Advent Concert III • Fišer, Krestová, Petr

Czech Philharmonic concertmaster Jan Fišer already exhibited his obvious musical talent as a child, winning many competitions (Kocian Violin Competition, Concertino Praga, UNESCO Tribune of Young Musicians, Beethoven’s Hradec etc.). He comes from a musical family, quite literally a family of violinists—his father is one of the most respected violin teachers in this country, and his younger brother Jakub plays first violin in the Bennewitz Quartet. Jan Fišer took his first steps as a violinist under the guidance of Hana Metelková, and he later studied at the Prague Conservatoire under Jaroslav Foltýn. He went through the famed summer programme of the Meadowmount School of Music three times, where he also met his future teacher, the concertmaster of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra Andrés J. Cárdenes. It was in the studio of that important professor who continued the great Ysaÿe–Gingold–Cárdenes tradition of violin pedagogy that Fišer graduated from the Carnegie Mellon University School of Music in Pittsburgh in 2003.

Just when he was deciding whether to remain in the USA or to return to the Czech Republic, the Prague Philharmonia announced an audition for the position of concertmaster. Fišer won the job and stayed with the orchestra for a full sixteen years, until he left the first chair of the Prague Philharmonia for the same position with the Czech Philharmonic, where he remains to this day alongside Jan Mráček and Jiří Vodička. He has also appeared as a guest concertmaster with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, the Bamberg Symphony, and the Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern; he also collaborates with important Czech orchestras as a soloist (Prague Philharmonia, Janáček Philharmonic in Ostrava etc.). He has assumed the role of artistic director of the Czech Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra. 

Besides engaging in a wealth of orchestral and solo activities, he also devotes himself actively to playing chamber music. With pianist Ivo Kahánek and cellist Tomáš Jamník, he belongs to the Dvořák Trio, which has already enjoyed many successes at competitions (such as the Bohuslav Martinů Competition) and on concert stages both at home and abroad. Jan Fišer has appeared at festivals abroad and in famed concert halls worldwide not only as a soloist, but also as a chamber music player. For example, the Dvořák Trio has made guest appearances at the Dresden Music Festival and at renowned concert halls like the Berlin Philharmonie and Hamburg’s Elbephilharmonie.

Fišer’s French violin from the early 19th century is attributed to the violinmaker François-Louis Pique; the instrument has also been heard in recording studios: Jan Fišer records for television and radio, and he was one of the five laureates to take part in recording the CD “A Tribute to Jaroslav Kocian” for the 40th anniversary of the Kocian International Violin Competition. He is also following in his father’s footsteps as a pedagogue, serving as one of the mentors for the MenART scholarship academy, and he regularly teaches at music courses including the Ševčík Academy in Horažďovice and the Telč Music Academy.

Eva Krestová began her musical career as a violinist, studying first at the conservatoires in Brno and Prague, then graduating from the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague under the guidance of Jindřich Pazdera. Already as a student, she had a passion for playing chamber music, and she perfected her skills in that discipline under such members of renowned ensembles as Niklas Schmidt (Trio Fontenay), Jerry Horner (Fine Arts Quartet), and Ivan Klánský (Guarneri Trio Prague). She was known to us as a violinist first with the Puella Trio, which she later left to begin her career in the world-famous Pavel Haas Quartet. During four years of playing second violin in that quartet, she appeared in the world’s most famous concert halls (Carnegie Hall, Wigmore Hall, Herkulessaal), and she won a Gramophone Award.

However, it was necessary to move on, and another path appeared very quickly on the viola. “Back then, my husband [violinist Radim Kresta] was playing in a piano trio, and he came up with something of an idea. Once he brought a violin home from a luthier, and he said: ‘Come play in a piano quartet with us!’ … I tried playing the viola, first for a few minutes, then for an hour, and suddenly I found that I couldn’t stop”, says Eva Krestová. She was entirely intoxicated by the instrument that she says has “more breadth of soul” than the violin. At first she was making appearances at the same time as both a violinist and a violist, but now she seldom plays the violin. This was also aided by her professional engagements, first for two seasons with the Prague Philharmonia, then for a year at Prague’s National Theatre. From there, her path took her to the position of principal violist of the Czech Philharmonic, where she has been working since 2021.

The story of her discovery of the viola has also played an important part in the world of chamber music. The Josef Suk Piano Quartet was formed under the leadership of Radim Kresta, and the group has enjoyed many successes at international competitions, the most important being their victory at the ACM Premio Trio di Trieste in Italy. They have been performing with success for more than a decade at domestic and foreign festivals, and they were honoured with the 2013 Czech Chamber Music Society Award. 

Besides playing in orchestras and chamber music and raising a family (two children), Eva Krestová also makes occasional solo appearances. Her partners have been, for example, Virtuosi Italiani, the Prague Philharmonia, the Pilsen Philharmonic, and the Moravian Chamber Orchestra, of which she was the concertmaster for several years while studying at the conservatoire. Her playing in chamber ensembles has been captured on a number of recordings (Supraphon, Arco diva); she has also recorded for the BBC, the Japanese television network NHK, and Czech Television.

One of the finest Czech cellists, Václav Petr has served as concert master of the Czech Philharmonic cello section for over a decade. He has performed as a soloist since the age of 12. As a member of The Trio, he has also devoted to chamber music.  

Václav Petr learned the rudiments of viola playing at the Jan Neruda School in Prague from Mirko Škampa and subsequently continued to study the instrument at the Academy of Performing Arts in the class of Daniel Veis, graduating under the guidance of Michal Kaňka. He further honed his skills at the Universität der Künste in Berlin under the tutelage of Wolfgang Boettcher, and also at international masterclasses (in Kronberg, Hamburg, Vaduz, Bonn and Baden-Baden). He has garnered a number of accolades, initially as a child (Prague Junior Note, International Cello Competition in Liezen, Talents of Europe) and then in Europe’s most prestigious contests (semi-final at the Grand Prix Emanuel Feuermann, victory at the Prague Spring Competition).

At the age of 24, after winning the audition, he became one of the youngest concert masters in the Czech Philharmonic’s history. As a soloist, he has performed with the Czech Philharmonic, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava and the Philharmonie Baden-Baden.

Václav Petr has made a name for himself as a chamber player too. Between 2009 and 2020, he was a member of the Josef Suk Piano Quartet, with whom he received first prizes at the competitions in Val Tidone and Verona (Salieri-Zinetti), as well as at the highly prestigious Premio Trio di Trieste. In 2019, he, the violinist and concert master Jiří Vodička, and the pianist Martin Kasík formed the Czech Philharmonic Piano Trio, later renamed The Trio. During the Covid pandemic, they made a recording of Bohuslav Martinů’s Bergerettes (clad in period costumes), which would earn them victory at an international competition in Vienna.

In December 2023, Václav Petr and the young Czech pianist Marek Kozák gained acclaim at the Bohuslav Martinů Days: “The interpretation of all the compositions reveals the signature of seasoned chamber musicians. The audience savoured the duo’s splendid work with tempo, agogics, dynamics and colour,” wrote Jiří Bezděk for the OperaPlus server. And who knows? Perhaps – just as at the festival – the two musicians will delight us with a piano-four-hands encore.