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Jakub Hrůša’s Josef Suk Project Continues

Feb. 26, 2026

From February 4-6, Jakub Hrůša presented a program with the Czech Philharmonic in the Rudolfinum in Prague that is particularly close to his heart. Alongside works by Benjamin Britten and Bryce Dessner, four orchestral works by the great Czech late Romanticist Josef Suk were performed, a composer described by Hrůša as, “one of the most natural talents in the history of music”.

The Czech Philharmonic, who have elected Hrůša as their music director from 2028, are gradually recording Suk’s complete orchestral works under Hrůša’s baton. Most recemtly, this includes the symphonic poem Praga op. 26 (1904) and his op. 35 – a triptych which combines three different pieces composed in reaction to contemporary political events and which are usually performed separately: Meditation (1914), The Legend of Dead Victors (Legenda o mrtvých vítězích) and the march Towards a New Life (V nový život) (both 1919–1920). Bärenreiter has produced new musical material for Legend of Dead Victors.

Premiered in 1924, The Legend of Dead Victors was commissioned by the Ministry for National Defence in honor of the Czechoslovak legionnaires who fell in the years 1919–20 during the enthusiastic construction of the newly-founded republic. The Legend does not disguise its political purpose and its somewhat pompous, formal dimension. At the same time it is a rare fruit of Suk’s orchestral mastery during his late period, and can be used dramaturgically “simply as music”. 

Josef Suk
The Legend of Dead Victors (Legenda o mrtvých vítězích)
Funeral Piece for large Orchestra op. 35b
3(pic).2.eh.2.bcl.2.cbn-6.3.3.1-timp-3perc-hp-str
2-3tpt offstage
8'

Publisher: Bärenreiter Praha, performance material on hire

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