An evening of striking contrasts awaits at the close of the Prague Philharmonia’s 31st season. Under the direction of Emmanuel Villaume, the orchestra presents a bold programme spanning late Romanticism to modernism.
The Prague Philharmonia will conclude its 31st concert season on 18 June 2025 in the Dvořák Hall of Prague’s Rudolfinum, with an extraordinary programme that bridges the expressive intensity of late Romanticism and the rhythmic vitality of modernism. Under the baton of Chief Conductor Emmanuel Villaume, the evening will be dedicated to three titans of European music: Anton Webern, Dmitri Shostakovich and Ludwig van Beethoven. The soloist of the evening will be the orchestra’s concertmaster, Romana Špačková, who will perform Shostakovich’s demanding Violin Concerto in A minor, Op. 77.
The concert opens with Passacaglia, Op. 1 by Anton Webern, composed in 1908—a work that lies on the boundary between tonality and atonality and predates his adoption of the twelve-tone technique. Structurally inspired by Baroque variations on a repeated bass line, the piece already hints at Webern’s later pursuit of sonic clarity and condensed form. In its historical context, the Passacaglia serves as a stylistic bridge between late Romanticism and early modernism, while also being a deeply personal expression of grief—written shortly after the death of the composer’s mother.
The centrepiece of the evening is Shostakovich’s Violin Concerto No. 1, a work of profound emotional and technical depth, written during the oppressive era of Soviet formalism and kept in the composer’s drawer for several years before its premiere by David Oistrakh in 1955. Romana Špačková, the long-time concertmaster of the Prague Philharmonia, approaches this legacy with both artistic integrity and personal commitment. The concerto combines sarcasm, melancholy and grotesque elements, requiring not only virtuosic skill but also profound emotional maturity. Špačková performs on a 1730 violin by Pietro Guarneri, generously loaned by the Portu Gallery, part of the WOOD & Company investment group.
The evening will close with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92, often described as an “apotheosis of dance” (R. Wagner). Special attention is drawn to the second movement – Allegretto – which received overwhelming acclaim at its premiere and remains one of the most moving passages in Beethoven’s orchestral repertoire.
With this concert, the Prague Philharmonia not only concludes its successful 31st season but also opens a new chapter: the 32nd season will begin on 4 September 2025, once again in the Rudolfinum, with Emmanuel Villaume conducting and featuring pianist Simon Trpčeski.
PKF – Prague Philharmonia
Webern. Shostakovich. Beethoven
18 June from 19.30 | Dvořák Hall Rudolfinum
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