The first two concerts will take place at the Masquerade Hall at the castle. The evening of 24^th July will belong to young musicians. Miroslav Ambroš and Jaroslaw Nadrzycki, two of the most promising violinists of the incoming generation, will perform together with the accompaniment of the South Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Jan Kučera. After the opening Händel’s Concerto Grosso in G major, Op. 6 No. 1, the audience will hear their joint interpretation of Bach’s Concerto for two violins and orchestra in D minor (BWV 1043). The program will also include Benjamin Britten’s early opus Simple Symphony, which he composed at the age of twenty and in which the charm of youth is apparent. The finale of the concert will belong to an even earlier composition – Mendelssohn’s Concerto for violin and orchestra No. 1 in D minor, which the composer wrote at the age of thirteen. The finale of the concert will belong to an even earlier composition – Mendelssohn’s Concerto for violin and string orchestra in D minor, which the composer composed at the age of thirteen. On Wednesday 25^th July the Wihan Quartet will pay tribute to composer Leos Janáček and will play his 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 will be completed by a selection from Dvořák’s Cypresses in an adaptation for a string quartet and an inimitably provocative artistic gem – Smetana’s late String Quartet No. 2 in D minor. 

On Thursday 26^th July the steps of the festival visitors will lead to the Castle Riding Hall where a dance musical performance inspired by G. Bizet’s famous opera titled Carmen Fantasy by Gypsy Devils will take place. Viewers will watch this classic love story interpreted by one of the best orchestras in the ethno and world music category, the ensemble Gypsy Devils. “Český Krumlov is literally alive with history and culture. Simply speaking it is a ‘beautiful spectacle’ and we also hope that we will prepare exactly the same spectacle for the viewers of our festival concert,” is how the Gypsy Devils are inviting the audience to their concert. The performance is completed with a dynamic mixture of dance styles enriched by jazz, ethno and flamenco elements performed by the dance group Magic Spurs as well as by unique virtuosity, which constitutes an integral part of the artistic expression of the Slovak “devilish” ensemble.

 

Russian violoncellist Boris Andrianov will also make an appearance at the Castle Riding Hall. Together with the festival residential orchestra, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Christian Schulz, he will play one of the most beautiful cello concertos – Dvořák’s Concerto for cello and orchestra in B minor. In the second half of the evening the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra will play Brahms’s Symphony No. 2 in D major.

 

 

 

The program of this year’s musical evening will accentuate the 100^th anniversary of the birth of outstanding American composer and author of the famous West Side Story Leonard Bernstein. Soloists of Broadway theatres – Christiane Noll, Dee Roscioli, Hugh Panaro and Darius de Haas – accompanied by the North Czech Philharmonic Teplice under the leadership of American composer Randall Craig Fleischer will present, besides the abovementioned West Side Story, which is considered to be one of the highlights of the musical genre, also a selection from other Bernstein’s famous works such as Candide, On the Town and Wonderful Town. In the second half of the concert the audience will hear songs from the most famous American musicals such as The Lion King, Evita, Jesus Christ Superstar, Les Misérables and Phantom of the Opera.