8/16/2008 | Ion Marin, Peter Donohoe, ...

Ion Marin

One of the most exciting conductors on today’s musical scene Ion Marin is a citizen of Austria, currently residing in Switzerland having emigrated from his native Romania in 1986. His musical training as composer, conductor and pianist was received at the George Enescu Academy in Bucharest, at the Salzburg Mozarteum and the Accademia Chiggiana in Siena. His first major post was Resident Conductor of the Vienna Staatsoper where between 1987 and 1991 he conducted a wide range of repertoire from Mozart to Berg. His symphonic reputation, focused on late Romanticism and the 20th Century, developed through conducting orchestras such as the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, the Philadelphia Orchestra, Montreal Symphony, Orchestre National de France and Staatskapelle Dresden. He has collaborated with such distinguished soloists as Yo-Yo Ma, Gidon Kremer, Martha Argerich, Sarah Chang, Yuri Bashmet and Franck Peter Zimmerman.

In the 2001/02 season Ion Marin toured with the Dresden Staatskapelle Orchestra in the UK and Germany with the Bayerischer Rundfunk Orchestra, as well as making his BBC Proms debut at the Royal Albert Hall with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. His tour of Germany in 2001 with Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra led to fair criticism in the press and he also returned to America to conduct the Detroit Symphony.

Peter Donohoe

Peter Donohoe was born in Manchester in 1953. He studied at the Royal Northern College of Music with Derek Wyndham and then in Paris with Olivier Messiaen and Yvonne Loriod. Since his unprecedented success as joint winner of the 1982 International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow, he has developed a distinguished career in Europe, the USA, the Far East and Australasia. He is acclaimed as one of the foremost pianists of our time, for his musicianship, stylistic versatility and commanding technique. In 2006 he was invited by the Netherlands to be Ambassador for Music in the Middle East.

During the 2008/9 season Peter Donohoe’s performances include the Dresden Staatskapelle with Myung-Whun Chung, Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel and Gurzenich Orchestra with Ludovic Morlot

Peter Donohoe is a keen chamber musician and performs frequently with the pianist Martin Roscoe. They have given performances in London and at the Edinburgh Festival and have recorded discs of Gershwin and Rachmaninov. Other musical partners have included the Maggini Quartet, with whom he has made recordings of several great British chamber works.

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra

The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra's first concert took place at the Rudolfinum on 4 January 1896 and was conducted by Antonín Dvořák. In 1901 the first principal conductor of the independent orchestra was Ludvík Čelanský and from 1903 till 1918 it was led by Dr. Vilém Zemánek, who despite the orchestra's grave financial situation was able to maintain and stabilise its position on the Prague music scene. In the first year of peacetime following World War I, the legendary Václav Talich became the principal conductor of the PSO and, with a brief interruption in 1931 - 1933, he led the orchestra up until 1941. Talich conducted a total of 924 concerts with the PSO, and is rightly considered the founder of the orchestra's interpretive tradition. Following the brief but artistically very fruitful period Rafael Kubelík was at the head of the PSO (1942 - 1948), Karel Ančerl took on the role of principal conductor for the next 18 years (1950 - 1968) and under his direction, the PSO earned its international reputation as a leading orchestra. He continued with his predecessors' focusing the repertoire on Czech music, classical and particularly contemporary, and enhanced this with the works of foreign artists (Stravinsky, Strauss, Bartók, Shostakovich, Prokofiev). The years Ančerl directed the PSO are considered the period the orchestra flourished most artistically. Following Ančerl's emigration to Canada, Václav Neumann took up the conductor's baton at the PSO. Neumann's name is connected with a long-term phase (up until 1990) when the orchestra was at a stably high level and successfully held to its traditions.

Following the political changes in the country, the post of principal conductor has changed hands several times in brief succession: Jiří Bělohlávek (1990 - 1992), Gerd Albrecht (1993 - 1996) and Vladimir Ashkenazy (1996 - 2003), who brought a number of fresh projects to the programme and significantly revived the orchestra's international reputation. The PSO entered the 2003/2004 season with a new principal conductor, Zdeněk Mácal (1936) who, at the height of his artistic and personal experiences, stood before the orchestra that launched his conducting career in 1966 - 1968. Zdeněk Mácal stepped down from his post as principal conductor in September 2007.

From the start of its existence, hosting internationally recognised personalities (such as Grieg, Ysaÿe, Sarasate, Rachmaninov, Nikisch or Gustav Mahler who conducted the world premiere of his Seventh Symphony with the philharmonic in Prague in 1908) increased the credit of the PSO.

This is particularly the case for noted conductors who have repeatedly worked with the orchestra: Kleiber, Walter, Zemlinsky, Szell, Münch, Mravinsky, Bernstein, Stokowski, Konwitschny, Celibidache, Rozhdestvensky, Kondrashin, Maazel, Mehta, Haitink, Abbado, Mutti and countless others.