Martinů at the Prague Spring Festival 2026

The Prague Spring International Music Festival marks its 81st edition this year, featuring dozens of concerts between May 12 and June 4 2026. The Smetana Trio will perform the music of Bohuslav Martinů.

Joseph HAYDN: Piano Trio No. 39 in G major, Hob. XV:25
Jan DUŠEK: New work for piano trio (world premiere, commissioned by Prague Spring)
Bohuslav MARTINŮ: Piano Trio No. 2 in D minor, H 327
Felix MENDELSSOHN‑BARTHOLDY: Piano Trio No. 2 in C minor, Op. 66

Smetana Trio
Jitka Čechová (piano)
Markéta Janoušková (violin)
Jan Páleníček (violoncello)

The Smetana Trio, holder of two BBC Music Magazine Awards and Ensemble-in-Residence of London’s Wigmore Hall during the 2024–2025 season, returns to the Prague Spring after an absence of eight years. “Our concert opens a window onto the emotional world of four stylistic epochs: Classicism, Romanticism, and music of the 20th and 21st centuries,” pianist Jitka Čechová tells us. In the ideal acoustic environment of St Agnes’ Convent, the ensemble will perform three compositions from their gold collection: piano trios by Joseph Haydn, Bohuslav Martinů and Felix Mendelssohn. They will also present the world premiere of a work for piano trio by Jan Dušek, a piece commissioned by the Prague Spring.

The Smetana Trio is one of the most important Czech chamber ensembles, moreover boasting the longest history. It builds on the legacy of pianist Josef Páleníček, who established the ensemble more than ninety years ago, in 1934. Today it comprises three superb musicians who share first-rate skills as soloists and an exceptional sense of coordination and interaction as chamber musicians: pianist Jitka Čechová, violinist Markéta Janoušková and cellist Jan Páleníček. The trio’s repertoire incorporates a broad spectrum of works from the Czech classics to music of the 20th century. They have garnered numerous prestigious awards for their recordings. In addition to the above-mentioned BBC Music Magazine Awards these include the French Diapason d’Or and the Choc du Monde de la Musique. “The Smetana Trio gives a wonderfully refined performance which is yet strong and energetic,” wrote the British magazine Gramophone in a review of the ensemble’s recording of Czech music, which incidentally also features Bohuslav Martinů’s Piano Trio No. 2.

This trio will also be performed at the concert at the Convent of St. Agnes. Bohuslav Martinů composed it while in exile in New York in early 1950. Martinů is one of the ensemble’s sovereign composers; for their complete recording of his piano trios the Smetana Trio earned their second BBC Music Magazine Award in 2017. “We’re absolutely delighted, on two counts, in fact. Especially since, on the international concert scene, many more doors are opening up to the specific music of Bohuslav Martinů,” Jitka Čechová stated at the time. 

More information: https://festival.cz/en/programme/smetana-trio-2/