The concert of Pavel Šporcl, an important personality of the Czech music scene, at the Castle Riding Hall on 31^st July was sold out long before. He was accompanied by the South Czech Philharmonic under the baton of chief conductor Jan Talich. The orchestra first played the Siegfried Idyll by Richard Wagner and the highly anticipated performance by Pavel Šporcl followed. This “talent which is born perhaps once in a hundred years”, as Šporcl was described by critics, performed the Concerto for violin and orchestra in D major by Peter Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The audience was absolutely impressed by his brilliant performance and gave him a thunderous applause immediately after the first movement. Pavel Šporcl, who is clearly used to such situations, reacted wittily, “Thank you, and as an encore we would like to play the second and third movement,” by which he disarmed the audience. After these instructions the delighted applause took place again at the end of the composition. Pavel Šporcl then rewarded everyone with a solo encore, which, as he later explained, was his own piece which also included the theme from the Czech national anthem. After the intermission the orchestra played Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7 in A major. But that was not the end. The festival traditionally dedicates one of the concerts to the members of its Friends Club and organizes a meeting of the club members with the protagonists of the concert. This time loyal festival fans met Pavel Šporcl and conductor Jan Talich after the concert. As Jan Talich said, it was his conducting premiere with Pavel Šporcl as a soloist and this concert was a tribute to their common teacher, professor Snítil, who recently died. “Today at noon I was still sitting on the plane and travelling from the south of France, where I opened a festival with a gypsy group. And I was a little bit worried about getting here in time,” admitted Pavel Šporcl. And he also paid a compliment to the festival, “I am glad that I was once again able to play at this fantastic festival. Thank you for the invitation and I am looking forward to our next meeting.”