The third festival week will be inaugurated by the concert of the ensemble Francisextet on Tuesday 31^st July. These young musicians specialize in music of the 20^th century. Many contemporary Czech composers dedicated their compositions to this ensemble. Among these authors you will find, for example, Sylvie Bodorová and Miloš Štědroň, whose compositions will be performed at the Masquerade Hall at the castle in Český Krumlov. They will be completed by opuses by Igor Stravinsky, Manuel de Falla and Francis Poulenc. Renowned Czech guitarist Pavel Steidl will present works by Johann Kaspar Mertz and Pedro Tirado during the first August evening at the Masquerade Hall too. The program also includes one of the most beautiful and imposing compositions ever written for a solo instrument – Ciaccona by J. S. Bach. “Philip Houghton was a close friend of mine,” says Pavel Steidl,” and so I would like to play his composition Ophelia as a tribute to this artist, who, just like Ophelia, left us too early.” The program will end with the composition Steidleriana, which contains many effects and passages which do not appear on classical concert stages too often. A unique ensemble of a high artistic and interpretative level, Hradišťan & Jiří Pavlica, which at the beginning focused mainly on folk tradition, nowadays performs a remarkably wide range of genres. For 2^nd August they have prepared an original program titled Music Dialogues for the IMF Český Krumlov in the Brewery Garden, during which they will remember specific events and personalities whose cultural trace has influenced the life of many generations until today.

Outstanding Spanish pianist Javier Perianes is certainly one of the big personalities of classical music who will perform at this year’s festival. He has cooperated with famous conductors such as Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta, Lorin Maazel, Vasilij Petrenko and Daniel Harding. On Friday 3^rd August, with the accompaniment of the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Manuel Hernández-Silva, he will play Grieg’s Piano Concerto in A minor Op. 16 at the Castle Riding Hall, which thanks to its original Nordic melody and melancholy still belongs to the most popular compositions of piano literature today. The program will be concluded by two important symphony works written by Leoš Janáček, from whose birth ninety will have passed this year, Taras Bulba and the Sinfonietta. Singer Jan Smigmator has prepared the swing evening in Las Vegas style titled “Keep Swinging!” in the Brewery Garden for

Saturday 4^th August. His style, phrasing, musical grace and love for jazz and swing make him one of the leading interpreters not only in the Czech Republic but also in Europe of the present day. In the Český Krumlov program, together with the Felix Slováčer RTV Big Band, they will present famous songs of Frank Sinatra, Ella Fitzgerald, Tony Bennett, Barbra Streisand and above all George Gerschwin, whose 120^th anniversary of his birth the entire world will remember this year. Dasha, “German Sinatra” Tom Gaebel and the dance group Pop Balet will be guests of the concert. The concert will smoothly change to a stylish afterparty with The Nob(b)les Casino, where roulette, poker and blackjack will be played. A dancefloor with swing dance instruction, a degustation bar and an evening reception will also be prepared. On Sunday 5^th August at the monastery church the ensemble Schola Gregoriana Pragensis will present a program titled Carolus IV. – Rex et Imperator, which will bring a varied musical mosaic from the repertoire closely connected with the personality of emperor Charles IV.