As usual, the second concert of the Lobkowicz series in June belongs to the PKF's Chief Conductor and Music Director Emmanuel Villaume, who is in his ninth season with the PKF. He also continues to serve as Music Director of The Dallas Opera, and work with the world's leading opera houses. His career as a symphonic conductor on the international stage is equally significant.  

Performers:
Emmanuel Villaume — conductor

Program

Joseph Haydn 
Symphony No. 82 ‘The Bear’

Maurice Ravel 
Pavane pour une infante défunte (Pavane for a Dead Princess)

Bohuslav Martinů 
Partita for String Orchestra

Evening Programme:

18:00    Welcome drink and the exhibition tour 
18:30    Stories from the Arts — the curators of the Lobkowicz Music Collection reveal its treasures through enthralling story-telling 
19:00    Concert in Imperial Hall
20:15    Meeting with soloists and orchestra over a glass of wine with refreshments prepared by the chef of the Lobkowicz Palace

For his concert he has chosen works by Joseph Haydn, Maurice Ravel and Bohuslav Martinů. The evening will open with Haydn's Symphony No. 82 known as The Bear, the first of the six so-called Paris Symphonies. The work earned the nickname The Bear thanks to its fourth movement with its carnival atmosphere and growling bass line reminiscent of a dancing bear... Ravel's Pavane for a Dead Princess from 1899 became an overnight hit and in 1910 the composer wrote a version for orchestra.

The twenty-four-year-old composer received the commission for this six-minute work from Winnaretta Singer, Princess de Polignac and heiress to the Singer sewing machine empire. She was a renowned philanthropist and patron of the arts, whose famous music salon Maurice Ravel had frequented since his student days.

The final piece of the evening will be Bohuslav Martinů's Partita for String Orchestra from 1931, which immediately echoes the composer's previous work on the popular ballet Špalíček (The Chapbook).

This playful music, sparkling with colour and rhythm, promises a beautiful, upbeat end to the PKF — LOBKOWICZ spring season, all the more so as the PKF is one of the best interpreters of Bohuslav Martinů's music in the world.