Rafael Kubelík: “Even living elsewhere, I always felt like I belonged to this country”

To open, we listened to an extract from Slavic Dances by Antonín Dvořák, performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under the direction of Rafael Kubelík, born in 1914 in central Bohemia, into the family of the famous violinist Jan Kubelík. After studying violin, piano and conducting at the Prague Conservatory, at the age of just 28 he became principal conductor of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. It was 1942 and four years later Rafael Kubelík initiated the Prague Spring music festival.

However, after the communists came to power in 1948, the musician decided to leave Czechoslovakia and went into exile in the United States. In 1950, he took charge of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, then returned to Europe and, in 1955, became musical director of the Royal Opera Covent Garden.

In 1961, Rafael Kubelík signed the most significant contract of his career as conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, which he would conduct until 1980. Rafael Kubelík died in Switzerland on 11 August 1996 at the age of 82. But before that, in 1990, after the fall of the Iron Curtain, he returned to the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, which appointed him honorary conductor. Together, they went on a major tour of Japan the following year.

Under the direction of Rafael Kubelík, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra notably played the cycle of symphonic poems My Homeland by Bedřich Smetana during the opening of the Prague Spring on May 12, 1990. This concert, given in the presence of the new president Václav Havel and his wife Olga, just as acclaimed by the public as the musicians, made history. We let you enjoy the poems Šárka and By the Bohemian Meadows and Woods from the My Homeland cycle, performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Rafael Kubelík.