Composer

On Fancies and Goodnights, Richard writes: ‘As a curious traveller will collect objects that catch his eye, these short pieces are among the many that have caught my ear with their beauty, strangeness, and unpredictability. I have borrowed the title “Fancies and Goodnights” from a book of bewitching tales by the English writer, John Collier.’

EPSG:4326

Richard Goode piano

Wigmore Hall

This is no ordinary fox! Composer Leoš Janáček tells the story of a young fox, trapped by the forester as a cub. She makes a dramatic escape in search of what a wild animal’s life should be, including hunting, true love, and always looking over your shoulder. Australian director Barrie Kosky’s bold and glitzy new production brings vibrant theatricality to this classic story.

The Cunning Little Vixen

Winspear Opera House

The programme unfolds as a vivid showcase of Central European imagination. Dora Pejačević’s Concert Overture opens the evening with sweeping drama and flair, a striking introduction to a composer whose voice is increasingly being rediscovered.

Dvořák Violin Concerto with James Ehnes

Southbank Centre

Mæland / Aadland

Norwegian Academy of Music

Elements of Moravian folksong combine with edgy modernism in the String Quartet No. 3 Op. 15, written six years before Pavel Haas was murdered by the Nazis at Auschwitz-Birkenau. The Pavel Haas Quartet, champion of the Czech composer’s music since its formation in 2002, places the work together with the yearning sounds of ‘The Kreutzer Sonata’, by Haas’s teacher, Leoš Janáček. It is joined by two close colleagues in Dvořák’s folk-infused String Sextet for two violins, two violas and two cellos.

Pavel Haas Quartet; Pavel Nikl viola; Ivan Vokáč cello

The opening program of the Franconian Music Days is devoted to the theme of democracy, using the example of the guest of honor of the book fair, the Czech Republic.

Opening – Czech Republic: Democracy and Freedom

Kulturforum

Czech conductor Jakub Hrůša, Chief Conductor of the Bamberg Symphony and Music Director of The Royal Opera, Covent Garden, conducts the Academy Symphony Orchestra for the first time.

Jakub Hrusa looks to camera. Academy Symphony Orchestra Jakub Hrůša conducts Janáček and Bartók

Royal Academy of Music

French-American pianist Julia Den Boer is a passionate advocate for contemporary music, praised for her “emotional power” (The New York Times) and “cleverly contrasted” (The Guardian) programming. Based in New York City, she is internationally recognized as a soloist and chamber musician and is an active commissioner of new works, committed to exploring and broadening her instrument’s boundaries through close collaboration with composers.

Julia Den Boer, piano

The Chapel Restoration

Thomas Adès launches a three-concert Residency with a carefully curated programme hallmarked by the noble beauty and inventive richness of its contents. The British composer, pianist and conductor, hailed by Prospect magazine for his ‘uncanny brilliance’, explores the art of variation and musical reflection, the latter infused in his Vesper, dedicated to the memory of Henry Purcell.

Thomas Adès piano

Sunday Chamber Music – 1

BFO Rehearsal Hall

Two compelling works from contrasting worlds: With lightness, elegance and wit, infused with Spanish rhythms, Manuel de Falla’s ballet The Three-Cornered Hat tells of a young wife who fends off the advances of a provincial governor. Leoš Janáček’s rhapsody Taras Bulba, by contrast, unfolds with elemental power, portraying the fate of a Ukrainian Cossack leader who loses first his two sons and then his own life in the struggle against Polish occupiers. Sir Simon Rattle, former Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, also leads the world premiere of a concerto written by Cathy Milliken for our cor anglais player, Dominik Wollenweber.

Sir Simon Rattle conducts de Falla, Janáček and a World Premiere

Berliner Philharmoniker

Royal Northern Sinfonia and Artistic Partner Maria Włoszczowska with pianist Jeremy Denk. Long-time musical collaborators and friends, Maria and Jeremy have shared stages from New York to Scotland and now reunite at Lammermuir Festival for a deep dive into Mozart’s piano concertos over three nights.

Jeremy Denk Plays Mozart Piano Concertos I

St Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington

Concert with TrondheimSolistene and journalist Morten Jentoft on music and culture in Eastern Europe. The program is performed without an intermission and runs approximately 1 hour and 30 minutes.

