Tickets are now on sale for November’s Variations. Czech Philharmonic to Present its Planned Program for Carnegie Hall exclusively in Karlovy Vary

For the fourth year in a row, Variations enlivens Karlovy Vary during the fall season. This year, our unique combination of film and music takes place on 22 and 23 November. As in the past, visitors can look forward to an exclusive selection of films, for the first time ever at the newly renovated Imperial Baths. The music program will be no less exceptional, with the Czech Philharmonic presenting the pieces it has put together for its upcoming performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall – the only opportunity to experience this exceptional program in the Czech Republic.

Since this year is the Year of Czech Music and the Czech Philharmonic is traveling to New York to perform the best that Czech music has to offer, Karlovy Vary, too, will resound with works by famous Czech composers Leoš Janáček, Antonín Dvořák, and Bedřich Smetana under the direction of the world-renowned Semyon Bychkov, chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and two-timer recipient of the title of Conductor of the Year. The performances, featuring renowned musicians such as violin virtuoso Jan Mráček and popular pianist Ivo Kahánek, will be held at a unique venue: on this occasion, the Hotel Thermal’s iconic Grand Hall will be transformed into a special concert hall. 

JANÁČEK, DVOŘÁK AND SMETANA AT THE HOTEL THERMAL’S GRAND HALL

On Friday at 7pm, the Czech Philharmonic performs the first part of its planned program for New York’s Carnegie Hall: Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor – one of the best examples of the positively-laden melodic works of his Slavonic period (which also includes his famous Slavonic Dances and Slavonic Rhapsodies). Playing the solo violin is one of the most distinctive talents of his generation, concert master Jan Mráček. The second part offers the Leoš Janáček’s phenomenal opus Glagolitic Mass. The seventy-two-year-old Janáček wrote this piece, one of the most powerful spiritual compositions in the history of music, on the basis of an Old Church Slavonic text at the Luhačovice spa in 1926.

Tickets for Friday's concert can be purchased ​here.

Variations culminates on Saturday at 8pm. First the Dvořák’s Piano Concerto in G minor will sound, which is a piece that beautifully combines poetry with passion. Popular pianist Ivo Kahánek will present the emotional force of these compositions in an absolutely unforgettable manner. Work of Dvořák will be followed by another famous Czech author. The Czech Philharmonic commemorates the bicentennial of Bedřich Smetana’s birth (which fell on 2 March of this year) with a performance of three poems from his symphonic cycle Má vlast: Vyšehrad, Vltava, and Šárka. 

Tickets for Saturday's concert can be purchased ​here.

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FREE PUBLIC CONCERTS AT THE SPARKASSE BUILDING AND THE THERMAL SPRING COLONNADE

Fans of classical music can enjoy two concerts with free admission. On Friday at 5pm at the former savings bank on Divadelní náměstí, they can hear a wind octet composed of members of the Czech Philharmonic and the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra. Under the artistic direction of the Czech Philharmonic’s award-winning chief-conductor and solo horn player Ondřej Vrabec, the musicians will perform an octet by one of the best composers of the second half of the eighteenth century, the wrongfully half-forgotten Josef Mysliveček. Also on the evening’s program is a serenade by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. The second day of Variations offers another chance to catch a free concert at an unusual venue. On Sunday at 2:30pm, the Thermal Springs Colonnade will resound with Trumpet Concerto in B-flat major by the baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni, whose popularity in his native Italy was founded mainly on his operas, plus Serenade for Strings in E major by Antonín Dvořák. Both works will be performed by a chamber ensemble composed of members of the Czech Philharmonic under the direction of the talented violinist Irena Jakubcová. The program features a solo trumpet performance by Stanislav Masaryk.

​We look forward to seeing you in Karlovy Vary on 22 and 23 November.