The finale is approaching
The Concertino Praga international music competition for young musicians has reached its conclusion. The finale concerts on 15 and 16 September will designate the winners in both categories – chamber ensemble and solo. A joint international jury will decide on the quality of the performances given before the audiences at the Convent of Saint Agnes and the Rudolfinum.
This year’s finalists in the chamber music category are the Czech ensembles Duo Comenius, Duo Jaklová-Mráček and Duo Matejča-Schulmeister and the German Trio Florestan. They will perform works by Dmitri Shostakovich, Bohuslav Martinů, Johannes Brahms, Francis Poulenc, Reinhold Glier, Josef Suk and Béla Bartók at the finale concert at the Convent of Saint Agnes from 7 pm on Friday, 15 September.
On the following day, Saturday 16 September, audiences at the Rudolfinum will see the German flautist Fabian Johannes Egger perform the Concerto for Flute and Orchestra by Jacques Ibert, two Ukrainian musicians, Margaryta Pochebut performing Max Bruch’s Violin Concerto no. 2 in D Minor and Denis Stefanov playing Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Piano Concerto no. 1 in G Minor, and the Czech Adam Znamirovský play Edvard Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A Minor. The Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra will be conducted by Jan Kučera. Denis Stefanov will be more or less playing on home ground, because, even though he is a Ukrainian citizen, he has lived most of his life to date in the Czech Republic.
Both concerts will be broadcast live by Czech Radio’s Vltava station.
The jury members for both finale evenings will include the Israeli pianist Roman Rabinovich, the British horn player Sarah Willis, the first flute from the Wiener Philharmoniker Luc Mangholz, the violinist from the same orchestra Albena Danailova and the Spanish violoncellist Pablo Ferrández, while Czech musicians will be represented by the pianist Ivo Kahánek and the clarinettist Irvin Venyš. The European Union of Music Competitions for Youth will be represented in the jury by its Vice President, the Lithuanian pianist Justas Dvarionas.
The winners of both categories will be able to make a professional recording at Czech Radio. It has become a tradition that the best soloist performs in the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra’s following concert season. All of the finalists will receive study grants thanks to the support of the Karel Komárek Family Foundation, Bärenreiter Praha, the Life of the Artist Foundation (Nadace Život umělce) and other partners.
The Concertino Praga South Bohemian Festival, which takes place immediately after the finale concert, is a bonus for both radio listeners and lovers of classical music who are located outside Prague. This year’s festival will be enhanced by a new feature: the pilgrimage church in Klokoty u Tábora will be added to the traditional venues for the chamber concerts, namely the châteaux in Český Krumlov, Bechyně and Jindřichův Hradec. The concerts held from 18 to 22 September will be broadcast on the Vltava station either live or as recordings.