Sounds from a Dramatic Era

Ramme gård og Universitetets aula

The ballet company’s second major premiere of the 2025/2026 season will not be a single full-length production, but rather an evening composed of several works by different choreographers. The ensemble will present pieces in modern and neoclassical dance styles, showcasing the distinctive authenticity of each choreographer’s movement language—yet connected by the shared theme of the inner world, Czech roots, and the Czech spirit.

Inside

Theater of JK Tyl New Stage

For his recital, our “artiste étoile” Augustin Hadelich has planned something special: he will appear with Seong-Jin Cho, South Korea’s superstar pianist, for the very first time — world-class meets world-class. The program could hardly be lovelier: the delicate, deeply romantic Violin Romance by the American composer Amy Beach; Leoš Janáček’s earthy, passionate Sonata with its wild dance rhythms that tear apart any sense of regular meter; and Sergei Prokofiev’s weightless D major Sonata, written in the midst of World War II yet sounding anything but apocalyptic. The evening opens with Johannes Brahms and his melody-rich G major Sonata, which contains a famous song quotation. Hadelich says he came to understand this composer anew after immersing himself in his chamber music, and in general he considers making music in small ensembles the best training for performing with orchestra and, more broadly, for engaging with people. As he puts it, this is how you learn to listen, to respond, to enter into dialogue. A school for life.

Augustin Hadelich | Seong-Jin Cho

KKL Luzern Concert Hall

Janáček’s Kreutzer Sonata—which takes its name and inspiration from Tolstoy’s novella, which in turn took its own inspiration from Beethoven’s sonata—opens this passionate program, which includes Weinberg’s Shostakovich-inspired Fourth Violin Sonata and Beethoven’s sophisticated and innovative Septet, an early composition that remained an inescapable hit throughout the composer’s life.

Beethoven & Janáček

New Mexico Museum of Art

Experience the power of Janáček’s dramatic Glagolitic Mass as the Festival Chorus and Philharmonia Orchestra bring this magnificent work to life. Listen out for joyful fanfares, vibrant colour, and thrilling organ solos played by young American virtuoso Katelyn Emerson.

Three Choirs Festival: Glagolitic Mass

Gloucester Cathedral

The Verona Quartet returns to the Spanish Courtyard with Inflection Points, a program focusing on societal changes every 100 years through the lens of music.  As the 2017–18 Ernst Stiefel String Quartet-in-Residence, the ensemble has a long-standing history with the Caramoor, including a highly praised 2021 performance of Ligeti and Dvořák that showcased their "cohesive and thoughtful" approach.

Verona Quartet

The Rosen House at Caramoor

The Anghiari Festival is a week of beautiful classical music, set in a quiet corner of the rolling Tuscan hills. If you’re looking for a taste of Italian summer, this hour-long concert is the best way to spend your lunch break – don’t miss out.

Anghiari Festival Chamber Music Preview

Smith Square Hall

Thanks to our continuing partnership with Wigmore Hall, every three years we bring a world-class string quartet to Leeds for nine exciting performances.

Quartet in Residence: Opus13

Leeds Conservatoire

An attractive concert offering a selection of the most famous choral scenes from operas by Bohuslav Martinů, Leoš Janáček, Antonín Dvořák, and from no fewer than six stage works by Bedřich Smetana.

Smetana: Opera Choruses… AND MORE!

Litomyšl Castle

Musical modernism in the 20th Century, contrary to views expressed by conservative critics, came in an arresting diversity of styles, as Hugo Ticciati and Pierre-Laurent Aimard confirm with their choice of recital repertoire. Messiaen’s yearning Theme and Variations raises the curtain on the rhapsodic intensity of Schoenberg’s last instrumental work and Janáček’s impassioned Sonata, before the programme turns to music by three gloriously individual American moderns.

Hugo Ticciati violin; Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano

For his guest appearance with his Hamburg colleagues, Stanislav Kochanovsky, Chief Conductor of the NDR Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from Hanover, has brought a program featuring three Slavic composers. Nikolai Lugansky, a renowned Rachmaninoff expert who has released a highly acclaimed complete recording of his piano concertos, will be at the piano.

GDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra / Nikolai Lugansky / Stanislav Kochanovsky

Elbphilharmonie Hamburg

As early as 1773, the traveling scholar Charles Burney noted in his diary that "the Bohemians are the most musical of all nations." Our characteristically warm orchestral style is deeply rooted in this tradition, and we always enjoy celebrating it with exuberant joy. Our principal conductor has once again put together a captivating program from his homeland: It plunges us into the second act of Janáček's poignant national opera "Jenůfa," which premiered in Brno in 1904. The opera revolves around rural life and the prevailing moral codes and social constraints that place immense pressure on a young woman—ultimately leading to the death of her illegitimate child. This magnificent masterpiece is defined by folk music, dramatic moments, and an incredible intensity of emotion.

Jakub Hrůša, Daniela Koch

Bamberger Symphoniker

The prodigiously gifted Euan Shields signs off his tour of duty as the Hallé’s Assistant Conductor with this red-blooded Slavic programme, beginning with Janáček’s atmospheric rhapsody for orchestra, Taras Bulba. Inspired by Gogol’s novella, this gritty portrait of the Cossack leader and his ill-fated sons vividly captures their battle-scarred lives and loves. Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma, whose dazzling artistry blew us all away last season, makes a welcome return with Tchaikovsky’s ardent Violin Concerto. It was written amidst the wreckage of his ill-advised marriage but the composer found inspiration in his friendship with violinist Yosif Kotek and completed the score in less than a month. The result was a triumph; unashamedly virtuosic yet fresh and lyrical, with a heartfelt slow movement and a whirling gypsy finale.

The Hallé

Royal Concert Hall Nottingham

Tide Concert: Works by Brahms, Janáček, Dvořák and Brahms (violin and piano).

Christian Tetzlaff & Matthias Kirschnereit

Georgskirche

Word-and-music program with texts by Franz Kafka (recitation Heikko Deutschmann) and music by Leoš Janáček, Josef Suk and Bohuslav Martinů (violin Ulf Schneider, piano Stephan Imorde). Supplemented by a tour of the Gnadenkirche Tidofeld as a stroll.

Kafka: Stories

Kirche Bargebur

Children's festival at Fredriksten fortress with opera, theater, fun activities, puppet theater, and creative workshops for children ages 3–12. Free admission.

Barnas Søndag Spesial

Fredriksten festning

The Fibonacci Quartet is one of Europe’s leading young string quartets. Formed at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, the quartet teaches as Quartet in Residence at the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama as well as at the Royal Academy of Music in their position as Nina Drucker Fellows. Winners at the 2024 Young Classical Artists Trust (YCAT) International auditions, they were also recently appointed as Grand Résident ensemble at ProQuartet in Paris for seasons 2025-2027.

Fibonacci Quartet

Corn Exchange Newbury

An eclectic evening of chamber music with traditional string quartet, a rock band, and more. Janáček's Second String Quartet is about meeting the woman who reignited his creativity. The program also includes a new arrangement of Mahler's Wayfarer Songs for viola and folk band featuring Lauren Spaulding, our principal violist whose album was nominated for a 2026 Grammy Award.

Songs of Love & Life

Roots Music Project

Three generations: Smetana, the father of the Czech national style, laid the foundation with the cycle "My Fatherland" in 1879. With full originality, he incorporated his folk music inspirations into it, and with sensitive instrumentation, he translated the poetry and power of his models into music. Leoš Janáček, primarily an opera composer, composed little for the concert hall—no wonder, then, that suites emerged from his popular stage works. Vitēzlav Novák, a student of Dvořák, followed in Smetana's footsteps with his symphonic poem, creating a voluptuous tonal painting of his beloved mountains.

Mein Vaterland

Gewandhaus

Atticus Margulis-Ohnuma, violin

Northwestern Bienen School of Music

The acclaimed vocal ensemble Gentlemen Singers has accepted an invitation to our special concert in May. In the opening notes of Echos of Folksongs by Leoš Janáček, we can hear the young composer influenced by folk music, his travels in Moravia and his first experiences as a choirmaster.

In stark contrast there are the Brigand Songs commissioned from Bohuslav Martinů at the end of his life by the Prague Teachers’ Choir (I) and the Moravian Teachers’ Choir (II).

For the May concert, Gentlemen Singers, together with the violinist Lucia Fulka Kopsová, will also perform Zdeněk Lukáš’s song cycle Spring is Coming, whose choral works are inspired by folk motifs and are characterized by melodic inventiveness, rhythmic vitality and ability to express strong emotions.

