Rudolfinum, Dvořák Hall

Josef Zítek and his pupil Josef Schulz gave Prague a building for music and pictures together, opened on 8 February 1885 on the Vltava embankment and named for Crown Prince Rudolf of Austria, who presided at the ceremony. Its great auditorium is one of the oldest concert halls in Europe still in continuous use, and it acquired its defining association on 4 January 1896, when Antonín Dvořák conducted the Czech Philharmonic in the orchestra's first concert.

The building's second life was political: between 1919 and 1939 it served as the seat of the Czechoslovak parliament, its hall filled with benches instead of players. Music returned afterwards, and the Dvořák Hall is once again the Czech Philharmonic's home, its acoustic — dry, clear, unforgiving of imprecision — as much a part of that orchestra's sound as any conductor has been.