In Search of Hope

Czech horn player, conductor, and educator Radek Baborák is widely regarded as one of the finest masters of his instrument today. Born in Pardubice in 1976, he was still a teenager when he began sweeping top prizes at major international competitions, including Geneva, Markneukirchen, the ARD Competition in Munich, and the UNESCO Grand Prix.

Baborák’s orchestral career is among the most distinguished in classical music. At just eighteen, he became principal horn of the Czech Philharmonic, later holding the same position with the Munich Philharmonic and the Bamberg Symphony. From 2002 to 2011, he served as principal horn of the Berliner Philharmoniker, one of the world’s most prestigious orchestras. Today, he maintains a vibrant career as a soloist, chamber musician, and conductor. Tonight, he opens the program with Reinhold Glière’s Horn Concerto in B-flat major, Op. 91 – one of the 20th century’s defining works for the instrument. Completed in 1951, the Kyiv-born composer’s concerto remains steadfastly true to the Romantic ideal of beautiful lyricism and rich orchestral color, showcasing the horn in all its expressive range: its singing tone, noble character, and virtuosic brilliance.

The second half of the concert turns toward quiet reflection. Sooner or later, we all face questions that defy easy answers. Why do certain things happen to us? How do we come to terms with what we cannot change? Where do we find strength in moments of doubt?

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky wrestled with these very questions while composing his Fifth Symphony. In the spring of 1888, as he began sketching the piece, he jotted down a few brief notes that remain the key to understanding the work today: ‘complete resignation before fate – or, what is the same thing, before the inscrutable predestination of Providence,’ alongside words like ‘doubt,’ ‘complaints,’ ‘reproaches,’ and the searching question, ‘shall I throw myself into the arms of faith?’

These few scribbles in the margins of a notebook unlock an intensely personal dimension to the music. Tchaikovsky captured experiences universal to us all: the search for meaning, the longing for inner peace, the ebb and flow of hope and despair. More than a century after its premiere, the Fifth Symphony stands as one of the most moving works in the orchestral repertoire – a deeply human exploration of fate, faith, and resilience that resonates just as powerfully today.