Lukáš. Vičar. Janáček

The Professed House, Prague

In The Unbearable Lightness of Being, Czech-French author Milan Kundera delves into humanity’s quest for meaning, love, and freedom. Actor and theatremaker Yves De Pauw transforms Kundera’s evocative prose into a captivating performance, enriched by music tied to the author’s journey. Born in Brno, where Leoš Janáček found inspiration, Kundera later sought refuge in France, spending his final years in Paris – a city central to the life of composer Darius Milhaud. Experience an intimate concert by the wind players of the Antwerp Symphony Orchestra, blending literature and music in an homage to Kundera’s legacy.

Chamber music: The unbearable lightness of existence

AMUZ (Festival van Vlaanderen Antwerpen)

Alba and Lorenzo Gentili-Tedeschi - 35° Festival Milano Musica

Teatro alla Scala

Doppelganger: Shadow of the Self
"Doppelgänger: Shadows of the Ego." In her program with this title, Svetlana Andreeva embarks on a search for the self in music. It should be said at the outset that she has long since found her (artistic) self – as evidenced not least by her brilliant victory at the Concours international de piano d'Orléans 2024. The competition is entirely dedicated to the music of the 20th and 21st centuries – a home game for the Ukrainian, who is a passionate interpreter of contemporary works and studied composition in addition to piano. In her program, Svetlana Andreeva focuses almost exclusively on early 20th-century repertoire: With Leoš Janáček, she gropes her way through the mists of his eponymous cycle, peers behind Karol Szymanowski's masks, and experiences descent into hell and redemption in Alexander Scriabin's "Black" and "White" Mass. A thrilling musical journey to the limits of consciousness.

Discover Talent: Svetlana Andreeva / Piano Recital

Praised for their “passion, precision, [and] warmth,” the Jerusalem Quartet’s breadth of repertoire and depth of expression have firmly established them in the string quartet tradition. Over 30 years, the ensemble has found its core in a warm, full, human sound and egalitarian balance of voices. This program includes Janáček's Kreutzer Sonata string quartet, inspired by a Tolstoy novella; a new work composed for the Jerusalem Quartet by Shulamit Ran; and Ravel's sole String Quartet with its memorable pizzicato second movement.

Jerusalem Quartet

Stanford University

Dandan Wang, violin

Curtis Institute of Music

Blessed with “poetic and sensitive pianism” (Washington Post) and a “wondrous sense of color” (San Francisco Classical Voice), Grammy Award-nominated pianist Joyce Yang captivates audiences with her virtuosity, lyricism, and interpretive insight.

Joyce Yang, piano

New England Conservatory of Music

“This Paganini is a strange man. He is the most inexplicable enigma that has ever been presented to men who have gathered to enjoy themselves. There is nothing human about him. His long, bony head, covered with disheveled hair, can barely contain the prolonged fire of that dark gaze of his, which no human gaze would be able to sustain. One cannot tell, looking at him like this, whether he is a walking resurrected man, so much does he resemble Rembrandt's Lazarus freed from his shroud. His two arms hang to the ground, and only by seeing these bony hands bound by these steel tendons can one guess through what horrible struggles this man has come to master his violin, that tormented soul enclosed between four pieces of wood. For my part, I am always afraid of this man, whether he comes to greet the audience with that cold, heavy marble smile, or whether he breaks the three strings of his violin playing a fantastic caprice for which he has never given an account, or whether he finally abandon yourself freely and proudly to that very galvanic inspiration that found us silent and transported”.

Paganini/Janàček /Martinů

Teatro Politeama Garibaldi

Follow the adventures of Vixen Sharp Ears, a spirited young fox, as she draws you into her forest world; and meet a cast of woodland creatures and the humans they cross paths with in a series of quick, dreamlike scenes. Leoš Janáček’s music, full of vibrant folk melodies and lush sounds, paints a picture of life in the woods—the joy and the sorrow, the turning of the seasons. It’s a story that feels like a fairy tale, but dig a little deeper and you’ll find themes of life, loss and the wild beauty of it all.

The Cunning Little Vixen: By Leoš Janáček

Imig Music Building

Chamber Concert 7 »Of Bohemia and Bohème«

Oper Graz

Why are we here, and what comes next? Throughout time, humans have wrestled with these questions, resulting in compositions like Richard Strauss’ radiant swan song, Rachmaninov’s haunting depiction of the journey of souls to the afterlife, Janáček’s portrait of hope and solidarity in a Siberian prison camp and Wagner’s spine-tingling meditation on eternal love.

