Georg Friedrich Händel: Sinfonia from Messiah Oratorio, HWV 56, I. Grave, II. Allegro moderato

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for violin and orchestra in D major Op. 3, No. 9, R. 230, I. Allegro, II. Larghetto, III. Allegro

Tomaso Albinoni: Sonata I. à cinque in G Op. 2, No. 1, I. Grave e adagio, II. Allegro, III. Adagio, IV. Allegro

Joseph Haydn: Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 1 in C major, Hob. VIIa: 1, I. Allegro moderato, II. Adagio, III. Finale. Presto

intermission

Antonio Vivaldi: Concerto for two violins in A minor Op. 3 No. 8, RV 522, I. Allegro, II. Larghetto e Spiritoso, III. Allegro

Wilhelm Friedemann Bach: Adagio and fugue, F. 65

Johann Sebastian Bach: Concerto for three violins, strings and basso continuo in D major BWV 1064R, I. Allegro, II. Adagio, III. Allegro

Bohuslav Matoušek is an important representative of contemporary Czech violin art, who attracted attention already as a child by numerous wins at many national competitions. In 1967–1972 he studied at the Academy of Performing Arts in J. Pekelský’s and V. Snítil’s class and in Switzerland under W. Schneiderhan and N. Milstein. In 1977–1980 he was invited to Japan by the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra from Tokyo as a soloist and concertmaster and performed a number of violin concertos under the baton of important world-renowned conductors (Celibidache, Masur, Mehta, Bernstein and others). After returning from Japan, in 1980–1995, besides his solo career, he was also the leader of the Stamic Quartet. After leaving the Stamic Quartet in 1995 Bohuslav Matoušek has dedicated himself above all to his solo concert activities, his extensive repertoire includes compositions from the Early Baroque to the works by contemporary composers. In chamber play he performs mainly with his stable partner, pianist Petr Adamec. His other important activities include the artistic leadership of the Czech Philharmonic Octet. He is the holder of a prestigious world-renowned award, the “Cannes Classical Award”, which he received in 2001 for his recording of the complete works by B. Martinů for violin and piano. As one of only a few artists, he is also the holder of the silver medal of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation for exceptional merit for the works by this composer. His recording of the complete works by B. Martinů for concertante violin (viola) with the Czech Philharmonic and world-renowned conductor Christopher Hogwood (4 CDs) was released by the important world-famous company Hyperion in London and has received many foreign and Czech awards. He is also active as a teacher at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.

Hiroko Takahashi comes from Japan. She attended a diploma course at the Toho Gakuen University in Tokyo and continued her studies at the Music and Dance Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. She studied violin under the leadership of Prof. Ryosaku Kubota and Prof. Koichiro Harada, Jiří Tomášek and Bohuslav Matoušek. During her studies she received a number of prestigious awards including the music award IMA at the music academy in Ishikawa in Japan, 3rd prize in the Henryk Wieniawski International Violin Competition in the Polish city of Poznan, 1st prize in the violin category at the Leoš Janáček International Competition in Brno, special prize at the international summer classes of the Prague-Vienna-Budapest academy in the Austrian city of Semmering etc. In 2014-2016 she was a member of the orchestra of the National Theatre in Prague and since 2015 she has been assistant concertmaster of the FOK Prague Symphony Orchestra.     

Patrik Sedlář was born in Veselí nad Moravou, where he started playing the violin at the age of 9. He studied at P. J. Vejvanovský Conservatory in 2009–2015 under Prof. Jaroslav Krátký. He regularly participates in competitions in which he received his first awards – in 2011 the honorary mention in the Josef Muzika International Competition in Nová Paka and a year later 3^rd prize in the same competition. He took part in the competition of conservatories (2011 and 2014 – 3^rd prize) and in the Festival of Young Artists in Bayreuth. Besides that, since 2011 he has been a regular attendant of the masterclasses in Zlatá Koruna led by Prof. Bohuslav Matoušek, under whom he is at present studying at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. In 2013 and 2015 he became the holder of the scholarship of the Czech Music Fund Foundation for the support of modern Czech music. In September 2015 he performed at the Kroměříž Music Summer festival, where he played Brahms’s violin concerto with the accompaniment of the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra Olomouc. In 2017 he attended masterclasses led by Prof. Vilmos Szabadi and Prof. Shmuel Ashkenazi in the Austrian city of Semmering.   

The chamber classicistic orchestra Ensemble 18+ specializes in historically informed, yet unorthodox, interpretation of the music not only of the 18th century, as you can tell from its name. In the past seasons the ensemble performed a number of its own concert series focusing on music of the turn of the Late Baroque and classicism up to the early Romantic authors, however, its repertoire also includes music from younger periods. Ensemble 18+ was founded in 2009 from a group of young musicians interested in the interpretation of music from older time periods in cooperation with harpsichordist and conductor Vojtěch Spurný. The main idea was to apply the principles of historically informed interpretation of old music when playing modern instruments. The base of the orchestra consists of ten string instruments with the harpsichord, accompanied by wind instruments as necessary.