Marek Kozák

Marek Kozák, recipient of the prestigious Jiří Bělohlávek Prize for young Czech artists under the age of thirty in 2025, is renowned for his unfailing technique, rich palette of tone colours and deeply felt musicality. “He embodies precision, sincerity and a sensitive approach to interpretation,” wrote the music portal Operaplus.cz. He first attracted wider attention through successes in a number of international competitions. In 2015 he reached the semi-finals of the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw. He is also a laureate of the Prague Spring International Music Competition, the Bach Competition in Leipzig and the Concours Géza Anda in Zurich. He has performed with Czech and European orchestras including the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Highlights of his current season include a return to the Tonhalle Zurich, an appearance at the Czech Philharmonic’s Open-Air concert with the French conductor Alain Altinoglu, and a recital with the soprano Simona Šaturová as part of the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra season.

At the Rudolf Firkušný Piano Festival, he will present a programme of music from three centuries inspired by dance. He will begin by recalling his success at the Bach Competition in Leipzig with Johann Sebastian Bach’s Partita in B-flat major, a suite of Baroque dances including the allemande, sarabande, minuet and gigue. This will be followed by a selection from Smetana’s Czech Dances. The second half of the evening will belong to the waltz. Maurice Ravel’s Valses nobles et sentimentales – inspired without doubt by the waltzes of Franz Schubert – combine a typically French elegance with melancholy and a touch of irony. One of Schubert’s waltzes will also be heard in a transcription by Franz Liszt, who included it among other dances in his cycle Soirées de Vienne. The recital will conclude with Liszt’s virtuoso Mephisto Waltz No. 1, in which Marek Kozák will display the full brilliance of his artistry. “The personality of Franz Liszt has fascinated me since my student years, and his Mephisto Waltz was for a long time one of my unfulfilled dreams,” the pianist confides. “Charming Bach, Smetana inspired by folk music, the soaring and poetic Ravel, the salon elegance of Schubert and the diabolical virtuosity of Liszt. Their dances tell stories – each different, each with its own inner world. I very much look forward to telling you all of them from the piano on the first Friday of November at the Rudolfinum,” the artist adds.