Songs of Love and Farewell

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Chamber Concert V: “About animals and humans”

Mozarteum University Salzburg

The exceptionally large brass ensemble (25 players!) in Leoš Janáček's Sinfonietta is just one of the special features of this concert. Perhaps this is why the five movements sound like film music and have been "sampled" in several television series and films—although not intended as such by the composer. The four-movement Les Eaux célestes (2023) by the French composer Camille Pépin also leaves a special aural impression with its open, enchanting form and colorful instrumentation. Under the direction of Ben Glassberg, the Graz Philharmonic will accompany pianist Ilya Shmukler, who was awarded first prize at the 2024 Concours Géza Anda, in Frédéric Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1.

3rd Music Association Concert

Stefaniensaal

A young vixen is captured by a forester. On his farm, she grows into a strong and independent fox, inciting the hens to revolt and biting the rooster's throat. She escapes into the wilderness, drives the badger from his den, marries the fox, produces countless offspring, and is finally shot by a poacher.

The clever little fox

Detmold Theatre

Puccini first showcased his operatic voice through the orchestra alone with his Capriccio Sinfonico. Marking the start of his signature musical style, it blends the lyrical and dramatic qualities that later came to define his iconic operas.

MediaCityUK

In 2024, she won the coveted UBS Young Artist Award: the young, up-and-coming cellist from Salzburg, Julia Hagen. In addition to the opportunity to perform with the Vienna Philharmonic under Christian Thielemann at the renowned Lucerne Festival, which the press hailed as "brilliant," the award places the talented, full-blooded musician in an illustrious gallery, including names such as Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Sol Gabetta, Martin Helmchen, Vilde Frang, and Kian Soltani, for whom the award has once opened the door to international careers. In the master concert at the Mozarteum Foundation, the artist and her piano partner Annika Treutler will devote themselves to the cello works of great composers, including a detour into the world of fairy tales.

Master Concert: Julia Hagen & Annika Treutler

Mozarteum Foundation

Immerse yourself in this exhilarating concert filled with heroic sounds, dazzling virtuosity, and musical drama! Janáček’s dynamic Taras Bulba offers a vivid orchestral portrayal of heroism and sacrifice inspired by Nikolai Gogol’s tales of war and death. Symphony pianist Caroline Hong brings Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue to life with sweeping lyricism and jazzy flair. Rachmaninoff’s lush and dramatic Symphony No. 3 weaves a poignant musical tapestry that will captivate your heart and stir your soul.

Rachmaninoff 3

Ohio Theatre

Observe a working rehearsal as the musicians and conductor put the finishing touches on the weekend’s concert program on Friday, March 13 at 10AM. Doors open at 9AM. Tickets are $17.14; coffee and donuts are included!

Friday Coffee Dress – Rachmaninoff 3

Brahms, Strauss, Janacek

Imperial Baths

Leif Ove Andsnes is an internationally celebrated pianist recognized for his countless performances in the world’s leading concert halls, collaborations with esteemed orchestras, and extensive discography. An avid chamber musician, he is the founding director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival and was the co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades. Recently, Andsnes performed three times at London’s Wigmore Hall, where he held a residency. Named the Mahler Chamber Orchestra’s first ever Artistic Partner, Andsnes has led the ensemble in major multi-season projects such as Mozart Momentum 1785/86, which produced numerous concerts and two critically acclaimed albums. Subsequently with the MCO, Andsnes conducted and performed “The Beethoven Journey,” a four-season series that toured to 27 countries, was chronicled in a documentary, and recorded three volumes of piano concertos. With more than fifty recordings in his discography, Andsnes has received eleven Grammy nominations and seven Gramophone awards. In 2013, he was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame. Other achievements include Norway’s two honors, the Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St. Olav and the Peer Gynt Prize, as well as the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award and the Gilmore Artist Award. Andsnes is an Artistic Advisor at the Professor Jirí Hlinka Piano Academy in Bergen, Norway.

