Rossini / Tchaikovsky / Ravel

Locked in a room by the opera's producers, throwing the notes for the copyists out of the window – so says the legend behind the swift creation of the overture to the opera semiseria The Magpie Thief by Gioacchino Rossini. The prominent percussion in the introduction is probably also a testament to the truth of the mad legend. The Rococo Variations were composed by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky for his colleague at the St Petersburg Conservatoire, the German pedagogue Wilhelm Fitzenhagen. It is in his arrangement that the work is performed today. Czech cellist Petr Nouzovský, whose playing is brimming with vitality, precise articulation and passionate delivery of cantilenae, will take on the role of performing variations in which Tchaikovsky explores 18th-century rococo musical practices. The music for Daphnis and Chloé was commissioned from Ravel by Sergei Diaghilev, the celebrated Russian choreographer behind the ballet's growing popularity in the first third of the 20th century. The genre did not leave the sensitive Maurice Ravel indifferent. The ballet version of the mythical story and the two suites from the ballet Daphnis and Chloé are among the preferred theatre and concert titles today.

The work, full of impressionistic colour, will be performed by the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra and the Slovak Philharmonic Choir. The ensemble will be led by the young Czech conductor Jiří Rožeň, who regularly works with the Prague State Opera.