Rudolf Krečmer

Rudolf Krečmer (b. 1950) was born in Prague into a family with a rich tradition of musicianship. His initial musical training and his first encounter with the world of concert platforms and opera theatres were taken care of very early on by his stepfather, the conductor Václav Neumann.

After graduation from secondary school and studies at the Prague Conservatory, he took a course in conducting with Alois Klíma at the Academy of Music in Prague, which he completed in 1978. He earned his first experiences as a conductor with the Camerata Nova chamber ensemble between 1970 and 1975. At that time, he was spotted by Hans Swarovsky who offered him at first tutorials at the Vienna Academy, and subsequently a place in his conducting master classes from which Rudolf Krečmer graduated in 1974. While still a student, he conceived a project involving the formation of an opera orchestra in the city of Hradec Králové, an ensemble which he conducted for ten years from its inception in 1978, later becoming its principal conductor, and establishing a tradition of subscription symphonic concert series in its home city. He took the orchestra, today’s Hradec Králové Philharmonic, on a number of successful international tours. At various points in the course of that period, Rudolf Krečmer made guest appearances with more than forty orchestras, including virtually all of the former Czechoslovakia’s major ensembles, such as the Prague Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Prague Chamber Orchestra, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, the Brno State Philharmonic Orchestra, the Ostrava Philharmonic Orchestra, the Košice Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra.

His international commitments included among others frequent appearances with the Hamburg Symphony Orchestra, the Bochum Symphony Orchestra, the Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Schwerin Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz. His discography includes recordings with the Bamberger Symphoniker of both of Dvořák’s cello concertos. Apart from that he has to his credit a series of radio recordings of music by Bohuslav Martinů, Luboš Fišer and Otmar Mácha. In 1984, Rudolf Krečmer conducted the Orchestra Siciliana Palermo in a string of twelve concerts across Italy, presenting Smetana’s My Country. Likewise of great significance has been his regular work with orchestras in Japan, where he made eight tours between 1982 and 1996, making repeated appearances at the helm of the Sapporo Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Tokyo Shinsei Symphony Orchestra, and the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra of Tokyo. Apart from that, the joined the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and the NHK Symphony Orchestra in their Japanese tours, in 1991 and 1992.

Rudolf Krečmer has reserved an equally important place in his career for opera. In 1981 he accepted Wolfgang Sawallisch’s invitation to a six-month visit as music assistant with the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. There and then, in the Munich Opera’s heyday, he was able to observe at work such world-class conductors as Wolfgang Sawallisch, Rafael Kubelík, Riccardo Muti, Nello Santi, or Carlos Kleiber, as well as a plethora of star opera stage directors including the likes of August Everding, Bohumír Hrdlička or Jean-Pierre Ponnelle.

In 1988 Rudolf Krečmer became a conductor at the Prague National Theatre opera company. Right from the start of his engagement, he aroused a good deal of attention by conducting the house’s revived production of Bohuslav Martinů’s The Greek Passion. He then mounted an overhauled production Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia, using a version newly revised by Alberto Zedda. In 1989 he conducted, on the company’s New Stage, new productions of Bohuslav Martinů’s opera, Alexander bis, and of Henry Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas. It was at that time he met Bohumil Gregor who appointed him to the post of second conductor in his own productions of Janáček’s operas, The Excursions of Mr Brouček, and From the House of the Dead. In the course of his three years with the National Theatre, he likewise conducted performances of Rigoletto, Rusalka, Tosca, and in tandem with Zdeněk Košler prepared for staging a new production of Così fan tutte. In 1997 he mounted a production of Don Giovanni for the Opera Mozart company’s guest season at the Estates Theatre in Prague.

Apart from Czech opera houses, Rudolf Krečmer has worked with a number of prestigious international companies. In 1989 he was in charge of a new production of Eugene Onegin at the Theatro Municipal do Rio de Janeiro; in 1990 he conducted a series of performances of Tosca at the Staatsoper Hannover, followed in 1991 by six performances plus a television broadcast of Janáček’s Jenůfa at Barcelona’s Teatro del Liceo; in 1992, twelve performances of Smetana’s The Bartered Bride at the Bonn Opera; regular appearances with the Staatsoper Stuttgart’s orchestra in Die Zauberflöte; and in 1993, a string of performances of Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel at the Staatsoper Hamburg, and another series of Janáček’s The Makropulos Affair at the Teatro Nacional de São Carlos in Lisbon. He tackled a major creative challenge in presenting a cycle of Janáček operas at the Opéra du Rhin in Strasbourg between 1992 and 1995. In 2000 he mounted the first production in South America of The Cunning Little Vixen at the Teatro Colón in Buenos Aires.

In 1999 Rudolf Krečmer was engaged as a conductor of the Prague State Opera. When Bohumil Gregor took over as the company’s music director, he appointed Rudolf Krečmer his deputy. While with the Prague State Opera, Rudolf Krečmer was musical director and conductor of the company’s new productions of Der Freischütz (1999), Un ballo in maschera (2001), Die Zauberflöte (2002), and conducted numerous performances of Tosca, Carmen, Rigoletto, Die Zauberflöte, Turandot, Aida, The Queen of Spades, and of the operetta, Die Fledermaus. From 2008–2010 Rudolf Krečmer hold the post of artistic director of the Prague State Opera.