasevska, Sir Antonio Pappano, Cristian Măcelaru, David Robertson, Petr Popelka, and Thomas Adès, who conducts a programme in honour of Pierre Boulez’s 100th birthday. The 2025 Velvet Revolution concerts, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’ with the Prague Philharmonic Choir, will be conducted by Zubin Mehta.
In addition to Artist-in-Residence Evgeny Kissin, soloists featured this season include Mao Fujita, Barbara Hannigan, Amihai Grosz, Fleur Barron and Anastasia Kobekina, who are appearing with the Czech Philharmonic for the first time in Prague, and home-grown and international artists Magdalena Kožená, Josef Špaček, Seong-Jin Cho, Víkingur Ólafsson, Augustin Hadelich, Sol Gabetta and Nicola Benedetti, who return to the orchestra.
The Czech Philharmonic’s extraordinary and proud history reflects both its location at the very heart of Europe and the Czech Republic’s turbulent political history. Throughout the orchestra’s history, two features have remained at its core: its championing of Czech composers and its belief in music’s power to change lives. From as early as the 1920s, Václav Talich pioneered concerts for workers, young people and voluntary organisations, a philosophy which remains equally vibrant today. Alongside the CPYO, Orchestral Academy and the Jiří Bělohlávek Prize for young musicians, a comprehensive education strategy engages with more than 400 schools and an inspirational music and song programme led by singer Ida Kelarová for the extensive Romany communities has helped many socially excluded families to find a voice.
An early champion of the music of Martinů and Janáček, the Czech Philharmonic’s first concert in 1896 was an all-Dvořák programme conducted by the composer himself. Works by Czech composers – both established and new – remain the orchestra’s lifeblood. At the start of his tenure in 2018, Semyon Bychkov initiated the commissioning of works from fourteen Czech and international composers including Detlev Glanert, Julian Anderson, Thomas Larcher, Bryce Dessner and Thierry Escaich. Equally recognised for its special relationship with the music of Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Mahler – who conducted the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7 with the orchestra in 1908 – the Czech Philharmonic and Bychkov are currently mid-way through a Mahler cycle. The cycle – the orchestra’s first complete new recording of the symphonies since Václav Neumann’s more than 40 years ago – will be released by PENTATONE as a box set in spring 2026.
source: Česká filharmonie
The Bamberg Symphony is the only orchestra of world renown that is not based in a vibrant metropolis. Almost 10% of the local population subscribe to one of the orchestra’s five concert series, in many cases for decades. However, the ‘magnetic effect’ of the orchestra resonates far and wide: the traveling orchestra has been performing its characteristically dark, sombre, and warm sounds and the musical echo of its hometown throughout the world since 1946. With almost 7,500 concerts in over 500 cities and 63 countries, they have become a cultural ambassador for Bavaria and all of Germany. They regularly tour the USA, South America, Japan, and China, for example, and are invited by renowned concert halls and festivals worldwide. The Bamberg Symphony therefore briefly describes their mission as Resonating Worldwide.
The circumstances of its founding make the Bamberg Symphony a mirror of German history: in 1946, former members of the German Philharmonic Orchestra Prague met colleagues in Bamberg who also had to flee their homeland as a result of the war and post-war turmoil. Starting with the orchestra in Prague, its lines of tradition can be traced back to the 18th and 19th centuries. Thus, the roots of the Bamberg Symphony reach back to Mahler and Mozart. Since 2004, the orchestra has held the honorary title of Bavarian State Philharmonic Orchestra, and is substantially financed by the Free State of Bavaria.
Four principal conductors, Joseph Keilberth, James Loughran, Horst Stein, and Jonathan Nott, as well as Artistic Director Eugen Jochum have led the orchestra since 1946. With Czech Jakub Hrůša, the fifth principal conductor since 2016, a bridge has again been built between the historical roots of the Bamberg Symphony and the present day, more than 75 years after the orchestra was founded. They regularly perform with their honorary conductors Herbert Blomstedt and Christoph Eschenbach, as well as with other leading conductors such as Manfred Honeck, Andris Nelsons and Lahav Shani.
