Prague Spring music festival turns 80 with rich programme of international talent

The Prague Spring International Music Festival, one of the highlights of the Czech cultural calendar, kicked off its eightieth edition on May 12th. As per tradition, the opening concert was a performance of Bedřich Smetana's My Country, played by the Czech Philharmonic, and with President Pavel in attendance. The programme of music runs until June 3rd. To understand the ideas and planning behind such a big event, Danny Bate spoke to its programme director, Josef Třeštík.

Photo: Michal Kamaryt, ČTK

How would you describe the status of the Prague Spring International Music Festival?

“It's a highlight of the Czech classical music calendar. Of course, there are wonderful concert seasons of orchestras and opera houses in the Czech Republic, but Prague Spring is a big music feast. It's the oldest classical music festival, as well as the biggest. It started in 1946. It was founded by Rafael Kubelík, a wonderful conductor, who was at the time chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. So, it was actually the Czech Philharmonic who founded it, but now it's an independent festival.”

We’re looking now at eighty years of the festival. Is it a challenge to try and keep the festival feeling new and fresh? Is this something that you feel that you've achieved this year?

“It's really something I am consciously working on, to be honest. Having such a rich and big history is wonderful, but also it can feel a little bit like having a very heavy backpack to carry. So, one of our aims is to make it relevant for today. Maybe we look to the past for inspiration, but not necessarily. We are trying to do relevant things, hopefully things that people will remember in eighty years' time from now.

“To celebrate the eightieth edition, we have really tried to bring the best international orchestras, such as the London Symphony Orchestra, the Boston Symphony Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony, the NHK from Tokyo, the Wiener Symphoniker, and all the others.

Josef Třeštík|Photo: Vojtěch Brtnický, Czech Radio

“So if you ask about spirit, maybe that's more what we look for for inspiration from the past, not necessarily repeating things that people did in the past. When you look at a programme from the 1940s, there was quite a lot of contemporary music, surprisingly. A good deal of the programme was composed of works by living composers. That's something we're also consciously working on and trying to incorporate into the festival programme.”

You mentioned there that you have this great programme full of acts from abroad. It's not just Czech musicians performing this year. Do you have attendees from abroad too?

“Indeed. It might be 15% to 20% of the audience going to the concerts are international listeners, which is wonderful. After all, one of the points of the festival is to bring people together, to draw attention to this event, which lasts a little over three weeks, and to get people to Prague and enjoying concerts together. So, absolutely, we also have an international audience.”

Three weeks of performances – that sounds like a lot of organisation. When does the planning for the festival start?

“It's a lot of planning, especially if you would like to have the really high-ranking international orchestras, conductors and soloists. You have to plan in advance, because these people and organisations plan five or six years ahead. So, really, this is how it starts, maybe four or five years ahead with the biggest orchestras. Then later we work on chamber music and things like that.

“In the case of the opening concert, which is always Má Vlast (My Country) by Bedřich Smetana, if you want international orchestras to perform this piece, it's a special task, because we have to often do this even further in advance. You have to get other orchestras and especially chief conductors to fall in love with the piece. They will then incorporate it into their planning. They often perform it with their orchestras elsewhere, and then come to Prague.

“That was for example the case for the Berlin Philharmonic, which opened the festival last year with Kirill Petrenko, who is a big champion of Czech music. He's conducting a lot of works by Josef Suk, but he also loves Smetana’s My Country. He performed it first in Berlin in three subscription series concerts, and then at Prague Spring. Then in the summer he toured with the orchestra and the piece.”

I know as programme director you have to remain neutral, but could you share with us one particular performance that you would like to highlight from this year’s programme?

Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Semyon Byčkov during the Prague Spring Festival|Photo: Michal Kamaryt, ČTK

“Does it have to be one?”

I'll allow you two!

“It would be the residency of Patricia Kopatchinskaja. She’s a wonderful violinist, originally from Moldova, now of Swiss citizenship. She's our artist in residence this year, and she's having three concerts, really a variety.

“Then I would highlight the concert of the Boston Symphony Orchestra, which is coming for the festival this Wednesday with their music director Andris Nelsons.”