Bacha na Mozarta! cycle will feature premières, discussions and a Baroque fashion show

12 April 2019, 2:00
Bacha na Mozarta! cycle will feature premières, discussions and a Baroque fashion show

For the eighth year running, Czech Ensemble Baroque under the baton of Roman Válek has been performing a subscription series of early music entitled Bacha na Mozarta! (in Czech, this is a pun meaning both "Bach on Mozart!" and "Beware of Mozart!"). The advanced sales of tickets for this cycle will begin as part of the closing concert of the Easter Festival of Sacred Music, where the orchestra will perform Bach's Easter Oratorio. The dramaturgy of the eighth season features, for example, Mozart's Requiem, a Baroque fashion show, Te Deum Three Times Differently, and a vocal concert.

The cycle Bacha na Mozarta! introduces music of classics of the 17th and 18th centuries to today's audiences in a somewhat unconventional way. Each concert has its own storyline, through which both masters, Bach and Mozart, accompany the listeners while commenting on their composer colleagues' works and setting them into historical contexts. Anna Magdalena Bach, the second wife of Johann Sebastian Bach, will also appear at the final concert featuring Bach's cantatas; she will talk about her life together with the genius. Concerts of  this cycle will take place in Besední dům this year, as well as in the Church of St. Michael and the Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul in Brno. The opening concert is announced to take place on 18 September and will feature Offertories by Pavel Josef Vejvanovský. The musical legacy of one of the most important Czech composers of the 17th century was rediscovered in the famous Kroměříž music archive and in cooperation with the musicologist Tomáš Hanzlík it was professionally transformed into music scores. An extraordinary event will be the Musikalische exequien concert on 16 October, to which the Czech Ensemble Baroque invited the Le nuove musiche ensemble. A Christmas concert is part of the season again, with Christmas songs by A. V. Michna z Otradovic and songs from Czech and Moravian Baroque hymn books. The final concert of 16 June 16, entitled J. S. Bach's Cantatas, unconventionally combines spiritual cantata with secular cantata. Concerts will be accompanied by several discussions with artists.

 “In addition, in the eighth season, we embark on a confrontation between Czech composers and their colleagues from all over Europe – in fact, the European Union has existed among musicians for centuries. The national styles, which were relatively well defined and localised until the Baroque, suddenly started to merge and form a single massive stream. Thus, from the Czech authors we will present F. I. Tůma, P. J. Vejvanovský and A. V. Michna z Otradovic. Foreign authors include Ján Šimrák, Domenico Scarlatti and Giovanni Felice Sances, and of course the world stars Mozart, Bach, Schütz and Telemann, ”says the organizer of the cycle Tereza Válková and adds: The concert of Klingende Geographie will be a condensed essence of the whole season. A suite of works by G. P. Telemann maps the music of different nations and cultures. We are also preparing a special surprise for the audience – a Baroque fashion show.”

The Czech Ensemble Baroque's Easter concert will take place on 28 April  at 7:30 pm in Besední dům. At the same time, advanced sales of discounted subscription tickets for the concerts of the 8th season will also start (online here).

Programme:

18 September – 7:30 pm, Church of St. Michael in Brno

  1. VEJVANOVSKÝ, OFFERTORIES – Opening concert of the season

PROGRAMME: P. J. Vejvanovský: Offertories

16 October – 7:30 pm, Church of St. Michael in Brno

MUSIKALISCHE EXEQUIEN

PROGRAMME: H. Schütz: Musikalische exequien, J. Šimrák: Jauchzet dem Herrn (Czech premiere)

SOLOISTS: J. Mitrik – theorba, M. Čermák – organ, P. Radostová, M. Ptáček and others

20 November – 7:30 pm, Cathedral of Sts. Peter and Paul, Brno

MOZART & MOZART

PROGRAMME: W. A. ​​Mozart: Requiem in D minor, L. Mozart: Symphony

SOLOISTS: M. Böhmová, M. Jägerová, J. Kubín, J. M. Procházka and others.

18 December – 7:30 PM,  Besední dům in Brno

SLAVÍČEK RÁJSKÝ

PROGRAMME: A. V. Michna z Otradovic: Christmas songs, songs from Czech and Moravian Baroque hymn books

27 February – 7:30 pm,  Besední dům in Brno

KLINGENDE GEOGRAPHIE

PROGRAMME: G. P. TELEMANN: Klingende geographie, orchestral suite in B flat

1 April – 7:30 pm, Church of St. Michael in Brno

STABAT MATER

PROGRAMME: G. F. Sances, A. Scarlatti, I. Tůma: Stabat Mater

SOLOIST: V. Pelka

14 May – 7:30 pm, Besední dům in Brno

VOCAL CONCERT

PROGRAMME: Renaissance and Baroque music as an inspiration for contemporary composers

16 June – 7:30 pm, Besední dům in Brno

BACH: CANTATAS

PROGRAMME: J. S. Bach: Cantatas BWV 140 and BWV 214

SOLOISTS: L. Haugk – Baroque oboe, R. Kružíková, M. Böhmová, R. Hoza and others

CEB / photo by Jana Šuplerová

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