PKF – Prague Philharmonia concert as part of the Prague Spring International Music Festival, conducted by Ukrainian conductor Oksana Lynivová, May 28, 2023, Rudolfinum, Prague.
Prague – The podium of the Prague Spring today at the Rudolfinum belonged to artists from Ukraine and the winners of last year's festival competition. PKF – Prague Philharmonia was conducted by Oksana Lynivová, in the cycle of songs for soprano and orchestra by Eduard Resatsch, Julia Tkačenková performed. Duet-concertino for clarinet, bassoon and chamber orchestra by Richard Strauss was performed by the winners of the Prague Spring competition, Korean bassoonist Kim Mind-ju and French clarinetist Lilian Lefebvre. In the second half of the evening, Prague Symphony No. 38 in D major was performed.
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The evening opened with a performance by the young soprano Tkačenková, whom Lynivová invited to present a new work in the world premiere to the texts of the living classic of Ukrainian poetry Lina Kostenkov by Resatsch, a composer and cellist from Lviv, who works as a member of the Bamber Symphony under the leadership of chief conductor Jakub Hrůš. Tkachenkova sang songs based on the verses of the poems Flame of Life, Flame from the Grave, Flame of Love, Flame of Ukraine and Flame of War. Their author, Kostenko, is one of the key representatives of Ukrainian writers of the 1960s. She is the author of many poetry collections, her novel Notes of a Ukrainian Fool became a bestseller immediately after its publication in 2010. Last year, she received France's highest state award, the Order of the Legion of Honor.
The program in Dvořák Hall continued with the return of last year's winners of the Prague Spring International Music Competition, who together with the PKF – Prague Philharmonia performed the Duett-Concertino for clarinet, bassoon and chamber orchestra, Strauss's last instrumental composition from 1947, which he composed two years before his death.
The orchestra led by Lynivová ended the program with a performance of Symphony No. 38 in D major. The work referred to as Prague was completed by Mozart in 1786, at a time when his opera The Marriage of Figaro was a great success in the Nostic (today Stavovské) theater.
Lynivová is the first woman to ever conduct at the Bayreuth Festival in 2021. Six years ago, she founded the Ukrainian Youth Orchestra, with which she performed at the prestigious festival in Lucerne, Switzerland, in 2022. In the same year, she became the first female conductor to lead the Italian opera house Teatro Comunale.
This year's 78th edition of the Prague Spring Festival was opened on May 12 in the Prague Municipal House by Bedřich Smetana's traditional Má vlast performed by the Orchestra Welsh National Opera from Cardiff with chief conductor Tomáš Hanus. On June 2, the Czech Philharmonic will end Prague Spring with a program of Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony.
