Concert Premieres

In 2018, conductor Emiliano Gonzalez Toro and Mathilde Etienne created Ensemble I Gemelli, specializing in seventeenth-century Italian vocal music. From Claudio Monterverdi to Francesco Cavalli, via Giovanni Felice Sances, Barbara Strozzi and Giacomo Carissimi, Ensemble I Gemelli embraces a myriad of Italian works. In this program, recorded at the Théâtre Graslin in Nantes, the ensemble performs rarely-heard arias and cantatas from seventeenth-century Italy. Soloists are soprano Emöke Baráth, contralto Anthea Pichanick, and renowned countertenor Philippe Jaroussky.

Italian pianists Roberto Prosseda and Alessandra Ammara perform W. A. Mozart's Sonata for two pianos in D major, K. 488, Felix Mendelssohn's Sonata for two pianos in D major, MWV S 1, and George Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue, during an off-season concert recorded at Fazioli Concert Hall in Sacile, Italy in June 26, 2020.

In April 2020, the Czech Philharmonic organised a benefit concert raising funds to help elderly Czech citizens in times of COVID-19. Moreover, it raises the profile of freelance musicians who are unable to work during the pandemic. Conductor Jakub Hrůša leads the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. Featured soloists are violinists Josef Špaček, Jan Mráček and Jiří Vodička, French horn player Radek Baborák, organ player Aleš Bárta, and pianist Ivo Kahánek. On the program are Anton Bruckner's Tota pulchra es Maria in an arrangement by Miloš Bok, J. S. Bach's Brandenburg Concerto No. 4 in G major, Hans Leo Haßler's Canzona in an arrangement by Verne Raynolds, excerpts from Antonio Vivaldi's The Four Seasons, and Largo from Antonín Dvořák's Symphony No. 9 in E minor in an arrangement for horn ensemble by Radek Baborák. The program continues with the first, third and fifth movements of Antonín Dvořák's Serenade for strings in E, Camille Saint-Saëns's Andante for horn and organ, the Finale from Felix Mendelssohn's Concerto for violin, piano and strings in D minor, 'Postludium' from Leoš Janáček's Glagolitic Mass, and an arrangement of Anton Bruckner's motet 'Ecce sacerdos magnus'. The concert was recorded at Dvořák Hall in Prague's Rudolfinum.