This selection of pieces by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven can without exaggeration be called a celebration of classicism. Tomáš Netopil directs the Czech Philharmonic, with special appearances by soprano Kateřina Kněžíková and tenor Petr Nekoranec.
Program:
Joseph Haydn: L’anima del filosofo, ossia Orfeo ed Euridice, prelude, Hob. XXVIII/13
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Arias from Così fan tutte, K 558, Don Giovanni, K 527, and La finta giardiniera, K 196
Ludwig van Beethoven: Symphony no. 5 in C Minor, op. 67
PERFORMED BY:
Kateřina Kněžíková – soprano
Petr Nekoranec – tenor
Czech Philharmonic
CONDUCTOR:
Tomáš Netopil
Program
This selection of pieces by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven can without exaggeration be called a celebration of classicism. Joseph Haydn (1732–1809) was neither the first nor the last composer to set the famous story of Orpheus and Eurydice to music. His predecessors in this regard include Claudio Monteverdi, while Jacques Offenbach did the same after him. The selection of arias from the operas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (1756–1791) illustrates the composer’s path towards absolute compositional mastery. While the comic opera La finta giardiniera (The Pretend Garden-Girl) is the work of an eighteen-year-old youth, Così fan tutte and Don Giovanni are some of the best of the genre and represent the culmination of the famous composer’s fruitful collaboration with his long-time librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte. Ludwig van Beethoven’s (1770–1827) fifth symphony needs no introduction. The leitmotif of the so-called Fate Symphony is the idea of the struggle of mental forces with a metaphysically understood fate full of crises and pain. The result is the search for inner harmony and peace.
Kateřina Kněžíková
Soprano Kateřina Kněžíková is one of the younger generation’s most promising singers. Besides opera, she has recently begun to more frequently focus on a concert repertoire, enjoying success not only at home but also and primarily abroad. The main works in her repertoire are by Antonín Dvořák, Bohuslav Martinů, and Leoš Janáček. She is a laureate of numerous song competitions, the 2018 Classic Prague Awards for best chamber performance, and the 2019 Thálie Awards for outstanding stage performance in a production of Martinů’s opera Julietta at the National Theatre of Moravia-Silesia. She has also performed at various festivals at home and abroad. In 2021, she was a hit as Káťa Kabanová in Janáček’s eponymous opera at the prestigious Glyndebourne Festival.
Petr Nekoranec
Tenor Petr Nekoranec is one of the most distinctive representatives of the young generation of Czech singers. He was a soloist at the Stuttgart State Opera in 2018–2020 and has been a soloist at the Opera of the National Theatre in Prague since the 2021/2022 season, where he has sung the roles of Almaviva (The Barber of Seville), Tamino (The Magic Flute), Ferrando (Così fan tutte), Romeo (Romeo and Juliet), Don Ottavio (Don Giovanni), and Beppe (Pagliacci). In September 2024, he will add the role of Nemorino in Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore. In 2016–2018, he attended the Lindemann Young Artist Development Program at New York’s Metropolitan Opera as the first Czech to be accepted to this prestigious project. Nekoranec regularly collaborates with the renowned British composer Iain Bell, with leading Czech and foreign orchestras, and with important conductors.
Tomáš Netopil