News: Today the Concentus Moraviae international festival begins

3 June 2017, 12:00
News: Today the Concentus Moraviae international festival begins

The Concentus Moraviae 2017 international music festival of 19 towns and cities is on the theme “La Voce”. The festival concerns the theme of the human voice and singing in all its forms from chant through folk music to baroque opera and jazz. Claudio Monteverdi, whose 450th anniversary is being commemorated around the world this year, also dedicated his work to the human voice. The festival will give him special attention. The programme creator this year is Václav Luks, founder of the baroque orchestra Collegium 1704 and the vocal ensemble Collegium Vocale 1704. As part of today’s inaugural concert Cantar Lontano and the festival’s resident artist Marco Mencoboni will be performing.

In 19 towns and cities in South Moravia, the highlands and Lower Austria between 3 and 29 June 2017 there will be thirty-three concerts, at which more than a hundred vocalists will be performing. The resident artist and musical ambassador from Monteverdi’s homeland will be the Italian harpsichordist, organist, musicologist, conductor and enthusiastic promoter of 17th century music Marco Mencoboni. The artistic director of the ensemble Cantar Lontano will also present with them historic musical works and also Officum Divinum, a project following on from the historic recording by Jan Garbarek and the today no longer existing Hilliard Ensemble.

A number of artists and orchestras from the Czech Republic will also be performing. Alongside Collegia Mariana also Cappella Mariana, Czech Ensemble Baroque, the singer and harp player Hana Blažíková, Petr Mička’s Horňácká muzika and the Jiří Pospíchal quartet will demonstrate how they interweave and contrast authentic interpretations of Horňácko folk songs and Janáček’s arrangements of songs from the foothills of the White Carpathians for string quartet. In a festival dedicated to the human voice we cannot miss out on Schola gregoriana Pragensis with David Eben or Marek Štryncl’s Musica Florea or the Kantiléna choir. The closing concert will be given over once more to Claudio Monteverdi: Paying tribute to him will be the festival’s programme director Václav Luks, this time conducting his ensembles Collegium 1704 and Collegium Vocale 1704. The will perform the supreme work Selva Morale et Spirituale, a monumental opus, presenting the best of Monteverdi’s art and foretelling the future development of European music.

There will be public transport to the 11 concerts available from Brno. The festival begins today, June 3 in Porta Coeli in Tišnov. Cantar Lontano and Marco Mencoboni will be performing.

More information and tickets can be found here.

Cantar Lontano and Marco Mencoboni/ photo Jiří Sláma

Comments

Reply

No comment added yet..

On Saturday, 24 August, the Korean radio orchestra KBS Symphony Orchestra with its musical director - Finnish conductor and violinist Pietari Inkinen - came to Brno's Špilberk Festival with an exclusively romantic repertoire. The invitation was also accepted by South Korean violinist Bomsori Kim, a graduate of the prestigious Julliard School.  more

For a quarter of a century now, the Brno Philharmonic has been organising the Špilberk Festival at the end of August in the courtyard of the castle of the same name. Four open-air musical evenings offer the audience a selection of concerts featuring classical, film and computer music, as well as often jazz and other genres. This makes it a diverse mix of performers and repertoires with an often pleasant, summery, laid-back ambience. This year's big and rapdily sold-out attraction was the Wednesday evening of 21 August, full of melodies from the James Bond films, performed by the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, headed by world-renowned conductor, composer and arranger Steven Mercurio. During the concert, the audience also got to enjoy singers Sara MilfajtováVendula Příhodová and David Krausmore

As part of its European tour, the Taiwanese Taipei Philharmonic Chamber Choir (TPCC), under the direction of artistic director and choirmaster Dr. YuChung Johnny Ku, took the city up on its invitation and visited Brno. The concert was held on Monday, 13th August in the hall of the newly renovated Passage Hotel.  more

The final concert of this year's season of the Brno Philharmonic was devoted to works by Antonín Dvořák and Jean Sibelius at the Janáček Theatre. On Thursday, 20 June, Danish conductor Michael Schønwandt, who had not appeared before a Brno audience since January last year, took the lead of the Philharmonic. In the first half of the programme, the orchestra was accompanied by violinist Alexander Sitkovetskymore

In the spirit of the idea that Brno and folklore belong together, the Folklore Ensemble Happening of the Year took place on Thursday 6 June. The event was organised by the Brno UNESCO City of Music Office in cooperation with the Brno Dances and Sings association. The event thus became part of a long-term project that set out to map the amateur music scene in Brno, and not only folk music. Last year Brno City of Music reached out to choirs in a similar way, and in the future will host garage bands and more. This just goes to prove the diversity of Brno's music scene, not only as regards professional ensembles, but also enthusiastic amateurs for whom music is an inseparable part of their lives.  more