First impressions matter—and a major festival deserves a fitting grand opening. Dvořák’s Cello Concerto and Symphony No. 9, “From the New World” are among the most frequently performed orchestral works of all time. At the Dvořák Prague Festival, they return year after year—not only as audience favourites and reminders of the composer’s international fame but also as a showcase for top orchestras, conductors, and soloists. Nothing less would be a fitting way to begin.

This year, French conductor Alain Altinoglu, a regular guest at the Vienna State Opera, the Metropolitan Opera, and Belgium’s Royal Theatre La Monnaie, takes the stage in Prague. He leads the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, where he serves as chief conductor. Joining him is his fellow countryman, cellist Gautier Capuçon, returning to the festival as soloist. The legendary precision of a top German orchestra and the unmistakable charm of the French musical tradition will come together in the very first notes of this year’s festival.

Famed for its outstanding wind section, powerful strings and dynamic playing culture, the orchestra of the Hessischer Rundfunk (German Public Radio of Hesse), together with its music director Alain Altinoglu, is associated with musical excellence but also with an interesting and varied repertoire.

With innovative concert formats, internationally successful digital recordings and CD productions, as well as a constant presence in important music centres in Europe and Asia, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony underscores its prominent position within the European orchestral landscape and has an outstanding reputation worldwide.

Known for its groundbreaking world premiere recordings of the original versions of Bruckner's symphonies and the first complete digital recording of all of the Mahler symphonies, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony established a tradition in the interpretation of Romantic literature, which radiated from its long-standing music director and current honorary conductor Eliahu Inbal to his successors Dmitri Kitayenko and Hugh Wolff, and on to the era of today's conductor laureate Paavo Järvi and to Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the orchestra’s most recent music director, who led for seven years with great success.

From its very inception, the orchestra displayed a firm commitment to both traditional and contemporary music under its first music director Hans Rosbaud. Following the war and during reconstruction, the Frankfurt Radio Symphony grew with Kurt Schröder, Winfried Zillig and Otto Matzerath at the helm, finally achieving international standing between the 1960s and 1980s under Dean Dixon and Eliahu Inbal, with guest performances worldwide and the production of multi-award-winning records.

source: Künstleragentur Dr. Raab & Dr. Böhm

“With Alain Altinoglu, La Monnaie has found its Messiah.”

Le Figaro

Alain Altinoglu is music directeur Musical of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, chefdirigent of the hr- Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, and artistic director of Festival International de Colmar. Since 2015, he has earned widespread recognition for his extraordinary leadership, and inspiring, riveting, and transcendent opera performances in Brussels. His tenure with the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt commenced from the 2021/22 season, and his first edition in Colmar took place in July 2023.

Highlights of the 2024/25 season include continuing the acclaimed multi-season production of Wagner’s ‘Der Ring des Nibelungen’ at La Monnaie, directed by Pierre Audi. With the hr-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt, Altinoglu embarks on touring projects to Japan and Europe, including performances of Honegger’s ‘Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher’ in France, Germany, and Austria. In Paris, they appear at Notre Dame Cathedral premiering Thierry Escaich's ‘Te Deum’ in a special concert marking the reopening of the cathedral. In Europe, Altinoglu continues guesting relationships with Wiener Philharmoniker, Münchner Philharmoniker, and the Czech Philharmonic.

Alain Altinoglu regularly conducts such distinguished orchestras as the Berliner Philharmoniker, Wiener Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Symphony Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra, Philharmonia Orchestra London, Concertgebouworkest, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Münchner Philharmoniker, Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tonhalle- Orchester Zürich, as well as all the major Parisian orchestras.

A regular guest at the world’s leading opera houses, Altinoglu appears at the New York Metropolitan Opera House, Royal Opera House London Covent Garden, Teatro alla Scala, Wiener Staatsoper, Opernhaus Zürich, the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin, Bayerische Staatsoper München, and all three opera houses in Paris. He has also appeared at the festivals in Bayreuth, Salzburg, Orange, and Aix- en-Provence.

Alongside his conducting, Altinoglu maintains a strong affinity with the Lied repertoire and regularly performs with mezzo-soprano Nora Gubisch. Altinoglu has released audio recordings for Deutsche Grammophon, Naïve, Pentatone, and Cascavelle. DVD productions of Honegger’s ‘Jeanne d’Arc au bûcher’ (Accord), Wagner’s ‘Der fliegende Holländer’ (DG), ‘The Golden Cockerel’, ‘Iolanta’, ‘The Nutcracker’, and ‘Pelléas et Mélisande’ (BelAirClassiques) have also been released to critical acclaim.

