Vítězslava Kaprálová
Suita rustica, Op. 19
Rachmaninov
Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30
Janáček
Sinfonietta, Op. 60
Lukáš Vondráček (piano)
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Jakub Hrůša
Reviewed by: David Gutman
Reviewed: 1 September, 2026
Venue: Royal Albert Hall, London
As Bamberg Symphony Orchestra chief, Antonio Pappano’s successor at Covent Garden, and music director designate of the Czech Philharmonic, Jakub Hrůša cannot have much time for guest conducting these days. It was therefore a pleasure to welcome him back to the Proms. A determined advocate of Czech repertoire, Hrůša offered a programme including only one rarity on this occasion, and even this had been heard in London as recently as last February, courtesy of Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic.
History loves the romanticized trope of the tortured young artist, and the notion that all the best 20th-century women composers died young is largely coloured by the early demise of Lili Boulanger. Boulanger’s music can suggest a monumental figure in the making. For all the enthusiasm expressed in the BBC’s programme booklet and doubtless on air, the jury is still out when it comes to Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915‑40). A Martinů student (and more), her music is slighter if comparably reluctant to settle. To my ears, the Rustic Suite seemed to dissipate its energy and colour, shifting from moment to moment, its recollections of Petrushka and older models jostling for idiomatic dominance with more obviously folkish elements. Janáček in ‘military’ mode loomed largest of all, a reminder of Kaprálová’s own Military Sinfonietta which the conductor brought to the Proms in the company of the Czech Philharmonic in 2024. Here it provided a foretaste of the masterpiece to come after the interval. Hrůša was no more convincing than Gardner in the Suite’s central movement where what sounded like English pastoral contemplation framed a Smetana-like dance episode. The audience applauded this, presumably because they thought the piece had ended.
Rachmaninov’s most extended concerto can prove a long haul. Czech pianist Lukáš Vondráček did not make it any shorter but sought to compel attention with an original and volatile take on the piece. Many passages were comprehensively rethought and revoiced, exhibiting an extended dynamic range from the tender and barely audible to the powerfully raw. It was the novel speed changes that unsettled so that, for this listener at least, the music rarely added up to more than the sum of its parts. The choice of the long cadenza in the first movement (eschewed by Martha Argerich et al) was indicative of a certain ambition but I’m not sure what was gained by so micromanaging the argument that, like Kaprálová’s, it failed to ‘build’. It was left to the BBC Symphony Orchestra to make sense of the ride. Vondráček’s technical finesse was again on display in his encore item: ‘Hulán’ or ‘The Lancer’, one of Smetana’s Czech Dances. Nothing inelegant there or in questionable taste – in so far as the uninitiated could tell.
Janáček’s Sinfonietta is one of a small handful of works well suited to the resonant space of the Royal Albert Hall, its panoply of extra brass instruments easily accommodated. On this occasion the single row of additional performers was ranged directly behind the orchestra albeit oddly bunched on the left-hand side. Performances, whether big and bland or positively frisky, have a tendency to sound deracinated. Hrůša attempted to avoid this, cultivating a relatively uncultivated sort of gleam from the brass with warm, cushioned string sonority and perkier woodwinds. The BBC Symphony Orchestra, on sterling form throughout, gave the final moments the right aura of an ecstatic homecoming. Where the Rachmaninov often felt slow, this was undeniably swift and taut, abrupt in a good way. Some Rach 3 aficionados did not stay for it. Their loss.