“We dedicated the program of this year’s festival for the most part purposefully to Czech music and in this way we promoted the idea of the Year of Czech Music, to which 2014 was dedicated. The program of the festival therefore consisted of music by fine Czech composers and interpreters,” said the president of the festival Jaromír Boháč. The festival joined this project in particular by means of the Symphonic Concert on the Occasion of the Year of Czech Music performed by the North Czech Philharmonic Teplice under the baton of Tomáš Brauner during which the audience listened to Smetana’s My Country and by means of the programs of the chamber concerts. During the evenings at the Masquerade Hall Jiří Bárta and Terezie Fialová, who performed the complete chamber works for cello and piano by Antonín Dvořák, enchanted the audience. The jewels of Czech music literature were also presented by pianist Shiran Wang with the Škampa Quartet, Ferhan and Ferzan Önder, Jana Boušková and Jae-A Yoo as well as the Martinů Trio. The Pavel Haas Quartet, who had recently been awarded the prestigious prize of the Gramophone Magazine, played Ervín Schulhoff’s First Quartet at the Castle Riding Hall which contrasted interestingly with music by Antonín Dvořák and Johannes Brahms. At the concert of Collegium 1704, thanks to which the festival returned to the Baroque Theatre at the chateau after several years, the audience heard a selection from the Lamentations of Jeremiah the Prophet by Jan Dismas Zelenka.
The residential orchestra of the IMF, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, performed twice this year. The orchestra opened the festival and accompanied world-famous tenor Jonas Kaufmann at a very high level. Kaufmann summarized his impressions in the following words, “The concert was an amazing experience for me. I hope to come back to this beautiful city soon. Český Krumlov is simply unique. This opinion was intensified by the visit to the local Baroque Theatre. I have visited several baroque theatres but none of them were so perfectly preserved. And it is a good thing that music productions which give the audience an idea of what opera looked like and sounded like at the time can be held in it.” Other unforgettable concerts were A Tribute to Antonín Dvořák presented by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Ion Marin with soloist Ivan Ženatý as well as the performance by Russian violoncellist Natalia Gutman.
The IMF is a multi-genre festival and therefore even projects which interconnect different music genres were included in the program. This year, they were for example the Gypsy Virtuoso Orchestra, The Classical Music Maniacs and the Pacora Trio with soprano Linda Ballová. The traditional national evening was also part of the program and in view of the fact that this year was the Year of Czech Music offered Czech culture and gastronomy. Different genres were represented – “Mladá dudácká muzika” (“Young Bagpipe Music”) from Strakonice, brass music Jižani, Jiří Janoušek’s Dulcimer Music, the Gustav Brom Czech Radio Big Band and the B-Side Band with soloist Vojta Dyk. The evening dedicated to musicals bore the name A Tribute to Czech Musicals this year. After successful world musicals this time the audience was presented with a selection which not only delighted the listeners but at the same time had the ambition of familiarizing those who do not usually go to musicals with Czech musical production.
The highlight of the whole festival was its closing concert to which the soloists of the Grand Theatre in Moscow were invited for the first time and performed an impressive selection from Russian, Italian and French opera repertoire. The Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra with conductor Leoš Svárovský performed at the festival for the very first time during the closing concert.
“The interest of the listeners was similar to the previous years, which proves that the festival has established itself and has its regular visitors. Personally I was really delighted with the series of chamber concerts, which we organize in cooperation with the State Castle and Chateau at the Masquerade Hall, and which is gaining favourable response and quality. We would like to expand this series of concerts and according to the current attendance and the reactions of the audiences we believe that even the added concerts will find their visitors. And I must not forget to mention the official opening gala concert of tenor star Jonas Kaufmann, which was at an excellent level and we were very pleased that according to his reactions and his willingness towards the festival and its guests he felt well here. I would like to take the opportunity to thank our viewers for their support which they have been providing to us in the long term and we already look forward to meeting them next year at the 24th year of the IMF Český Krumlov,” concluded Jaromír Boháč.