anidmusica - classical music

(c) Petra Hajská The third evening of the Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague introduced in a bold yet refined dramaturgy another important area of the musical life of the royal court in Versailles - compositions for solo harpsichord. In the Theresian Hall of the Břevnov Monastery, an interpreter with the distinctive name Jean Rondeau sat down at this instrument (20th July). The 26-year-old harpsichordist visited Prague five years ago as a participant in the Prague Spring International Music Competition, from which he won the 2nd prize, in the same year he won the prestigious Musica Antiqua International Competition in Bruges. Since then, his career has come from superlatives on many occasions; he is mentioned for his innovative play and unusual hairstyle, which might attract younger listeners to concerts. (There were not so many of them at the Prague concert, but I think it was a success here that thanks to the good promotion, the hall was completely filled. In my opini...

(c) LSSH Martin Divíšek The French music of the 17th and 18th centuries reigns in the Summer Festivities of Early Music in Prague - the main theme of the festival is Versailles. The magnificence of the place, which during its time represented for many European royal courts an unprecedented pattern, takes over the baroque Prague for a few weeks and, from the depths of time, invites the audience of the most prominent: Roi du Soleil . He is presented here with all dignity, so the opening concert (11th July) led us not to the world of love-affairs, but to the chapel in whose impressive space Louis XIV regularly attended the morning masses and where the music of the highest quality was played. The chapel of Versailles was substituted for the baroque church of St. Simon and Judas in Prague and more than fifty musicians were led by conductor Olivier Schneebeli : a residential ensemble Collegium Marianum , extended by foreign guests, Les Pages and Les Chantres from the Centre ...