Leif Ove Andsnes, piano

Mary B. Galvin Recital Hall

Pyotr Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto, the only one he composed for the instrument and a significant cornerstone of the repertoire, together with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra under the direction of the Italian conductor Robin Ticciati. After the intermission, Antonín Dvořák's optimistic and joyful Symphony No. 8, written during a stay at Dvořák's summer residence in Bohemia in 1889, awaits

Lisa Batiashvili in Tchaikovsky’s violin concerto 

Berwaldhallen

Euan Shields takes to the podium to lead the Hallé orchestra through this dark and supernatural programme. Taras Bulba, based on the Nikolai Gogol novel of the same name, was written in the midst of World War One. It leads the listener through three key moments in the life of the Russian Cossack, including the death of each of his two sons (one at his own hand), and finally, his own capture and demise. Shostakovich’s First Symphony was a huge success right from its premiere, launching him into instant international stardom at the age of just 19. Written as a graduation exercise from Maximilian Steinberg’s composition class, the symphony possesses a profound maturity, as well as the simultaneous sense of wit and tragedy that would go on to become characteristic of Shostakovich’s later works.

The Hallé – Rush Hour: Shostakovich’s Symphony No.1

The Bridgewater Hall

Taras Bulba, based on the Nikolai Gogol novel of the same name, was written in the midst of World War One. It leads the listener through three key moments in the life of the Russian Cossack, including the death of each of his two sons (one at his own hand), and finally, his own capture and demise.

Rush Hour: Shostakovich’s Symphony No.1

The dawn of the 20th century witnessed revolutions in music, literature, philosophy, and science as never before. Composers, liberated by Romanticism and fired by nationalism, explored disparate cultures and wrote music in powerful new ways. Once again the violin was at their sides—the ideal tool for sonic and emotional expression. Here we present works for violin and piano by four innovative composers from across the European continent, each influenced by world events and societies around them, bringing a unique character to a classic genre: the violin-piano duo.

Violin Visionaries

Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts

Rockwood Piano Competition

Longmire Alumni Building

The Soviet authorities called it an “optimistic tragedy”. Shostakovich simply called it his Tenth Symphony. Dark, tense, packed with secret messages and featuring a hair-raising musical portrait of Stalin himself; what’s certain is that Shostakovich’s Tenth is one of the mightiest of 20th-century symphonies – one of those pieces that you simply have to hear live.

Critics have described the conductor Daniel Raiskin as “stunningly good”, so who better to probe Shostakovich’s secrets – and to partner the distinguished British violinist Jennifer Pike in Britain’s favourite romantic violin concerto?

Czech Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra

Cadogan Hall 

Special «Cardillac» Chamber Concert

Zurich Opera House

This chamber music concert spans a wide range from the Baroque to Viennese Classicism and Czech Modernism. Jan Dismas Zelenka and Johann Friedrich Fasch were contemporaries of Johann Sebastian Bach. Zelenka came from Bohemia and worked at the Saxon court in Dresden, while Fasch, from Thuringia, worked briefly in Prague. Ludwig van Beethoven composed his Cello sonata in G minor in Berlin and dedicated it to King Frederick William II of Prussia. The last two works on the program take us back to the Czech Republic. Leoš Janáček’s Pohádka tells the Russian fairy tale of Tsarevich Ivan and Princess Marya in a rhapsodic tone. Bohuslav Martinů initially studied in Prague and moved to Paris in 1923. There he absorbed various musical influences: the esprit of the Groupe des Six, the formal rigor of Igor Stravinsky and the nonchalance of jazz.

4. Chamber Music Concert

Liederhalle Cultural and Congress Center

At the February concert the Prague Philharmonia’s Chamber Music Series will host the Ševčík Quartet for the very first time. Among other things, they will play Leoš Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1, which he composed upon a suggestion of the Czech Quartet. It is a masterpiece by a composer who in his early seventies realized the importance of the string quartet as a musical form and brought his inspiration from Leo Tolstoy’s novella The Kreutzer Sonata into the work.

Janáček. Kodály. Shostakovich

A quartet of guitars is far from a standard ensemble, yet the Prague Guitar Quartet has been delighting audiences with this unusual format for over forty years. Known for reimagining works originally written for other instruments, they bring listeners into their unique sound world. This concert will include, amongst other works, Grieg’s famous suite from the music to Peer Gynt. A new piece written especially for the group by Lukáš Hurník will also receive its first performance.

Czech Chamber Music Society • Prague Guitar Quartet

Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague

For Elina Makropoulos, this dream becomes reality in an involuntary and paradoxical experience. Long ago, her alchemist father tested an elixir of life on her. Since then, she has traveled throughout Europe, constantly changing her identity and her lover. Now 337 years old, an opera singer known as Emilia Marty, she finds herself embroiled in an inheritance dispute. While her beauty and undiminished voice still captivate, her sole objective is to rediscover the formula for the elixir, whose effects are threatening to fade. But is eternal life truly an enviable destiny?

