Renowned violinist Daniel Hope to perform on Vltava in Prague
A unique concert is scheduled to take place as part of Prague’s annual Strings of Autumn festival this Saturday. It features the renowned British violinist Daniel Hope, who will perform Max Richter’s famous composition Vivaldi Recomposed. The concert will take place on a floating stage on the Vltava River right in the centre of the city.
Daniel Hope, who studied under the legendary Yehudi Menuhin, is one of the best-known violinists in the world at the moment. His recording of Max Richter’s Vivaldi Recomposed, a contemporary re-imagining of the Four Seasons, has been a best seller for the label Deutsche Grammophone. His recent series of chamber music, broadcast from his living room in Berlin during the lockdown, were watched by over six million viewers.
Hope has already performed Vivaldi Recomposed at one of the previous editions of Strings of Autumn and it has become one of the festival’s most successful concerts to date. Guy Borg is the festival’s long-term programmer:
“We actually have a bit of a history with Daniel because he performed seven years ago at our festival and we maintained friendly relations with him ever since.
“One of the reasons we turned to him in this exceptional year is because of that relationship and because we feel that Daniel is the ideal artist to help us bring this collective message that Prague is once again resounding with music and that we are participating once again in cultural life.”
Hope will be joined on the stage by the 20-piece Epoque Orchestra, and they will also perform the world premiere of an adaptation of Bedřich Smetana’s Vltava:
“The concert will begin with a newly commissioned piece by Czech composer Jiří Slavík, who has is also a friend of the festival and who has appeared at Strings of Autumn before. It will be a new version of Smetana’s Vltava, called ‘Vltava on Vltava’.
“Jiří has taken inspiration from Max Richter’s approach and has also attempted to re-imagine this very famous piece and to recast it in a more contemporary light.”
The concert will take place at a very unusual setting: a floating stage on the Vltava River beneath the National Theatre between Slovanský Island and the Legion Bridge, with a panoramic backdrop of Prague Castle.
“The genesis of the concert is interesting, because Marek Vrabec, the president of the festival, as the city came out of the lockdown, was walking along the banks of the river and thinking about ways that we could creatively respond to the situation.
“He drew inspiration from the centre of the city, the fact that it was unusually empty of tourists, and came up with this rather visionary idea that we would present music right in the heart of the city and send a clear message that Prague sounds again.”
Daniel Hope’s concert from Prague will be broadcast live by the European TV channel ARTE, and later also on Czech Television.
