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July 2019
Proms Plus Talk – Sir John Tusa
An introduction to Smetana’s Má vlast with Czech-born former manager of the BBC World Service, Sir John Tusa. Edited version broadcast on BBC Radio 3 during tonight’s interval Booking is not required for this event. Entry is on a first-come-first-served basis (doors open from 30 minutes before the event begins; capacity is limited)
Find out more »Bohemian Rhapsody
Soloist Joshua Bell performs Dvorak’s lively, folk-infused Violin Concerto, paired with another 19th-century Czech classic, Smetana’s symphonic suite Má vlast – a colourful celebration of a nation’s landscape, history and identity. Programme Antonín Dvorak Violin Concerto in A minor(32 mins) interval Bedrich Smetana Má vlast(75 mins) Performers Joshua Bell violin Bamberg Symphony Orchestra Jakub Hrusa conductor
Find out more »August 2019
BCSA “Get to Know You” Social Evening
Join us and have a fun evening chatting to friendly people. Czech and Slovak food and drinks are available from the restaurant and bar. Anybody with Czech or Slovak connections or interests is welcome to our monthly socials to meet, chat and get to know each other a little better in a relaxed and informal gathering. We usually have about a dozen people there at various times during the evening but, whatever the number, there will be good conversations for…
Find out more »September 2019
Proms Plus Talk – Korngold and America
Musicologist Ben Winters discusses Korngold and America. Edited version broadcast on BBC Radio 3 during tonight's interval. Booking is not required for this event. Entry is on a first-come-first-served basis (doors open from 30 minutes before the event begins; capacity is limited).
Find out more »Dvorak and Korngold at the Proms
Dvorak’s ‘New World’ Symphony, with its wistful slow movement, is the centrepiece of the second concert from the Vienna Philharmonic – a programme of Central European works that showcases the orchestra’s distinctively rich sound. Andrés Orozco-Estrada pairs it with the composer’s colourful, folk-infused tone-poem The Noonday Witch, in which a mother’s threats inadvertently summon a witch into her home. Cinematic drama is also a hallmark of Korngold’s richly orchestrated and unashamedly romantic Violin Concerto, performed here by soloist Leonidas Kavakos.…
Find out more »The best of Slovak Theatre in London: the life of economic migrants
Highlights of two plays based on everyday life of young Czechs and Slovaks working in Britain. Written by the theatre founder, Juliana Sersenova, with the help of the ensemble and based on their own experience. In Slovak with English surtitles. Interview with Juliana and Simona Vrabcova, the current artistic manager of the theatre. Juliana Sersenova studied theology and Slovak language at Ruzemberok University before moving to London in 2007. Here she took any job to earn her living while she…
Find out more »Czech Philharmonic at the Proms
Semyon Bychkov conducts the Czech Philharmonic in Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 8 – the most personal of the composer’s many confrontations with the horror of war. Love dominates the first half, in music from the operas Eugene Onegin and The Bartered Bride. Programme Bedrich Smetana The Bartered Bride – overture The Bartered Bride – Three Dances(19 mins) Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Eugene Onegin – Letter Scene(12 mins) Henry Wood Novelties: UK premiere, 1892 interval Dmitry Shostakovich Symphony No 8 in C minor(65…
Find out more »October 2019
LSO Discovery Day: Janacek
Attend a morning rehearsal of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner at the Barbican followed by talks and chamber music in the afternoon at LSO St Luke's. The full schedule will be posted two weeks before the event. Please note that the conductor may choose to not use the full rehearsal time and there is no guarantee that equal rehearsal time will be given to each piece. You will be seated in the Circle. Full…
Find out more »Janacek: Glagolitic Mass
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony Orchestra bring together three works that define the ‘Czech sound’, by composers who drew their material from Czech history, legends and landscapes – Dvoak and Janacek. Janacek’s Ballad of Blanik and Dvorak’s Golden Spinning Wheel are both symphonic poems that take Czech legends as their inspiration – the first using the tale of Wenceslas as a vehicle to celebrate the peaceful regeneration of Czechoslovakia as an independent nation after World War I;…
Find out more »Czech Roots: London Symphony Orchestra
Composers pouring their most personal thoughts and feelings into their work is not unusual, but these two pieces by Dvorak and Suk feel much more deeply connected than most. Dvorak and Suk had a very long and close relationship as father-in-law and son-in-law. Suk’s Second Symphony, ‘Asrael’, named for the Hebrew Angel of Death, was written in tribute to Dvorak after his sudden death in 1904. Tragically, Suk’s wife – Dvorak’s daughter Otilka – died shortly afterwards and the symphony…
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