Solo for Clarinet and Viola

Pavel Šnajdr, conductor of the National Theatre Opera in Brno and founder of the Brno Contemporary Orchestra, will lead the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra at the fourth concert in the Agnes Monastery. The opening of the evening will feature Lukáš Dittrich as soloist and leader of the clarinet section of the Radio Symphony Orchestra. He will perform Clarinettino, an imaginative concertante work by Prague composer and conductor Ondřej Kukal. The programme will continue with Béla Bartók's Divertimento for String Orchestra. The classic of Hungarian music composed the piece inspired by folk music at the beginning of World War II in the Swiss Alps, commissioned by conductor and patron Paul Sacher for the renowned Basel Chamber Orchestra. The leading Czech violist Jitka Hosprová will then perform the world premiere of the Virus concerto by Zbyněk Matějů. The middle-generation Czech composer, best known as a composer of ballet music, wrote it for a commission by Radio Symphony musicians during the first wave of the pandemic. He was inspired by the art of Jitka Hosprová and also by the coronavirus pandemic.

Programme:

• Ondřej Kukal: Clarinettino for clarinet and string orchestra
• Béla Bartók: Divertimento for string orchestra
• Zbyněk Matějů: Virus, a concerto for viola and chamber orchestra, a world premiere commissioned by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra