Closing Night of Baroque Masters with the beautiful backdrop of the castle garden
The festival finale on Saturday 5th August was quite unusual. For the first time in the history of the festival, in cooperation with the management of the Castle and Chateau Český Krumlov, the final evening was held in a new festival venue – in the castle garden. “Until now the visitors haven’t had the opportunity to walk through the whole castle garden in one evening. Dr. Slavko (the castle manager and head of the Castle and Chateau Český Krumlov) and his team were forthcoming also thanks to the fact that they went ahead with the revitalization of the lake, so yesterday’s visitors were the first ones to see this beautiful body of water with an island at the end of the castle garden with a new look. 80 people were involved in the realization of the whole evening,” the festival president Jaromír Boháč described the objective of the organizers. Jan Čenský, the guide of the evening, gave a welcome to the visitors at the summer riding hall, from where, after a short official closing of the festival during which the festival president Jaromír Boháč thanked the partners and all those who participated in this year of the IMF, and at the moment when darkness set in in the castle garden, everybody followed the guide. The title of the evening, A Night of Baroque Masters, was not thought up by chance by the program advisor, Lubomír Herza. At the time, not only musicians were considered to be masters but the same also applied to painters, masters of illumination, gastronomy, Baroque effects and fireworks. The first stop was at the Baroque fountain, where the first part of the program was prepared – “the illumination of the garden”, thanks to which the viewers went 250 years back, to 1768, when Adam of Schwarzenberg held a big garden feast in Český Krumlov. The introductory dance performance changed into a visual spectacle and the viewers witnessed the levitation of the prince’s crown. Then the guests moved to the so-called English park by the music pavilion, where, by the way, no concerts had been held for more than 200 years, and listened to the concert “A Night of Baroque Masters”. Trumpeter Marek Zvolánek, violinists Iva Kramperová and Markéta Klodová accompanied by the ensemble Barocco sempre giovane played compositions by famous Baroque masters – Charpentier, Telemann, Locatelli, Clarke, Vivaldi and Bach. The whole festival ended in the spirit of the Baroque period – a castle feast with festive fireworks, accompanied by G. F. Händel’s music, was prepared on the castle lake.