West Bohemian Symphony Orchestra

In beautiful Marienbad in the very heart of Europe resides the oldest symphony orchestra in the Czech lands, the West-Bohemian Symphony Orchestra. Its history is connected with the opening of the local spa, with 1821 being the year that a permanent ensemble was founded. Through its history, the orchestra saw not only many different conductors and musicians but many changes as well. The most significant recent change was in the year 2001, when the orchetra´s legal form became an "o.p.s.", a charitable organization that was founded by the city of Marienbad. The year-round operations of the orchestra include a 3-cycle subscription season, cooperation with musical schools from Prague, Weimar, Zurich and Nurnberg while the summer features the orchestra in its traditional role as a Promenade orchestra.

The WBSO also travels outside of its city´s boundaries to neighbouring communities in the Karlsbad region and to Germany as well. An important part of its activities are programs for young listeners, in the form of family concerts and school concerts. A regular part of the WBSO´s schedule is the featuring of Czech and international soloists of high quality and a 50 year cooperation with the Chopin Festival at the event´s opening and closing concerts.

Chief Conductor

In the year 2011, Martin Peschík assumed the position of Chief Conductor and remains in this role until present day.

Contact:

Západočeský symfonický orchestr Mariánské Lázně

Hlavní 47 (dům Chopin)
353 01 Mariánské Lázně
tel.: +420 354 622 141
e-mail: zso@zso.cz

More information: www.zso.cz

History and presence of the oldest symphony orchestra in Bohemia

Activities

Symphonic Concerts

Symphonic music has been performed by the symphonies of Mariánské Lázně since the first half of the 19^th century. The repertoire of the current 56-member orchestra ranges from Baroque to contemporary music. The core of the concert repertoire consists of classicist and romantic works. Many leading Czech and international artists and music university students collaborate with ZSO as soloists. A talented generation of young musicians also has the opportunity to perform. The orchestra is occasionally guest-conducted by renowned conductors.

Opera Concerts

ZSO regularly plays not only symphonic music, but also operas, such as scenic version of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio and The Magic Flute, Dvořák's Rusalka, and concert version of Bizet's Carmen. ZSO also performs cross-sections and thematic cross-sections of selected operas and organizes authors' evenings (Puccini, Verdi etc.). ZSO invites Czech opera's top artists and young vocal talents to give guest performances.

Operetta Concerts

Operetta melodies enjoy great popularity with the spa audience. As well as the opera concerts, the operetta performances are represented by thematic and authors' evenings and the Czech operetta stars are invited to collaborate with the orchestra. ZSO remains faithful to J. Offenbach, F. Lehár, E. Kálmán and a famous visitor of Mariánské Lázně - J. Strauss jr.

Popular and Promenade Concerts

Popular melodies inherently belong to the spa atmosphere. Light muse has been guiding the orchestra of Mariánské Lázně since its founding. The popular melodies performed by ZSO can be heard on the colonnades in the summer and on regular evening concerts throughout the year. Promenade concerts take place from May to the first half of September, and are played during the afternoon drinking cure between 4 and 5 p.m, from 3 up to 5 times a week. Within the performance of the 36-member ensemble, the audience will listen to a prelude, a great waltz, a quodlibet or a suite, a march, and several smaller pieces. ZSO has 20 regular programs in the main repertoire, but flexibly creates others as needed. The popular evening concerts include well-known orchestral works usually grouped into thematic or authors' blocks.

International Conductor Courses

In the 1990s, the orchestra began to co-organize international conductor courses. Today, ZSO collaborates with several reputable music universities (Musikhochschule für Musik Weimar, Hochschule für Musik Zürich, Hochschule für Nürnberg, AMU Praha) and is active in establishing new partnerships. Young conductors are regularly coming to Mariánské Lázně from all over the world in order to gain valuable practice and experience. The orchestra is ordinarily at their disposal for a week. The participants, conducted by experienced pedagogues, study particular compositions and perform them at public evening concert.

Concerts for Children and Youth

Apart from the above-mentioned symphonic, opera, operetta, popular and promenade concerts, ZSO also organizes concerts for children and youth. In continuance with the curriculums of elementary and high schools, the orchestra prepares programs helping young students to familiarize themselves with musical instruments, musical forms, music luminaries as well as particular style periods and genres. They also learn how to behave at cultural events. The children get used to listening to the music and to distinguish the means of musical expression, they listen to sound samples accompanied by spoken word and actively complete the program. The best students of the art school ZUŠ F. Chopina Mariánské Lázně perform as concert soloists.

Concert Places

Casino Cultural House

In the summer 1900, the building of the new representative Spa House, also known as "Cursaal" (today dubbed Casino Cultural House) was finished. Architect Schaffer situated it near the New Baths' building. For the new Spa House, he utilized the space that remained after the former house, which had been standing almost at the same place since 1858. The magnificent interior of the Cursaal house serves for various purposes, such as chamber and symphonic concerts. In the middle of June 1900, the great concert hall was festively opened. The orchestra of Mariánské Lázně gave the very first concert probably on 15^th of June 1900. The great hall, thanks to its luxurious atmosphere and incredible acoustics, has been used for representative concerts and CD recording continuing through today.

Hall capacity: 400 – 440 people
Ticket prices: 270 – 360 CZK

Town Theatre

In the autumn 1865, the foundations of a stone theatre were laid. Friedrich Zikler designed this Greek style building. The project was very complicated since the theatre was situated on a place where a brook had formed a small pond, which had supposedly been used to take horses into water. When digging the foundations, it was necessary to go 8 fathoms under water in order to ensure the building would stand on a solid ground. The war year of 1866 stopped all building operations. The building process was then restarted in the following year, when Carl Moser was appointed as the theatre's director. The performance of Offenbach's operetta "The Beautiful Helen" inaugurated the theatre in August 1868. During the 20^th century, the theatre building went through several reconstructions and reparations. In the concert season 1999-2000, the theatre became the base of the orchestra. The theatre building has been used for regular rehearsals and performances of the orchestra, especially in winter, until today.

Hall capacity: 354 seats.
Ticket prices: 135 – 360 CZK

Music directors