Ivo Kahánek

What does Vltava sound like in arrangement for four hands? And what about the overture to The Bartered Bride when it’s played on two pianos by four pianists using eight hands? You’ll find out at the festival concert marking the 200th anniversary of Bedřich Smetana’s birth, to which leading Czech pianist Ivo Kahánek invited three of his best pupils: Anna Gaálová and Pavol Praženica, prize-winners at the Smetana International Piano Competition in Pilsen, and Matouš Zukal, 2nd prize-winner of the Prague Spring International Music Competition; together they will perform stunning arrangements of Smetana’s famous orchestral works. In the first half of the evening Ivo Kahánek will perform the dramatic sketch Macbeth and the Witches, inspired by William Shakespeare’s drama, and the poetic and virtuosic cycle Dreams.