The fourth festival concert on 24^th July belonged to young musical talents. With the accompaniment of the South Czech Philharmonic and under the baton of Jan Kučera, two of the most promising violinists of the incoming generation, Miroslav Ambroš and Jaroslaw Nadrzycki performed at the Masquerade Hall. As an introduction they selected Pachebel’s Canon and Gigue in D major and then both soloists jointly played Bach’s demanding Concerto for two violins and orchestra in D minor. As both violinists concordantly said, it is always a pleasure to play Bach for them. Before their concert in Český Krumlov they had never performed together, however, both of them were satisfied with how quickly they became harmonized. After the interval the program continued with an early opus by Benjamin Britten, the Simple Symphony, which the composer composed at the age of twenty-one. The finale of the concert belonged to Mendelssohn’s Concerto for violin and string orchestra in D minor, which the author composed at an even earlier age when he was only thirteen. As an encore, Miroslav Ambroš played his favourite composition by contemporary Czech author Sylvie Bodorová, a gypsy ballad for solo violin Dža more. At the end of the concert Miroslav Ambroš, who is a member of the “Leon’s Club Praha Strahov San Giorgio”, granted a sponsorship donation of 5 000 CZK to the Jan Deyl Conservatory and Secondary School for Visually Impaired Students in Prague. This act naturally complemented the activity of the IMF Český Krumlov, which entered into partnership with the Jaroslav Ježek Elementary Art School, a school providing musical education for visually impaired children and youth.  

On 25^th July the Wihan Quartet paid tribute to composer Leoš Janáček with a concert consisting of his works. The ensemble with beautifully balanced colours of all the four instruments played two quartets – String Quartet No. 1 and String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters” from the very end of the composer’s life, which belong to the highlights of modern quartet literature. The program was completed by a selection from Dvořák’s Cypresses in an adaptation for a string quartet and the uniquely exciting artistic gem – Smetana’s late String Quartet No. 2 in D minor, which was admired even by Arnold Schönberg.  “It is a piece of cake to play in the acoustics of the Masquerade Hall and the audience was very attentive today. It is always a pleasure to play Janáček for us. For me, his second quartet is one of the best quartets ever written. Smetana’s second quartet, which the composer composed when he was deaf, is full of emotions, it has a beautiful Polka, gorgeous cantabile passages, so the fact that we were able to play these two composers, who were moreover complemented by Dvořák, during one evening, brought us great pleasure,” Leoš Čepický described his impressions from the concert. The audience solicited an encore from the interpreters, it was the Finale of Haydn’s String Quartet No. 3 “Rider”.

The concert at the Castle Riding Hall on Friday 27^th July was dedicated to Dvořák and Brahms. In the full Castle Riding Hall and with the full moon shining outside the audience listened to Dvořák’s cello concerto interpreted inwardly by Boris Andrianov and Brahms’s Second Symphony interpreted by the residential ensemble of the festival, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christian Schulz, during one evening. Boris Andrianov admitted that playing Dvořák and especially such an iconic composition as his Cello Concerto in B minor in the composer’s native country is always slightly more demanding than playing it anywhere else in the world. As an encore Andrianov selected an impressive opus titled Lamentatio by his colleague, cellist and composer Giovanni Sollima. Conductor Christian Schulz spoke highly of the cooperation with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. “I really enjoyed today’s concert. Not only the first half, during which Dvorák’s Cello Concerto was performed, which I love as a former cellist, and which is actually Dvořák’s tenth symphony for me, but also the second half, during which we played Brahms’s second symphony. I had such a good feeling and such trust in the entire orchestra that I believe they would have managed to perform even without me,” laughed the Austrian conductor.  The lively overture from Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro was selected as an encore. The audience rewarded all the artists by a rapturous applause.