This year’s festival will open just one day before Antonín Dvořák’s birthday, and with great pleasure, Zurich’s Tonhalle-Orchester, joined by its chief conductor Paavo Järvi and cellist Anastasia Kobekina, will wish him a happy birthday in advance.

By now, it is no secret that the first piece of music to be performed at this year’s Dvořák Prague will again be the Cello Concerto. This is particularly exciting, as it will be played on an incomparably beautiful instrument, a Stradivarius, in the hands of a fittingly charismatic performer. This magnificent piece, full of energy, nostalgia, and a longing for home, will be performed by Anastasia Kobekina, accompanied by a masterful orchestra with a wealth of experience performing Dvořák. Following this, the musicians will draw on their deep experience to perform Symphony No. 9 in E Minor, ‘From the New World’. This will round off the joint performance of Dvořák’s two most famous works – a majestic opening fanfare to launch the festival in style.

The following day, Järvi and the Tonhalle-Orchester will be joined by pianist Ivo Kahánek, and together they will add Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 and Anton Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 to the festival’s repertoire. The day after that, on 9 September, Anastasia Kobekina will be joining the Pavel Haas Quartet to launch the Chamber Series.

Classical music from Messiaen to Mozart: that is the passion of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich – and has been since 1868. When it plays with Paavo Järvi, a special energy is generated, because each concert is unlike all others. The orchestra loves the diverse stimuli it receives from its guest conductors and enjoys being challenged by internationally acclaimed soloists. Along with its audience, the orchestra maintains a lively curiosity for unknown masterpieces and newly commissioned works. Founded by musicians from Zurich, it proclaims its musical home in its name and carries its excellent reputation around the world by means of tours and recordings.

In the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, some 100 musicians play approximately fifty different programmes in over 100 concerts per season. The orchestra brings together musicians from some twenty nations. Guest appearances have taken it to 100 cities in more than thirty countries. In addition to the orchestral projects, the musicians also create their own chamber music series. Music Director Paavo Järvi is the eleventh principal conductor of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich; David Zinman is its conductor emeritus.

The orchestra has released more than forty recordings on CD, including complete cycles of the symphonies by Beethoven, Mahler, Brahms and Schubert. Its first recording with Paavo Järvi was devoted to orchestral works by Olivier Messiaen and was awarded the Diapason d’Or in 2019. This was followed by recordings of all of Tchaikovsky's symphonies and other orchestral works; the first release with the Fifth symphony was awarded the Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik 2020 and the Diapason d’Or 2021.

This year, a close artistic partnership with John Adams has resulted in a major recording of his orchestral works. The Zürich Tonhalle orchestra together with Paavo Järvi were recently awarded the 2022 European Cultural Prize.

After four seasons in the Tonhalle Maag in west Zürich, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich has once again been performing in its traditional home by the lake since the start of the 2021/22 season in the substantially renovated Tonhalle, whose main concert hall, the 'Grosse Tonhalle', has won international fame for its superb acoustics.

Source: tonhalle-orchester.ch

Estonian-born Grammy-Award winner Paavo Järvi is regarded as one of today’s most important conductors, working in close partnership with the greatest international orchestras. He is the Music Director of the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, has been the Artistic Director of the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen since 2004, and is the founder and Artistic Director of the Estonian Festival Orchestra. Since the start of the 2022-23 concert season, he has also been appointed Honorary Conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra.

For his fourth season with the Zürich Tonhalle Orchestra, he is continuing the Bruckner cycle while also completing his Mendelssohn cycle, together with their corresponding CD recordings. Other recordings include a live semi-staged production of Beethoven’s Fidelio, as well as a new recorded edition of orchestral works by John Adams to celebrate the composer’s 75th birthday.

He rounds off each season with a week of concerts and masterclasses at the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia, a festival that he and his father, Neeme Järvi, jointly founded in 2011. The success of the festival and its resident ensemble – the Estonian Festival Orchestra – has led to a number of highly prestigious invitations to conduct at the Berliner Philharmonie, the Konzerthaus in Vienna, the BBC Proms and the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg.

Paavo Järvi is also much in demand as a guest conductor, maintaining close links worldwide with the orchestras he has previously led. Further prizes and accolades include a Grammy Award in 2003 for cantatas by Sibelius; the 2015 ‘Artist of the Year’ awarded by Gramophone Magazine (UK) and Diapason (France), as well as the Sibelius Medal; in 2019,he won ‘Conductor of the Year’ (Opus-Klassik) and the Rheingau Music Prize; and most recently, he was claimed the 2022 European Cultural Prize.

Source: paavojarvi.com

Described by Le Figaro as an "unrivaled musician", Anastasia Kobekina is known for her breath-taking musicality and technique, her extraordinary versatility and her infectious personality.

Anastasia performed with orchestras like Konzerthausorchester Berlin, Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Wiener Symphoniker, BBC Philharmonic, Kremerata Baltica, Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra Moscow, and under the guidance of Krzysztov Penderecki, Heinrich Schiff, Omer Meir Wellber, Vladimir Spivakov and Dmitrij Kitajenko.

Highlights of the 2022/23 season include debuts with Wiener Kammerorchester Kammerorchester Basel, Symphoniker Hamburg, Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana and National Orchestra d’Ile de France and Rheingau Musik Festival.

Anastasia is prizewinner at international competitions such as Tchaikovsky Competition (St. Petersburg 2019) and Enescu Competition (Bucharest 2016). She has been a BBC New Generation Artist from 2018-2021 and became Borletti-Buitoni Trust Artists by receiving an award in 2022.

Anastasia performs at the major venues and festivals, including the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, the Lincoln Center, Konzerthaus Berlin, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Tonhalle Zurich, Vienna Konzerthaus, Wigmore Hall, Gstaad Menuhin Festival, Easter Festival of Aix-en-Provence, Schleswig Holestein Music Festival, Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

Born in Russia, she received her first cello lessons at the age of 4. Anastasia studied with Frans Helmerson and Prof. Jens-Peter Maintz in Germany and then in Paris with Jerome Pernoo. Currently, she is studying baroque Violoncello with Kristin von der Goltz in Frankfurt.

Kobekina performs on Violoncello Antonio Stradivarius from 1698 generously loaned by Stradivari Stiftung Habisreutinger.

Zdroj: LIU KOTOW International Management & Promotion

The Rudolfinum is one of the most important Neo-Renaissance edifices in the Czech Republic. In its conception as a multi-purpose cultural centre it was quite unique in Europe at the time of its construction. Based on a joint design by two outstanding Czech architects, Josef Zítek and Josef Schultz, a magnificent building was erected serving for concerts, as a gallery, and as a museum. The grand opening on 7 February 1885 was attended by Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, in whose honour the structure was named. In 1896 the very first concert of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra took place in the Rudolfinum's main concert hall, under the baton of the composer Antonín Dvořák whose name was later bestowed on the hall.