When it comes to the famous historical music city in Europe, the first reaction of classical music lovers is undoubtedly Vienna, Austria. "City of Music" has a long-standing reputation and its position is unshakable. As for which other city is qualified to rank second, it is a matter of opinion. The answers may include-Salzburg belonging to Vienna; Leipzig, Dresden and Munich, Germany; Budapest, Hungary; Paris, France; St Petersburg in Russia and even many cities in Italy are the centers of European opera. In addition, there is another place that cannot be ignored-Prague, which is the author's personal choice.
Prague's reputation in music culture is closely related to the names of famous composers in Czech history, such as dvorak, Bedrich Smetana, Suk and Novak. Just like Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Brahms, Mahler and Strauss were in Vienna. Further tracing back to history, we will find that Prague once occupied a very important position in Mozart's music creation. The composer visited the city three times, and his symphony No.38 was dubbed "Prague". Even out of his love for the city and its citizens, he specially composed the opera Don Juan for her and put it in the Deere Theatre (now Prague National Theatre) for the first time. So there is such a comment: "Czech audience with high musical literacy, especially Prague audience, can appreciate Mozart's genius more than Viennese." In fact, the Czech Republic, which is adjacent to Austria on today's world map, has always been an important music town that all European composers yearn for and pay attention to. In addition to Mozart, Beethoven, Paganini, Chopin, Berlioz, Wagner and others have all left footprints here and displayed their talents. Prague was once called "Little Vienna", which is by no means a hollow name.
Bohemia, once the capital, is now the economic and political center of the Czech Republic and an irreplaceable cultural center. What is commendable is that no matter how the political situation has changed for hundreds of years, the old town of Prague, which has experienced many vicissitudes, has always maintained a simple and elegant temperament and exuded a strong cultural charm. In the field of architecture, because Czechs have a special attachment to the protection of cultural relics, Prague has become the first named object of the whole city in the world designated by UNESCO as a "world cultural heritage". In the field of art, 1946, the Prague Spring International Music Festival, which has a history of more than 60 years, has long been famous all over the world for its profound cultural heritage and strong artistic appeal. On weekdays, the daily music performances in Prague are equally colorful, and the threshold is also very low. Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which this paper focuses on, is the most important performing force in the annual Prague Spring, and it is also an art brand with the longest history and the most outstanding level among many art groups in Prague today.
From Prague National Theatre.
A city with a strong atmosphere of classical music often has one or even several excellent symphony orchestras. There are Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Vienna, and there are nearly ten professional orchestras represented by Berlin Philharmonic in Berlin. What about Prague? There are also Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, Prague City Symphony Orchestra and PKF. Among them, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is a first-class orchestra widely recognized and praised by professionals, and Czech Philharmonic Orchestra is the first, even worldwide. Being able to have such a reputation, on the one hand, is because it has the longest history among all surviving Czech orchestras; On the other hand, for more than 100 years, many excellent local or international conductors have played baseball for a long time or served as the music director and chief conductor of Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, training it into a super orchestra and maintaining a fine tradition.
Compared with other ethnic groups in Europe, Czechs are not short of musical talents and traditions. Under centuries-long Germanic cultural autocracy, despite suffering from slavery, some serfs who love music and show their talents in this field have the opportunity to be trained as professional musicians by the royal family or nobles for their enjoyment. Therefore, although the political status of the Czech nation has been suppressed by foreigners for a long time, it has not lagged behind the progress of Europe in the field of music and culture. Some outstanding serf musicians finally left their homeland and went to other parts of Europe to seek development, and grew into an important composing force in the18th century. For example, John Stamitz (17 17- 1757), the representative of Mannheim School and the founder of early symphony forms, is one of the most famous. According to some information, Stamitz is a German composer. In fact, he was born in Bohemia. However, the emergence of musical talents has not created an active performance market, and Prague's musical activities have been in a state of chaos in the initial stage, which is significantly different from other developed regions in Europe. Until the middle of19th century, with the establishment of Cecilia and Sophie, the music market in Prague has undergone a qualitative change. The earliest professional orchestras began to appear and gradually developed, and the unique performance style of Czechs was passed down from generation to generation.
Czech Philharmonic Orchestra originated from Prague's famous national theatre and is a symbol of Prague's artistic character. Looking back on Czech history, it is not difficult to find that this is a country that has been invaded and enslaved by foreigners for a long time. During the 300 consecutive years in the 17, 18 and 19 centuries, the Czech Republic has been in a tragic situation of losing its national independence and freedom-its national consciousness was suppressed and its national culture was imprisoned. With the long-term rule of German forces, Germanic culture gradually replaced Czech traditional culture and became the mainstream of Prague. Among the people, Czech patriots and people of insight have never stopped fighting against the invasion of foreign cultural forces and carrying forward national cultural traditions. To some extent, the Prague National Theatre, which was born after setbacks, is the most brilliant achievement in this long-term struggle. Under the political background of the ruling class, the earliest preparatory committee was set up from 1850 to 1852, and all parties raised funds to buy construction land in the city center until 188 1 was completed, which took the people of Prague a full 3 1 year. Embarrassed, however, a few days later, the new theater was destroyed by a sudden fire! The indomitable people of Prague quickly rallied after two years, and held a grand opening ceremony on1October 8. Prague people are very happy to finally have such an art hall that truly belongs to their own nation and can perform traditional classic dramas and operas. At the same time, this is also the most creative period of Czech national music school. Outstanding composers, represented by dvorak and Bedrich Smetana, have created many musical works with Czech national characteristics and spread them widely. The completion of the National Theatre and the prosperity of the National Music School have created a glorious history in Czech art history.