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Marek Kozák, Piano

VenueRudolfinum
CalendarFri 06 Nov 2026
Synopsis/Details

A dance soirée with one of today’s most compelling Czech pianists

Marek Kozák, recipient of the prestigious Jiří Bělohlávek Prize for young Czech artists under the age of thirty in 2025, is renowned for his unfailing technique, rich palette of tone colours and deeply felt musicality. “He embodies precision, sincerity and a sensitive approach to interpretation,” wrote the music portal Operaplus.cz. He first attracted wider attention through successes in a number of international competitions. In 2015 he reached the semi-finals of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He is also a laureate of the Prague Spring International Music Competition, the Bach Competition in Leipzig and the Concours Géza Anda in Zurich. He has performed with Czech and European orchestras including the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Highlights of his current season include a return to the Tonhalle Zurich, an appearance at the Czech Philharmonic’s Open-Air concert with the French conductor Alain Altinoglu, and a recital with the soprano Simona Šaturová as part of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra season.

At the Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival, he will present a programme of music from three centuries inspired by dance. He will begin by recalling his success at the Bach Competition in Leipzig with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita in B-flat major, a suite of Baroque dances including the allemande, sarabande, minuet and gigue. This will be followed by a selection from Smetana’s Czech Dances. The second half of the evening will belong to the waltz. Maurice Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales – inspired without doubt by the waltzes of Franz Schubert – combine a typically French elegance with melancholy and a touch of irony. One of Schubert’s waltzes will also be heard in a transcription by Franz Liszt, who included it among other dances in his cycle Soirées de Vienne. The recital will conclude with Liszt’s virtuoso Mephisto Waltz No. 1, in which Marek Kozák will display the full brilliance of his artistry. “The personality of Franz Liszt has fascinated me since my student years, and his Mephisto Waltz was for a long time one of my unfulfilled dreams,” the pianist confides. “Charming Bach, Smetana inspired by folk music, the soaring and poetic Ravel, the salon elegance of Schubert and the diabolical virtuosity of Liszt. Their dances tell stories – each different, each with its own inner world. I very much look forward to telling you all of them from the piano on the first Friday of November at the Rudolfinum,” the artist adds.

Cast

Marek Kozák – piano

 

Program

Johann Sebastian Bach: Partita No. 1 in B flat major BWV 825

Bedřich Smetana: Czech Dances (excerpts)

Maurice Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentales

Franz Liszt: Soirées de Vienne, Valse-Caprice No. 6 After Franz Schubert S 427

Franz Liszt: Mephisto Waltz No. 1 S 514

Venue
Rudolfinum

The Rudolfinum, one of the most noteworthy buildings in Prague, was built between 1876 and 1884 according to the designs of architects Josef Zítek and Josef Schulze. Originally intended as a multipurpose cultural building in Prague, the Rudolfinum was inagurated on February 7, 1885. It carried out its mission until 1919, when it was converted to the House of Commons of the Czechoslovak Republic. Concert activity was restored to the Rudolfinum during the German occupation, but full rehabilitation, particularly of the gallery, did not take place until 1992. After a general reconstruction by architect Karel Prager in 1992, the Rudolfinum became the home of the Czech Philharmonic and the Rudolfinum Gallery.

 

Dvorana – Ceremony Hall

The central space in the gallery portion of the Rudolfinum was designed by Josef Zítek and Josef Schulz as an entrance hall to the art gallery. After 1918, however, this space was converted into a parliamentary cafeteria, and after World War II it served as a gymnasium for the Prague Conservatory. At the end of the 1980s, Ceremony Hall was threatened with reconstruction – but plans to tear down the main staircase to make room for another concert hall did not go through, and the hall retained its original appearance. Of particular interest in Ceremony Hall are 25 empty spaces on its walls, which were originally intended to be filled in with frescos. The majority of the eminent Czech painters, however, boycotted the 1891 fresco competition in protest over the large number of German artists involved in the construction of the Rudolfinum.

 

Dvořák Hall

The Czech Philharmonic took the stage in this world-famous concert hall in 1896, performing for its first-ever concert under the baton of Antonín Dvořák himself. The hall remained a space for concerts and performances until 1918, at which time it became a boardroom for the new parliament of the Czechoslovak Republic. The stage and the organ loft became a tribunal (garnished with a statue of President T.G. Masaryk), from which parliamentary leaders presided over proceedings. The hall's original character (and purpose) was restored
in 1940–1942 according to a project conceived by Antonín Engel and Bohumír Kozák, and it has remained in this form through to the present. In accordance with Josef Zítek and Josef Schulz's original proposal, the central visual element in the hall is an organ, which was made in Frankfurt, Germany. During the hall's stint as a parliamentary meeting place, the organ was housed in Brno. When it returned to the Rudolfinum in 1940, its register was extended. Dvořák Hall's final update took place in 1992 when the entire Rudolfinum building underwent reconstruction.

 

When travelling by public transport, get off at the Staroměstská metro station (Line A), tram stop (trams nos. 17, 18 and 53) or bus stop (no. 207).
Parking is available at the underground parking facility on Jan Palach Square. The facility is not part of the Rudolfinum premises.

Accomodation

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