The Makropoulos Affair

Lille Opera

In the 20th century, the nations of Central Europe experienced both glory and terror – and composers responded with music that blazes with energy and imaginative power. For LPO Principal Conductor Edward Gardner, it’s a source of pure inspiration, and tonight, in the first of two Phoenix Lands concerts, he shares his passion. Janáček retells bloody folktales, Grażyna Bacewicz strikes a note of defiance, and Lutosławski and Martinů each do their own deliriously imaginative thing. These composers have a thousand tales to tell, and with the aid of the superb young Czech violinist Josef Špaček, their story starts here.

Bohemian Rhapsodies

The explorative Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes gives a recital focused on Central European music by Kurtág, Janáček, Bartók, and Liszt—all radically inventive composers of their eras. Works by Robert Schumann frame the program, including his dizzying piano cycle Carnaval. Andsnes was named one of Classic FM’s 25 best pianists of all time and called “a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight” by The New York Times.

Leif Ove Andsnes

A captivating programme unfolds with the soloists of the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, showcasing a rich blend of Czech and French musical traditions. Dvořák’s Terzetto in C major brings a lively, spirited trio to life, followed by Suk’s deeply emotional Meditation on the old Czech Hymn ‘St Wenceslas’, a tribute to Czech heritage. Janáček’s String Quartet No. 1, ‘Kreutzer Sonata’ sears with intensity, capturing the drama of Tolstoy’s novella. The concert concludes with Fauré’s lush Piano Quintet No. 1, a work of sweeping lyricism and passionate contrasts.

Chamber Music at Merton

Merton College

A 300-year-old woman confronts mortality, identity and lost love in this concert performance of Janáček's intense operatic drama.

The Makropulos Affair

Barbican Centre

The Makropoulos Affair contains some of Janáček’s most compelling music, starting with its Prelude that hints at the 16th-century birth year of Emilia Marty, complete with pounding timpani and fanfares. From there, Janáček spins a taut drama culminating in a heartbreaking scene as Emilia finally confesses to her identity.

London Symphony Orchestra/Sir Simon Rattle

For its first concert of 2026, Cascade Symphony performs Beethoven’s iconic Fifth Symphony along with music by Richard Wagner, Leos Janacek and Edouard Lalo. Cellist Sunnat Ibragimov, an Uzbekistan native and current Seattle Symphony member, previously served as Principal Cellist of the prestigious Tanglewood Festival Orchestra. He has performed with major orchestras in Asia and North America and is pursuing doctoral studies at the renowned Peabody Institute. He joins Cascade Symphony to perform Edouard Lalo’s lyrically romantic cello concerto.

Beethoven’s Fifth

Edmonds Center For the Arts

Concert in the Wiener Konzerthaus

Wiener Konzerthaus

In both song cycles performed by Petr Nekoranec and Ahmad Hedar, the subject is always a young man who embarks on a path paved with uncertainties out of love.

The heart has its reasons

Concert of the Society of Friends of Music in Vienna

Musikverein Wien

3rd Subscription Concert

Vienna Music Society

A psychological drama between duty and freedom

Katja Kaba­nova

German Oper am Rhein

Once upon a time… Love Story. Love… a passionate and oh-so-human impulse. The common thread of our destinies. The one for which we live and die, the true driving force of all existence. For centuries, no subject has so inflamed minds as love. The Ensemble Émeraude, formed within the OPRL, explores its various aspects through works by German, Czech, Hungarian, Polish, and Russian composers. The concert is passionately presented by Stéphane Dado, art and music historian and OPRL Project Manager.

Composer

Leoš Janáček

Events

Upcoming events

Oct 30 - Nov 7, 2026

The Cunning Little Vixen · Dallas Opera

6 - 8 Nov, 2026

Janáček & Beethoven · Boston Artists Ensemble

Nov 10, 2026

Autumn Piano Festival · Royal Academy of Music

Nov 16 - Dec 4, 2026

Jenůfa · The Metropolitan Opera

Nov 21, 2026

Carl Nielsen in Old and New Bottles · Center for Dansk Jazzhistorie

Past events

Nov 2, 2026

Richard Goode piano · Wigmore Hall

Oct 30 - Nov 7, 2026

The Cunning Little Vixen · Dallas Opera

About

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