Concert information
Info
Jakub Hrůša conducts three works that connect the specific tonality of Czech music with the language of 20th-century sound: Bohuslav Martinů’s First Symphony, composed in 1942 in American exile, evokes his lost homeland through traditional folk melodies and dance rhythms, while simultaneously celebrating the beginning of a new chapter in his life. The nostalgic Suita rustica by his student Vítězslava Kaprálová is based on folkloric themes, and Josef Suk’s passionate Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra, with Julia Fischer as the soloist, is also unmistakably influenced by Czech music.
Artists
Berliner Philharmoniker
Jakub Hrůša conductor
Julia Fischer violin
Programme
Vítězslava Kaprálová
Suita rustica, op. 19
Josef Suk
Fantasy for Violin and Orchestra in G minor, op. 24
Julia Fischer violin
Interval
Bohuslav Martinů
Symphony No. 1, H. 289
Additional information
Duration ca. 2 hours (incl. 20 minutes interval)
Dates and tickets
Main Auditorium
27 to 86 €
Introduction
19:15
with Meike Pfister
Series F: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
27 to 86 €
Introduction
19:15
with Meike Pfister
Series M: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Main Auditorium
27 to 86 €
Introduction
18:15
with Meike Pfister
Series C: Concerts with the Berliner Philharmoniker
Background
Gone too soon
The composer Vítězslava Kaprálová
The list of promising composers whose work was cut short by untimely death is sadly extensive. Vítězslava Kaprálová is among them, and it is painful to imagine what great music she might otherwise have written.
Biography
Jakub Hrůša
Jakub Hrůša is regarded as one of the leading conductors of his generation and an outstanding interpreter of Czech music. Since making his Berliner Philharmoniker debut in 2018, he has brought deeply felt performances of works by Dvořák, Janáček, Martinů and Kabeláč to the orchestra. Yet Czech music accounts for only around a third of his repertoire. At one of his most recent appearances with the Berliner Philharmoniker, audiences encountered a different side of Hrůša: conducting the world premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s Keyframes for a Hippogriff alongside Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony.
Born in Brno and trained at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Jakub Hrůša began his career as artistic director of the Prague Philharmonia before becoming chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony in 2016. A pupil of Jiří Bělohlávek, he is also music director of the Royal Opera in London and principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. Yet despite his meticulous approach to the score, Hrůša believes that performance ultimately depends on something less tangible: “instincts, gut feeling, and heart”.
Julia Fischer
Since winning first prize at the International Yehudi Menuhin Competition, Julia Fischer has been in the international spotlight as an exceptionally versatile artist. The Munich-born violinist, who has German-Slovak roots, appears as a soloist with the most renowned orchestras and also leads ensembles such as the Academy of St Martin in the Fields from the concertmaster’s chair. She made her debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker at the 2011 Salzburg Easter Festival. In chamber music, she performs with colleagues such as Daniel Müller-Schott, Yulianna Avdeeva, and Jan Lisiecki. In the 2025/2026 season, Julia Fischer will embark on a major European tour with her quartet, founded in 2010 and featuring Alexander Sitkovetsky, Nils Mönkemeyer, and Benjamin Nyffenegger.
“Fischer commands her instrument completely. [...] Every phrase, every articulation, every tone color and every dynamic is controlled and employed with the utmost musical intelligence,” raves the Boston Classical Review. “The education of the next generation is at least as important to me as my concert activities,” says Julia Fischer. After holding a guest professorship in Frankfurt, she took over the violin chair from her own teacher, Ana Chumachenco, in Munich in 2011. She also plays the piano at the highest level, occasionally in concert. In 2017, this award-winning exceptional artist founded her own music platform, the “JF CLUB,” and two years later she launched the Kindersinfoniker in her hometown. Together with Benjamin Nyffenegger, she has been artistic director of the Boswiler Sommer festival in Switzerland since 2024.
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