English Present day of the North Czech Philharmonic 1989-2018 One of them was Damián Rovner, representing the Argentinian agency Arte Producciones Buenos Aires, and the other two were women belonging to the organizing team of the first CorpArtes concert venue in Chile. Although the welcome was relatively informal, it was warm and showed that the whole tour would take place in a pleasant atmosphere. After a two-day intercontinental journey, the Orchestra and solo pianist Martin Kasík were all accommodated at the Grand Hyatt Hotel, where they met with Uruguayan conductor Roberto Montenegro for the first time in South America. At the first concert venue in Santiago de Chile, was the morning rehearsal opened to the public, which attracted a large group of listeners and university students from the city. The Evening Concert on April 17, was part of the prestigious subscription concerts of the CorpArtes Foundation concert season at the CA660 Itaú CorpBanca Cultural Center. It was the opening concert of the entire season, during which world name artists such as Trevor Pinnock, Pinchas Zukerman, John Malkovich, Orquesta Sinfonica Nacional de Chile, Amsterdam Sinfonietta or the exhibiton Yoko Ono under the name Dream Come True. The great attandance of audience was the result of magnificent promotion of our concert in the form of large posters and billboards all over the capital of Chile and in the local media. The program contained Variations to the Haydn theme by Johannes Brahms, the Brahms Concerto for Piano No. 1, his Symphony No. 4, as well as the Prelude and the Furiant from the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák. The reactions of Chilean people were very interesting as they often wondered where the orchestra was from. Santiago de Chile turned out to be a pleasant modern city, but its character was typical of Chile, not Argentina where all the remaining concerts were held. The second concert was planned in San Juan, Argentina, 550 kilometers away. The journey from Chile to Argentinian San Juan was fascinating and took the orchestra over the majestic Andes Mountains. They had already seen it from the airplane, but this time the orchestra had the pleasure of traversing them by bus. The journey started from Santiago de Chile, went through the city of Los Andes and then the well known serpentines on the Camino Internacional and Mendoza roads. The border with Argentina was crossed in the Tunnel del Cristo Redentor followed by a border crossing point at an altitude of 3,200 meters. Just under 20 kilometers away was the highest mountain of America, Aconcagua, with an altitude of 6,959 meters. The orchestra then continued on a more than 300 kilometers route named after General Joseph de San Martín, one of the most important Latin American leaders in the struggle for independence of the continent in Spain in the first half of the 19th century. In Argentina he is considered a national hero. The Argentinean town of San Juan was one of the smallest places that the orchestra visited during their tour of South America. On April 20, a scheduled excerpt and evening concert was held at the Teatro del Bicentenario San Juan, a newly built cultural center. Various performances had been held there in the past, however this was the first time it had hosted a concert performance of a Symphony Orchestra. It was associated with the premiere of the newly-acquired Steinway piano and the pianist Martin Kasík was the first artist to play in this Argentinean city. The following day, the orchestra set off on another journey, this time nearly 600 kilometers to another concert venue in arguably the most important city of Argentina Córdoba in the 16th century. The Teatro General Libertador San Martín is significant, as it is the largest theater in the city with a capacity of 1,000 seats and is also known as the best acoustic venue in Argentina. Before the concerts went some people from the audience to the backstage and asked the musicians for their signatures. On Saturday April 22, the North Czech Philharmonic Orchestra Teplice performed in a fully-fledged theater hall with Johannes Brahms‘s piano concert performed by Martin Kasík as well as Brahms Symphony No. 4. The concert was very successful and followed by a huge standing ovation. The evening ended with an encore of Oblivion by the Argentine composer Astor Piazolla. The incredible atmosphere was reminiscent of the theater. After the concert, on the way to the hotel, the orchestra was recognized by the audience and spontaneously they applauded them with shouts of “Bravo, bravo”. The next concert of the tour was in the city of Rosario, 400 km away from Córdoba. The Teatro El Círculo in Rosario belonged to a category of historical buildings. There, the orchestra played in a venue filled with 1,400 visitors. The last day of the tour, April 25 2017, was very demanding for the orchestra. After a 300 km trip from Rosario to Buenos Aires, the orchestra played a prestigious concert at the famous Néstor Kirchner Cultural Center in Buenos Aires in the same day.
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