Czech Philharmonic

The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra ( Czech Česká filharmonie ) is an internationally renowned orchestra of the Czech Republic. In a for the October 2006 issue carried out by the French music magazine Le Monde de la Musique poll of music critics, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was voted one of the ten best orchestras in Europe, worldwide in 2008 in the December issue of the British magazine " Gramophone " among the 20 best orchestras.

As a typical characteristic of the orchestra is considered to be " soft sound " almost all reference recordings with music by Czech composers emerged with the Czech Philharmonic.

History

The Czech Philharmonic originated from members of the orchestra of the Prague National Theatre, and gave its first concert under its current name in the Antonín Dvořák conducted his own compositions, on January 4, 1896. However, it took until 1901 until the orchestra was completely independent. 1908 Gustav Mahler conducted the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7. Internationally known, the orchestra was first headed by Václav Talich, it 1919-1931 and then again directed from 1933 to 1941 as chief conductor. From 2003 to 2007, the Czech conductor Zdeněk Mácal was chief conductor of the orchestra, however, declared in September 2007, allegedly because of bad reviews on the feature pages of Czech newspapers due to conservative programming, his resignation. Principal Guest Conductor since the 2008/2009 season, the Austrian Manfred Honeck, who took over this position by Sir Charles Mackerras. Since autumn 2012, Jiri Belohlavek chief conductor who in 1990 led the orchestra until 1992.

The orchestra accompanies the Australian band Silverchair to some songs on their fifth album, Young Modern.

Awards

The Czech Philharmonic won 10 Grand Prix du Disque de l' Académie Charles Cros, five Grand Prix du Disque de l' Académie Française and several Cannes Classical Awards (most recently 2003). In 2005, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was nominated for a Grammy Award ( Symphonies 3 and 4 of Bohuslav Martinů under Jiri Belohlavek ). They also won twice the " Viennese Musical Clock " for outstanding interpretations of a work by Mozart.

Chief Conductor

• Jiri Belohlavek (since autumn 2012)
• Eliahu Inbal (2009-2012)
• Zdeněk Mácal (2003-2007)
• Vladimir Ashkenazy (1996-2003)
• Gerd Albrecht (1993-1996)
• Jiri Belohlavek (1990-1992)
• Václav Neumann (1968-1989)
• Karel Ančerl (1950-1968)
• Rafael Kubelik (1942-1948)
• Václav Talich (1933-1941)
• Václav Talich (1919-1931)
• Vilém Zemánek (1903-1918)
• Ludvik Vítězslav Čelanský (1901-1903)

Sources