March 2017
In March 2017, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra returns to the Klara Festival with a programme closely mirroring this year’s festival theme, home sweet home. Musical traditions played an important role in the compositional careers of Bedřich Smetana, Luciano Berio and Antonín Dvořák: folk melodies and traditions influenced their music in different ways. While Smetana’s Vltava and Dvořák’s Seventh Symphony specifically reflect the Czech spirit, Berio’s Folk Songs was inspired by traditional melodies from different cultures – from Armenian to American, from Azerbaijani to French, from Genoese to Sicilian.
This project marks the second collaboration with the MCO and conductor Rafael Payare, who made his debut with the orchestra in the beginning of September 2016 at the Kölner Philharmonie. Magdalena Kožená, who worked with the MCO on several opera production in its early years, joins the MCO and Rafael Payare in Berio’s Folk Songs.
