PH Concert Series: Ivan Ženatý & Martin Kasík

Programme Sergey Rachmaninoff: Sonata for Violin and Piano in G minor Op. 19 (arr. Jascha Heifetz, Ivan Ženatý) Bohuslav Martinů: Sonata for Violin and Piano in C major H 120

Violin virtuoso Ivan Ženatý and pianist Martin Kasík have been closely associated with the festival for decades, and this from the moment each of them in their own discipline took away the top prize in the Prague Spring International Music Competition. In 2025 they return to the Prague Spring to perform in a joint recital with the highly evocative Sonata in G minor by Sergey Rachmaninoff (1873–1943), its demanding piano part reflecting the mastery of its pianist creator, and the early Sonata in C major by Bohuslav Martinů (1890–1959), which blends the musical language of the 19th century Romantics with the nascent yet distinctive, fervent melodies that were to become so characteristic for Martinů.

Ivan Ženatý first started to make waves when, at the age of twenty, he reached the finals of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in Moscow. This was followed by his debut with the Czech Philharmonic under conductor Libor Pešek and a series of further engagements, among them, appearances with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Symphony. He has worked with artists Yo-Yo Ma, Yehudi Menuhin and Sir Neville Marriner, and he developed a particularly close musical partnership with Jiří Bělohlávek, with whom he performed on countless occasions and also made a critically acclaimed recording of Josef Bohuslav Foerster’s violin concertos. After Ženatý’s appearance in New York’s Carnegie Hall, Rorianne Schrade, writing for the New York Concert Review, was full of superlatives: “It was a dream!”. Ivan Ženatý plays on a rare instrument crafted by celebrated Cremonese violin maker Giuseppe Guarneri.

Likewise Martin Kasík can also boast a whole series of major global successes, in particular, his triumph at one of the largest and most challenging international events, the Young Concert Artists competition in New York, which opened the doors to some of the world’s most illustrious concert venues: Carnegie Hall in New York, Suntory Hall in Tokyo, Tonhalle Zürich and the Berliner Philharmonie. Conducted by the likes of Jakub Hrůša, Tomáš Netopil, Marin Alsop and Ingo Metzmacher, he has appeared with prominent orchestras such as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Tonhalle-Orchester Zurich and the Czech Philharmonic.