Over to Stuttgart this week for a performance by the SWR Symphony, under the direction of Petr Popelka and featuring the Czech violinist Josef Spacek in music of Hindemith, Barber, Igudesman and Rachmaninov. All broadcast live from Beethovensaal in Stuttgart on March 3rd of this year.
Opening with Paul Hindemith’s Symphonic Metamorphosis on themes of Carl Maria von Weber. Then joined by Josef Spacek in a performance of the Barber violin concerto – topping it off with an encore by Aleksey Igudesman; Funk The String. And concluding with Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances.
Josef Špaček studied with Itzhak Perlman at The Juilliard School in New York, Ida Kavafian and Jaime Laredo at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, and with Jaroslav Foltýn at the Prague Conservatory. He was laureate of the International Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels, and won top prizes at the Michael Hill International Violin Competition in New Zealand, the Carl Nielsen International Violin Competition in Denmark and the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York.
Josef Spacek served as concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the youngest in its history. The orchestra named him “Associate Artist” as of January 2016. He held this post until the end of the 2019/20 season and has since devoted himself exclusively to his solo career.
Josef Špaček performs on the ca. 1732 “LeBrun; Bouthillard” Guarneri del Gesù violin, generously on loan from Ingles & Hayday.
Josef Spacek lives in Prague with his wife and their three children. In his spare time he enjoys cycling.
From the 2023/2024 season, Petr Popelka will, as Chief Conductor Designate, lead the Wiener Symphoniker in a new production of Weinberger’s Schwanda the Bagpiper at the MusikTheater an der Wien, in addition to joining the orchestra for multiple concerts in Vienna and on two European tours. Debuts in 2023/2024 include a production of Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Zurich Opera House, Gewandhausorchester, Munich Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France and Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. He also returns to the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Orchestre Philharmonique du Luxembourg, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, among many other reinvitations.
Previous highlights include engagements with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, SWR Symphony Orchestra, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, Frankfurt Symphony Orchestra, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie, Mozarteumorchester Salzburg, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, to name a few. He has also led the annual ORF TV concert “Spring in Vienna” and the ZDF Advent concert in Dresden. His new productions of Shostakovich’s opera The Nose at the Dresden.
Enjoy the concert.
Tis the season – Thanksgiving, quickly followed by Christmas – quickly followed by New Years Eve. Long enough for you to wonder where the time, let alone the year, went. Yep, it’s moving fast and it’s moving crazy.
And you just want things to calm down – take it easy – not be so loud – not feel jostled all the time.
Not sure Past Daily can offer that every day, but we try. If you’ve been around the past few weeks you noticed we made some changes. Not running concerts and sessions at night anymore. We figured you probably wanted to get to sleep and having your ears glued to something high-voltage is probably not conducive to some much needed nods. So we shifted the concerts to the morning, where you are probably staggering out of bed or on your way to work or hitting the gym. It seems to be working, as a lot of you have discovered us (after all these years) – and nighttime is heading off into the gentle direction. Interviews – history that doesn’t blow up or land into hysterics. We’re tinkering with the idea of putting up some ASMR to actually help you sleep, but that might be pushing things a bit far.
In any event, we’re here – Past Daily is trudging along and we’re always looking for your help and encouragement to keep us up and going. Costs even more now than it did this time last year. But we’re still offering you the best of what’s in the archive – yes, this is all from our Collection (except the sessions and concerts – gotta give credit where credit is due – BBC 6 Music and Radio X in London and RNE In Madrid are essential sources of finding new music) but everything is the result of yours truly digging into boxes, climbing over shelves, falling into dumpsters. It’s history, it’s important and it’s yours if you want it. All you have to do, if you’re up for it, is subscribe via Patreon (that little box at the bottom of this post) – click on it and you’ll be taken to their site where you can subscribe to Past Daily, let them know how much you want to donate – or check us out for free, test drive our site as it were and decide to become part of the Past Daily experience. Simple, painless and we’ll love you for it. Do it if you can and you’ll be able to download your own copy of all our posts and new ones as they appear. Kind of cool, don’t you think? But you have to become a Patron in order to do it. Think about it – no pressure – honest – really . . no pressure. But there is that landlord . . . .
