31. 8. 2016
14th Harmonia Moraviae International Music Festival - 2016
"Mozart is the sun" - that is how the great Czech composer Antonín Dvořák is said to have described this musical giant to his students. Dvořák is known to have had a life-long love and admiration for Mozart, revering not only his genius but also his ability to express through his music all the dimensions of the human soul and make them sing. For his time, Mozart was extremely well educated and much-travelled. He assimilated all the experiences, trials of life and knowledge that came his way, and subsequently recast and translated every nuance of thought and feeling into sound and the language of music. Time has moved on in terms of technology, yet human emotions both then and now are the same, and that is why Mozart can still move us today, as if he always has something new to say, something which we can all understand.
But the link with Mozart extends beyond the musical plane, for as a young man, his many travels took him not only to Prague, but also to Brno and Olomouc, and thanks to the outstanding director Miloš Forman, the film Amadeus two centuries later gave the composer new exposure and revived the public's interest in him. And so we return to Moravia, where some of the scenes in the film were shot at the nearby castle in Kroměříž.
So we are taking the opportunity to mark this Mozart anniversary by presenting a number of his fine works at our festival, including a complete concert version of the opera Don Giovanni, arias from The Magic Flute and The Marriage of Figaro, Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, the Sinfonia Concertante in E-flat for violin and viola, and the Concerto for two pianos in E-flat. The festival opens with an invitation to appeal to all our senses to come and hear the popular Eine Kleine Nachtmusik, watch the legendary film Amadeus, and visit the exhibition about the composer's life staged in association with the Austrian Cultural Forum in Prague.
The festival will also showcase the South Korean Ulsan Metropolitan Dance Company, which will give us a unique opportunity to experience at first hand their traditional dance theatre. Also bringing her sparkle to the festival is the outstanding actress and singer Barbora Hrzánová and her successful and highly tuneful band Condurango. Further performances in the festival include appearances by outstanding artists such as the soprano Simona Houda Šaturová, the baritone Pavol Remenár, the pianists Ivo Kahánek and Jan Simon, violinists Yoon-Hee Kim and Bohuslav Matoušek, the conductors Vojtěch Spurný, Leoš Svárovský, Stanislav Vavřínek, and Walter Attanasi.
We hope you enjoy the experience - magical music, Mozart and more!
The Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra