American Symphony Orchestra to Perform PRAGUE CENTRAL at Carnegie Hall

The American Symphony Orchestra will present Prague Central: Great 20th-Century Czech Composers, the third program in its four-concert Vanguard series at Carnegie Hall, on Friday, February 10 at 8 PM.

Music director Leon Botstein will lead the ASO in an all-orchestral performance that reflects the work of four Czech composers who worked on the outskirts of musical convention.

Although centrally located in the group of countries that defined western musical tradition, Czech composers often felt like outsiders looking in. And yet, partly because of their outlier status, these musicians produced some of the most original, vital, and influential works of the first half of the 20th century. The program considers the circumstances of four composers who created their work at the margins of Middle-European musical tradition. The evening's program includes Vít?zslav Novák's atmospherically moody tone poem In the Tatras (1902); Bohuslav Martinu's Symphony No. 3 (1944), written during a retreat in Connecticut and dedicated to Serge Koussevitzky; Josef Suk's light-hearted, short work for Romantic orchestra, his Fantastické scherzo (1903); and Symphony No. 5 (1938-39) by Erwin Schulhoff, a Jewish communist in Nazi Germany who perished in a concentration camp.

Leon Botstein shares the stories behind the music in a lively 30-minute Conductor's Notes Q&A at 7 PM in Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage. Free for all ticket holders.

IF YOU GO:

Prague Central: Great 20th Century Czech Composers

Friday February 10, 2017 at 8 PM, Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage

Conductor's Notes Q&A at 7 PM

American Symphony Orchestra

Leon Botstein, conductor

Vít?zslav Novák: In the Tatras

Bohuslav Martinu: Symphony No. 3

Josef Suk: Fantastické scherzo

Erwin Schulhoff: Symphony No. 5

Subscriptions and Tickets: Tickets, priced at $29, $39, $54, are available at CarnegieHall.org, at the Carnegie box office, or by calling CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800. The Conductor's Notes Q&A at 7pm in Stern Auditorium is free with a concert ticket.

Now in its 55th season, the American Symphony Orchestra was founded in 1962 by Leopold Stokowski with a mission of making orchestral music accessible and affordable for everyone. Music Director Leon Botstein expanded that mission when he joined the ASO in 1992, creating thematic concerts that explore music from the perspective of the visual arts, literature, religion, and history, and reviving rarely-performed works audiences would otherwise seldom hear performed live.

The Orchestra has made several tours of Asia and Europe, and performed in countless benefits for organizations including the Jerusalem Foundation and PBS. Many of the world's most accomplished soloists have performed with the ASO, including Yo-Yo Ma, Peter Serkin, Deborah Voigt, and Sarah Chang. The Orchestra has released several recordings on the Telarc, New World, Bridge, Koch, and Vanguard labels, and numerous live performances are also available for digital download. In many cases, these are the only recordings of some of the rare works that have been rediscovered in ASO performances.

The ASO's recent online-only issue of Weber's Euryanthe, recorded at the 2014 Bard Music Festival, was reviewed by the Wall Street Journal as "Musically rich, lyrical and expansive."

Leon Botstein has been music director and principal conductor of the American SymphonyOrchestra since 1992. He is also music director of The Orchestra Now, an innovative training orchestra composed of top musicians from around the world. He is co-artistic director of Bard SummerScape and the Bard Music Festival, which take place at the Richard B. Fisher Center for the Performing Arts at Bard College, where he has been president since 1975. He is also conductor laureate of the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, where he served as music director from 2003-11. In 2018 he will assume artistic directorship at Grafenegg, Austria. Mr. Botstein also has an active career as a guest conductor with orchestras around the globe, and has made numerous recordings, as well as being a prolific author and music historian. He is the recipient of numerous honors for his contributions to the music industry.

For more information, visit americansymphony.org.