I am very fortunate to be able to conduct in Slovakia and I am thankful that the Slovaks are so understanding of my limitations in regard to their language. To Czechs, Slovak may be very easy to understand, but although I understand Czech, Slovak is still often a very foreign language for me. So it is always a relief when the Slovaks seem to not mind that I am speaking Czech to them.
I had previously only conducted once in Bratislava with the
Slovak Philharmonic and once before in Zilina with the
Slovak Sinfonietta. Now in May of 2011, I was invited for a return engagemnet in Zilina, and we took the orchestra to Austria where I conducted once more for the
Haydn Gesellschaft of Hainburg. Our concert in Zilina featured young soloists: soprano
Zlata Krautová in
Mozart's concert aria
Bella mia fiamma, and Barbora Gálová in Mozart's Flute Concerto in D-major. More photos are available
here.
The concert began with the sparkling overture to
Il signor Bruschino by
Rossini and later featured rich romantic colors in
Wagner's Siegfried Idyll. The four principal string players of the Slovak Sinfonietta were also featured prominently in the virtuosic
Introduction and Allegro for String Orchestra by
Edward Elgar.
Our concert was repeated in Hainburg, but this time with violin soloist
Tomas Vinklat who has been a member of the Vienna Philharmonic for 13 years and performs on a rare 1723 Gofriller violin. He performed the
Haydn Violin Concerto in G-major as well as the
Rachmaninoff Vocalise in the premier of my own arrangement for violin solo and string orchestra.
It was a wonderful honor to accompany a member of the Vienna Philharmonic and to perform Haydn's music in a city where he lived!