Born in Paris, Alain Altinoglu studied at the Paris Conservatory National Supérieur de Musique de Paris where he now teaches the conducting class.

source: Künstleragentur Dr. Raab & Dr. Böhm

Gautier Capuçon is a true 21st-century ambassador for the cello. Performing internationally with many of the world’s foremost conductors and instrumentalists, he is also deeply committed to education and supporting young musicians from all backgrounds. In the summer of 2020, Capuçon brought music directly into the lives of families across France during his musical odyssey Un été en France. The fifth edition of the project, featuring young musicians and dancers, takes place in July 2024. In January 2022, Capuçon launched his own foundation, Fondation Gautier Capuçon, to support talented young musicians at the beginning of their careers. He is also a passionate ambassador for the Orchestre à l'École Association, which brings classical music to more than 42,000 schoolchildren across France.

A multiple award winner, Capuçon is acclaimed for his expressive musicianship, exuberant virtuosity, and the deep sonority of his 1701 Matteo Goffriller cello, L’Ambassadeur. He performs each season with the world’s leading orchestras, working with conductors such as Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Pablo Heras-Casado, Paavo Järvi, Klaus Mäkelä, Andris Nelsons, and Christian Thielemann. His collaborations with contemporary composers include Lera Auerbach, Karol Beffa, Esteban Benzecry, Nicola Campogrande, Qigang Chen, Guillaume Connesson, Bryce Dessner, Richard Dubugnon, Henri Dutilleux, Danny Elfman, Thierry Escaich, Philippe Manoury, Bruno Mantovani, Krzysztof Penderecki, Wolfgang Rihm, and Jörg Widmann.

Highlights of the 2024/25 season include return appearances as a soloist with DSO Berlin/Ticciati, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig/Nelsons, HR-Sinfonieorchester Frankfurt/Altinoglu, Oslo Philharmonic/Mäkelä, Orchestre de Paris/Popelka, the Philadelphia Orchestra/Deneve, and the Wiener Philharmoniker/Thielemann, among others. He will tour as a soloist throughout Europe with the Orchestra della Scala/Chailly and will perform chamber music concerts celebrating Shostakovich’s 50th anniversary in 2025 with Evgeny Kissin, Gidon Kremer, and Maxim Rysanov. In October 2024, he joins Jean-Yves Thibaudet for a duo recital tour in Asia, with performances in Seoul and Hong Kong, followed by concerts at the Guangzhou and Beijing Music Festivals featuring Richard Dubugnon’s double concerto Eros Athanatos.

Other regular chamber music partners include Frank Braley, Jérôme Ducros, Nikolai Lugansky, Gabriela Montero, as well as Martha Argerich, Daniel Barenboim, Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Andreas Ottensamer, Yuja Wang, the Labèque sisters, and the Ébène, Hagen, and Modigliani quartets. Capuçon regularly performs at festivals worldwide, including Edinburgh, Salzburg, Grafenegg, and Verbier. The 2022/23 season saw the debut tour of Capucelli, a cello ensemble he created with his former students, performing in prestigious venues across Europe, including Paris, Vienna, and Geneva.

Recording exclusively for Erato (Warner Classics), Capuçon has won multiple awards and has an extensive discography featuring major concerto and chamber music repertoire. His album Destination Paris, released in November 2023, celebrates French music from the classical repertoire to film scores. His 2020 Warner Classics album Emotions—featuring music by composers such as Debussy, Schubert, and Elgar—achieved gold status in France. Further albums exploring short, popular pieces from various genres, including Sensations (released in autumn 2022), have generated tens of millions of streams. Highlights of his back catalogue include the complete Beethoven Sonatas with Frank Braley, an album of Schumann works recorded live with Martha Argerich, Renaud Capuçon, and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Bernard Haitink, Chopin and Franck Sonatas with Yuja Wang, and a solo album featuring works by Bach, Dutilleux, and Kodály to mark his 40th birthday.

Capuçon has also been featured on DVD in live performances with the Wiener Philharmoniker/Andris Nelsons (Saint-Saëns’ Cello Concerto No.1), Berliner Philharmoniker/Gustavo Dudamel (Haydn’s Cello Concerto No.1), and with Lisa Batiashvili, the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, and Christian Thielemann (Brahms’ Concerto for Violin and Cello).

Born in Chambéry, Capuçon began playing the cello at the age of five. He studied at the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris with Philippe Muller and Annie Cochet-Zakine and later with Heinrich Schiff in Vienna. Now a household name in his native France, Capuçon frequently appears on screen and online in shows such as Prodiges, Now Hear This, Symphony Pour La Vie, and The Artist Academy, and he is a guest presenter on Radio Classique in the show Les Carnets de Gautier.

source: Künstleragentur Dr. Raab & Dr. Böhm

The Rudolfinum is one of the most important Neo-Renaissance edifices in the Czech Republic. In its conception as a multi-purpose cultural centre it was quite unique in Europe at the time of its construction. Based on a joint design by two outstanding Czech architects, Josef Zítek and Josef Schultz, a magnificent building was erected serving for concerts, as a gallery, and as a museum. The grand opening on 7 February 1885 was attended by Crown Prince Rudolph of Austria, in whose honour the structure was named. In 1896 the very first concert of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra took place in the Rudolfinum's main concert hall, under the baton of the composer Antonín Dvořák whose name was later bestowed on the hall.