On Friday 29^th July the festival paid tribute to W. A. Mozart by a concert on the occasion of the 260^th anniversary of his birth. Symphony no. 38 in D major was performed in the garden of the newly reconstructed monastery. This composition comes from the time of Mozart’s greatest successes and its premiere took place in Prague in 1787 during the composer’s first visit, therefore it bears the subtitle “Prague”. The second composition of the evening was a spiritual piece and one of the gems of classical music – Requiem in D minor. The South Czech Philharmonic played under the baton of Vojtěch Spurný and during the Requiem the Kühn Choir of Prague and soloists Eva Hornyáková, Alena Kropáčková, Ĺudovít Ludha and Peter Mikuláš made an appearance. “In a way it was a premiere, we performed a new version of Mozart’s unfinished Requiem, in which we tried to take account of all the sources and sketches which were preserved. The form of the composition was therefore slightly different to the usual form. In the orchestra we also had several authentic instruments from Mozart’s period – trombones, kettledrums and a Baroque positive,” said conductor Vojtěch Spurný after the concert. And he revealed that he had conducted Mozart’s Requiem under the open skies for the first time, “Performing in the open air was a big challenge both for me and for the orchestra. The acoustics of the interiors really help the sound of the instruments, whether it is a theatre, a concert hall or a church. The composers of that period knew exactly for which spaces they were writing. But the monastery garden is of course a sacral space so the Requiem fits in. Thanks to the diligence of all the musicians and sensitive work with the sound we managed to balance all the groups of instruments and this evening was a great experience both for us and the viewers.” The concert A Night with Mozart was a premiere also for another reason: it took place in a new concert venue, the Monastery Garden, for the first time. The terraced auditorium offered an impressive panoramic view of the centre of Český Krumlov with the castle tower and the roofs of the historical buildings as well as the surrounding hills. The warm evening and the sky full of stars only enhanced the experience from beautiful music.