A not insignificant contribution to increasing the worldwide high profile of the Bamberg Symphony is also attributed to the countless concert broadcasts in cooperation with Bavarian Radio (BR) as well as various other radio, record, and CD productions. In 2019, the orchestra broke new ground with a recording of Smetana's »Má vlast« using the direct-to-disc process, in which the recording is made directly onto a disc without digital post-processing, creating a unique sound experience. The recording of Mahler’s 4th Symphony (2020; accentus music) was awarded the Annual Prize of the German Record Critics at the end of 2021. This was followed by a recording of Anton Bruckner’s 4th Symphony in all three versions, united in one edition – a unique project to date, which won the International Classical Music Award 2022. Subsequently, the orchestra also received the ICMA 2023 for its recording of Hans Rott’s 1st Symphony (2022; Deutsche Grammophon). The Bamberg Symphony completed a cycle of four double CDs with symphonies by Brahms and Dvořák (2018-2022; TUDOR). In November 2022, two of these CDs were awarded »Recording of the Month« by BBC Music Magazine.
The fact that this group also places a great deal of emphasis on programmatic content at their concerts is attested to by the award from the German Music Publishers Association for »The Best Concert Programme« in spring 2018. In 2020, the orchestra received the Bavarian State Prize for Music. In 2021, an audio book was published (accentus music) that musically retells the unique history of the Bamberg Symphony from Mozart in Prague to the present day.
Since 2022, the Bamberg Symphony has set itself the goal of acting and travelling in a more climate-friendly manner, e.g., using means of transportation powered by alternative energy sources. For larger tours and trips abroad, efforts are being made to optimize travel routes and tour procedures. Increasingly, the orchestra stays in one country or place for longer periods, e.g., to play residencies or lead educational projects joined by local artists. By financially supporting environmental projects, including those in concert locations, the orchestra is attempting to offset most of the CO2 emissions caused by its own travels.
source: Bamberger Symphoniker
Jakub Hrůša is Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and Principal Guest Conductor of both the Czech Philharmonic and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. From autumn 2025, he will take up the post of Music Director at the Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London.
He frequently appears as a guest conductor with the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Berlin, Vienna, Munich and New York Philharmonics, the Bavarian Radio, NHK, Chicago and Boston Symphonies, the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Lucerne Festival, Royal Concertgebouw, Mahler Chamber and the Cleveland Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre de Paris, and Tonhalle Orchester Zürich.
He has led opera productions for the Vienna State Opera, the Royal Opera House, Opéra National de Paris, Zurich Opera, and the Glyndebourne Festival. In 2022, he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival with a new production of Káťa Kabanová.
For his recordings with the Bamberg Symphony, he received an ICMA for Hans Rott’s 1st Symphony in 2023, previously an ICMA for Bruckner’s 4th Symphony, as well as the Jahrespreis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik for Mahler's 4th Symphony, as well as a BBC Music Magazine Award for Dvořák and Martinů Piano Concertos with Ivo Kahánek. In addition, he has received Gramophone and BBC Music Magazine Award nominations for Martinů Violin Concertos with Frank Peter Zimmermann.
Hrůša studied at Prague’s Academy of Performing Arts, where his teachers included Jiří Bělohlávek. He is President of the International Martinů Circle and The Dvořák Society. He was the inaugural recipient of the Sir Charles Mackerras Prize, and in 2020 was awarded the Antonín Dvořák Prize by the Czech Republic’s Academy of Classical Music, and – with the Bamberg Symphony – the Bavarian State Prize for Music. In 2023, Jakub Hrůša was awarded Honorary Membership to the Royal Academy of Music in London.
source: Bamberger Symphoniker
The Prague Exhibition Grounds (Výstaviště Praha), located in Prague 7, is a historic leisure complex. This area was created by separating a section of the Royal Game Park during the Jubilee Exhibition in 1891 to celebrate the 100th anniversary of the first Industrial Exhibition of 1791. It was here that prefabricated iron architecture was used for the first time in the Czech lands. The palace was completed in ten months in 1891 despite the exhibition grounds being affected by floods and severe frosts at the time. The building is an important artistic and technical monument and is used for exhibitions, festivals, and other cultural and entertainment events. Since February 2022, the site has been undergoing renovation and reconstruction work on part of the complex that had previously burnt down.
