Czech Mates!
European Orchestra to Give Free Noontime Performance
Music from Antonio Rosetti, Alessandro Marcello, and Joseph Haydn fill the menu of a lunchtime performance by the celebrated Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra.
CPCO will appear at Penn State Erie, The Behrend College, as part of Music at Noon: The Logan Series. Their performance will be held at noon on Wednesday, October 24, in the McGarvey Commons of the Reed Union Building; admission is free and open to the public.
The following day, the chamber orchestra, whose 19 members are drawn from the Czech Philharmonic and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, will perform for students at Diehl School on Erie’s east side.
“It’s exciting to be a part this tour, because it celebrates the 30th anniversary of CPCO’s founding,” Gary Viebranz, director of The Logan Series and of musical ensembles at Penn State Behrend, noted. “It is a rare opportunity to witness musical communication at this level, and this ensemble is a treat for the eyes as well as the ears.”
CPCO was formed in 1977 by concertmaster Pavel Prantl and colleagues from the world-renowned Czech Philharmonic. Until the Velvet Revolution of 1989 the orchestra traveled with Soviet minders, playing an approved repertoire with Soviet-vetted soloists. Still, the CPCO enjoyed critical and popular success, and was lauded for the characteristic sound of its “Czech strings,” a European phrase that applauds the Czech tradition of sensitivity to sonority and unique tone color.
After the fall of the Communist regime, Prantl, then exiled in Asia, returned to Prague to lead CPCO on triumphant tours of Europe, Asia, and the United States.
Soloists for this tour will be oboist Jana Brožková and violinist Barbora Kolářová. In Erie, the chamber orchestra plans to perform selections from Rosetti’s Symphony no. 39 in G Minor, Marcello’s Oboe Concerto in D Minor, and Haydn’s Symphony no. 8 in G Major, “Evening.”
In addition to touring and recording, CPCO began reaching new audiences by recording film and television scores, including those for the Anna Mahler biopic “Bride of the Wind,” Charles Gounod’s opera “Romeo & Juliet” for BBC4 and PBS Great Performances, Discovery Channel’s “Land of the Mammoth,” and “Most,” an Academy Award-nominated live short that was released in the United States as “The Bridge.”
Music at Noon, an innovative program to introduce classical music in an informal atmosphere rather than an intimidating concert hall, was founded at Penn State Behrend in 1989 by Warren philanthropist and arts advocate Kay Logan. Its unique music outreach efforts were honored with an Adventurous Programming Award given by Chamber Music America and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers. The series receives major support from the Kay Logan Trust and additional funding from the Penn State Behrend Student Activity Fee, Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts and the Erie Arts Endowment of the Arts Council of Erie.
For more information about The Logan Series or the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra’s appearance, contact Viebranz at 814-898-6289.