Chamber Music Festival Český Krumlov 2008

The 22nd Chamber Music Festival Český Krumlov will open in Friday 27th June. It will offer a rich program composed of concerts by top contemporary Czech performers.

As in the last six years, this year’s Chamber Music Festival Český Krumlov highlight will be a unique event called Baroque Night at the Český Krumlov Castle Ž. This event aims to transport the guests 300 years back in time. This event filled with music, dancing and opera will be located in the Český Krumlov Castle, both inside and outside. It will start on the Castle Courtyard where the festive toast will be served accompanied by brasswind music bands. Afterwards the guests will be attending a baroque ball in the Masquerade Hall, filled with dancing, ballet and theatrical scenes. Next the guest will walk through the Cloak Hallway into a remarkable monument in Český Krumlov: the Baroque Theatre. Although in its time there were over 400 baroque theatres all over Europe, only three have survived to present age.

The best preserved baroque theatre of these three is located in Krumlov. Both the State Castle management and the Baroque Theatre Foundation are aiming to keep the Theatre in best possible condition. Therefore only a handful of performances are carried out in the Theatre every year. Two of these performances are part of tonight’s Baroque night. This year it will be a single-act opera by Wilibald Gluck “Chinese Ladies” with libretto by Pieter Merastasius, poet to the Emperor’s Court. The opera will be performed by the Collegium 1704 Ensemble. This opera is a witty parody located in China where three you Chinese ladies – Lisinga, Sivene and Tingia – are taken by surprise as the brother of Lisinga, Silang, returns from his trip to Europe. Silang tells stories about Europe and what is currently in fashion. He does not omit the description of European opera and its peculiarities.

Out of boredom, the Chinese decided to imitate scenes from various operas, as witnessed by Silang in European opera houses. And so Lisinga performs the tragical Andromache scene, Sivene and Silango sing a pastoral duet of Licoris and Tirsis and Tangia performs a comical role of a young Parisian girl in front of the mirror. This amusing comical opera was first performed on 24th September 1754 as the highlight of grand celebrations on the Marchfelder Chateau near Vienna to honor the imperial couple.

Figuratively tracing the footsteps of the baroque lords, the audience will move upon the termination of the performance into the garden, accompanied by the sounds of music. The Garden party will be filled with theatre, music, baroque fireworks and a feast inspired by the period customs.

In a traditional chamber music discipline, namely the string quartet music, we will listen to two top domestic ensembles: The Pra·ák Quartet and the ladies-only Kapralova Quartet. Each quartet will first perform on its own and at the culmination of the evening they will join forces to perform one of the jewels of world chamber music: String Octet by Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy. A vocal ensemble of David Eben, Schola Gregoriana Pragensis, will perform authentic pieces from the ancient period of European musical history. Eva Bublová will present her organ recital in the St. Vitus Cathedral devoted to “baroque musical gems”, accompanied by the young singer Barbora Polá±ková. The concert of our top harpsichordist Monika Knoblochová and cellist Jiří Bárta will also have a similar theme. The closing evening of the Festival located in the Masquerade Hall of the Krumlov castle will also be about baroque music as the famous baroque music piece by Vivaldi (Four Seasons) will be performed by the violin maestro Ivan ¬enatý and the Slovak Chamber Orchestra Capella Istropolitana. The Orchestra will present a Vivaldi-inspired piece composed by the “king of tango”, the Argentinian composer Astor Piazzola.

The music played by the unique trio composed of violinist Pavel Fi±er, cellist Margit Klepáčková and the Japanese-born percussion soloist Honda Junko is characterized by the fusion of various music genres. They will be accompanied by their guest, singer Iveta Kováčková. The Chamber Music Festival Český Krumlov aims to address not only classical music devotees but also fans of other music genres. And so each year on of the concerts within the Festival is from the area of “non-classical” music world. But even here the quality of the performing artists is a priority. In the last couple of years, Český Krumlov has seen performances by Michal Prokop, Jarek Nohavica and Hana Hegerová, Marta Kubi±ová or Antonín Gondolán. This year, the “popular taste” concert will be by a regular guest to our Festival, a multi-instrument player Jiří Stivín. This concert takes place on the 1st July.

For complete Festival concerts listings, please view : www.ckrumlov.cz/fekohu