Václav Neumann

Václav Neumann (September 29, 1920 – September 2, 1995) was a Czech conductor, violinist and viola player.

Neumann was born in Prague, where he studied at the Prague Conservatory with Josef Micka (violin), and Pavel Dědeček and Metod Doležil (conducting). He co-founded the Smetana Quartet, playing 1st violin and then viola, before conducting in Karlovy Vary and Brno. In 1956, he began to conduct at the Komische Oper in Berlin, leaving in 1964 to become conductor of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. He stayed there until 1968, when he became principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, a post he held until 1990.

Neumann taught conducting at the Prague Academy for Music, where his students included Oliver von Dohnányi and Vítězslav Podrazil.

Neumann was particularly noted as a champion of Czech music, and made the first studio recording of Leoš Janáček's opera The Excursions of Mr. Brouček in 1962.

Neumann can be seen conducting the Czech Philharmonic in a recording of the Dvořák Cello Concerto with Julian Lloyd Webber. This is featured in the 1988 film Dvorak - In Love? by director Tony Palmer.

Czech Philharmonic

The Česká filharmonie (Czech Philharmonic) is an internationally renowned Czech symphony orchestra based in Prague. The orchestra's principal concert venue is the Rudolfinum.

History

The name "Czech Philharmonic Orchestra" appeared for the first time in 1894, as the title of the orchestra of the Prague National Theatre. It played its first concert under its current name on January 4, 1896 when Antonín Dvořák conducted his own compositions, but it did not become fully independent from the opera until 1901. The first representative concert took place on October 15, 1901 conducted by Ludvík Čelanský, the first artistic director of the orchestra. In 1908, Gustav Mahler led the orchestra in the world premiere of his Symphony No. 7. The orchestra first became internationally known during the principal conductorship of Václav Talich, who held the post from 1919 to 1931, and again from 1933 to 1941. In 1941, Talich and the orchestra made a controversial journey to Germany, where they performed Bedřich Smetana's My Country in a concert enforced by the German offices.

Orchestra

An orchestra (/ˈɔːrkᵻstrə/ or US /ˈɔːrˌkɛstrə/; Italian: [orˈkɛstra]) is a large instrumental ensemble used in classical music that contains sections of string (violin, viola, cello and double bass), brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. Other instruments such as the piano and celesta may sometimes be grouped into a fifth section such as a keyboard section or may stand alone, as may the concert harp and, for 20th and 21st century compositions, electric and electronic instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ὀρχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus. The orchestra grew by accretion throughout the 18th and 19th centuries, but changed very little in composition during the course of the 20th century.

Neumann

Neumann (German for "new man", and one of the 20 most common German surnames) may refer to:

A–G

Václav

Václav (Czech pronunciation: [ˈvaːtslaf]) is a Czech male first name of Slavic origin, sometimes translated into English as Wenceslaus or Wenceslas . These forms are derived from the old Slavic/Czech form of this name: Vencslav.

People