POETIC FIRE: FROM HAMLET TO DON JUAN
POETIC FIRE: FROM HAMLET TO DON JUAN
JOSEPH MEYERHOFF SYMPHONY HALL
Friday, September 22, 8pm Sunday, September 24, 3pm
MUSIC CENTER AT STRATHMORE
Saturday, September 23, 8pm
Marin Alsop, Music Director Lukáš Vondráček, piano
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Hamlet Fantasy-Overture after Shakespeare, op. 67
Richard Strauss Don Juan, op. 20 INTERMISSION
Sergei Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 3 in D Minor, op. 30 Allegro ma non tanto Intermezzo Finale
Lukáš Vondráček
The concert will end at approximately 9:50 pm on Friday and Saturday and at 4:50 pm on Sunday.
PRESENTING SPONSOR:
Philharmonic, the Philharmonia and New Jersey Symphony orchestras as well as recitals at the Mariinsky Theatre, in Mumbai, Singapore, Leipzig’ s Gewandhaus, at Brussel’ s Flagey and the Menuhin Festival Gstaad.
International awards include first prizes at the Hilton Head and San Marino International Piano Competitions and Unisa International Piano Competition in Pretoria, South Africa, as well as the Raymond E. Buck Jury Discretionary Award at the 2009 International Van Cliburn Piano Competition.
Following studies at the Academy of Music in Katowice and the Vienna Conservatory, Vondráček obtained an Artist Diploma from Boston’ s New England Conservatory under the tutelage of Hung-Kuan Chen, graduating with Honors in 2012.
His first commercial recording, a solo album for Octavia Records, was released in 2004 followed by another recital disc in 2012. His most recent CD, a recording of works by Brahms, was released in 2013 on the ORF label.
IRENE KIM
About the Artists
Marin Alsop
For Marin Alsop’ s bio, please see pg. 10.
Lukáš Vondráček
Winner of the International Queen Elisabeth Piano Competition 2016, Lukáš Vondráček has an exciting 2017 – 2018 season ahead. He makes debuts with the Tokyo Metropolitan Orchestra at Tokyo’ s Suntory Hall, Moscow State Symphony Orchestra at the Grand Hall of Moscow Conservatory, Prague Symphony Orchestra at the Rudolfinum, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra at Amsterdam’ s Concertgebouw and the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra.
He returns to the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra with Vasily Petrenko, National Orchestra of Belgium, Bournemouth
Symphony and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Recitals take him to Vienna’ s Konzerthaus, Hamburg’ s Elbphilharmonie, the Louvre, the Philharmonie in Luxembourg, Portland, Chicago and to festivals such as PianoEspoo in Finland and the Rheingau Musik Festival. He tours Brazil in recital and plays orchestra concerts in Belo Horizonte, São Paulo and Florianópolis.
Vondráček made his first public appearance at the age of four. His debut at 15 in 2002 with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy was followed by a major U. S. tour in 2003. He has worked with conductors including Marin Alsop, Elim Chan, Stéphane Denève, Christoph Eschenbach, Jakub Hrůša, Pietari Inkinen, Paavo Järvi, Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Gianandrea Noseda, Vasily Petrenko, Anu Tali, Krzysztof Urbański and Xian Zhang.
Recent highlights include concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra, St. Petersburg
Lukáš Vondráček makes his BSO debut.
About the Concert
HAMLET FANTASY-OVERTURE
Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky
Born in Votkinsk, Russia, May 7, 1840; died in St. Petersburg, Russia, November 6, 1893
In the summer of 1888, Tchaikovsky was working simultaneously on two major orchestral pieces, one of them destined to join the classical hit parade, the other to remain an obscure connoisseurs’ work. The famous one was his ultra-Romantic Symphony No. 5, with its minatory Fate theme; the other, which is also haunted by music representing malign fortune, is his Hamlet Fantasy-Overture, which we will hear tonight.
Hamlet is the last of three tone poems based on Shakespearean plays that the Russian created, the others being the beloved Romeo and Juliet Fantasy-Overture and the beautiful, but rarely performed The Tempest Symphonic Fantasy-Overture.
16 OVERTURE / BSOmusic. org