Podcasts

WOS Radio: Edward Seckerson Talks to Jakub Hrusa

In 2010 Jakub Hrusa became the second youngest conductor ever to be afforded the honour of opening the Prague Spring Festival. Vaclav Neumann pipped him at the post by only two months. Smetana’s great nationalistic set of tone poems collectively known as Ma Vlast always enjoys pride of place on that occasion and Hrusa had strong ideas about he might refresh a piece that is now so sacred to and so loved by the Czech nation. Czech Airlines even land their planes to the strains of the big tune in Vltava.

In this exclusive audio podcast Hrusa talks to Edward Seckerson about both the piece and his fresh approach to it. He waxes lyrical, too, about Dvorak and how the 8th Symphony, his favourite, has become something of a calling card for him. He brings it to the Philharmonia Orchestra in London’s Royal Festival Hall on 24 March 2011.

Jakub is now also Music Director of Glyndebourne On Tour and in the 2011 season he will also conduct Britten’s The Turn of the Screw in the main festival. The spooky resemblance of the Glyndebourne estate in Sussex to the opera’s Bly estate in Essex is not lost on him.

Edward Seckerson first encountered Hrusa galvanising the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Carl Orff’s Carmina Burana at London’s Barbican Hall and in this lively exchange they also talk about how his future repertoire is shaping up and how he might be curious and/or tempted to explore English music, not least Elgar…

To listen to the full recording of the Q&A, click the ‘play’ button below; or to subscribe and download from iTunes, click here.