9/4/2008 | Charles Dutoit, Jiří Bárta, ...

Charles Dutoit

For over twenty years, Charles Dutoit has been one of the world's leading classical music conductors. The regularly leads some of the most prestigious ensembles in Europe, including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, the Concertgebouw Orchestra v Amsterdam and orchestras in London. He collaborates with major orchestras in Japan, the Americas and Australia.

Mr Dutoit is a respected artist in both Canada and the Unites States where, since his debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra in 1980, he is regularly invited each year to work with prominent orchestras (Boston, New York, Philadelphia, Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco and Pittsburgh). Since 1990, he has been the artistic director and principal conductor of the Philadelphia Orchestra's summer festival at the Saratoga Performing Arts Center in upstate

Since the late 1970s Mr Dutoit has been in charge of major orchestras: for 25 years he was the artistic director and principal conductor of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra (1977 - 2002); for ten years he was principal conductor of the Orchestre National de France in Paris (1991 - 2001); and for ten years he was principal conductor of the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo (since 1998, he is presently Conductor Laureate). He has accepted the post of principal conductor and artistic advisor to the prestigious Philadelphia Orchestra, starting 2008; and in the 2009/2010 season he will be the artistic director and principal conductor of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.

His repertoire is exceptionally broad; he has conducted approximately 23,000 different scores from all style periods, from Monteverdi to Boulez and Xenakis, yet he has reserved the most important space for Russian and French music.

Jiří Bárta

Jiří Bárta entered the music scene in the early 1990s and was soon a leading international cellist. He studied in Prague (Josef Chuchro, Mirek Škampa) and in Cologne (Boris Pergamenschikow). He gained further experience at the Piatigorsky Seminar in Los Angeles and at master classes with Heinrich Schiff and Andre Navarra. In 1991 he received the Europäische Förderpreis für Musik in Dresden and the Rostropovich-Hammer Award in Los Angeles.

His noted concerts of past years include a tour to Japan, where he debuted in Tokyo by performing a recital with pianist Frederic Chiu at Kioi Hall; the "Concert of the Millennium" in Berlin with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra; a performance at the Newport Festival; a tour of Spain with Bach's Cello Suites; and a tour of South America with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek. In May 2001 he completed a tour of the United Kingdom with the Berlin Symphony Orchestra, where he also held a joint performance of a recital with pianist Piers Lane at Wigmore Hall in London.

Mr. Bárta regularly works with leading Czech orchestras: the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is one of two cellists in the world and the only one in Europe who has staged Offenbach's Cello Concerto.

A number of recordings from his extensive discography have received prestigious awards. A recording for Supraphon containing sonatas by Rachmaninov, Schnittke and Pärta, performed with pianist Marián Lapšanský, won the Golden Harmony award in 1995.

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) was established in 1946 by the legendary British conductor Sir Thomas Beecham. Over the past six decades, excellent conductors have shaped the orchestra's now international renown: following Thomas Beecham (1946 - 1961), these were Rudolf Kempe (1962 - 1975), Antal Doráti (1975 - 1978), Walter Weller (1980 - 1985), André Previn (1985 - 1992), Vladimir Ashkenazy (1987 - 1994), Yuri Temirkanov (1992 - 1998) and, since 1996, Daniele Gatti. Starting with the 2009/10 season, the artistic director and principal conductor of the RPO will be Charles Dutoit; Daniele Gatti will continue to work with the RPO as the artistic director and Conductor Laureate.

The RPO held its first concert on 15 September 1946 at the Davis Theatre in Croydon. In 1948, the RPO became the resident orchestra for the Glyndebourne Festival Opera; the orchestra toured the United States in 1950, thus becoming the first British orchestra to visit America since the London Symphony Orchestra in 1912. After Beecham's death, the orchestra reorganised itself and soon encountered difficulties. Starting from 1963, Glyndebourne festival and the Royal Festival Hall no longer engaged the RPO; some senior players left and principal conductor Rudolf Kempe resigned as chief conductor, though he returned shortly afterwards. Helped by strong support from legendary conduictor Sir Malcolm Sargent, the orchestra successfully mounted its own concert cycles at a cinema in the London inner suburb, Swiss Cottage. The year 1966 played a significant role in the orchestra's future, when Queen Elizabeth II granted the orchestra its own Royal Charter. A further threat came in 1984, when a review carried out on behalf of the Arts Council by the journalist William Rees-Mogg opined that England lacked 'a great eastern symphony orchestra': the suggestion was that the RPO should move to Nottingham. However, another Arts Council report of the same period recommended that the RPO should supplement the London Symphony Orchestra as resident orchestra at the Barbican Centre.

The RPO is now firmly back in the centre of London concert life. It plays its main series at the Royal Albert Hall, gives concerts at the Barbican Centre and is the resident orchestra of the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham. In recent years the orchestra has made its new home at Cadogan Hall in Chelsea. Since February 2008, the RPO has also been performing a series of concerts at the newly reconstructed Royal Festival Hall.