International Music Festival Janáček Hukvaldy 2012
The 19th International Music Festival Janáček Hukvaldy 2012 is being held from 21 June to 22 July 2012. The festivals time period, the main axis of which concerns the music legacy of the Hukvaldy native, Leoš Janáček, is framed by the Master's date of birth (3 July 1854) and death (12 August 1928). The individual works of Leoš Janáček, both chamber as well as orchestral music performed by symphonic orchestras, chamber ensembles, choirs or soloists blend through the entire festival programme.
However, the 19th International Music Festival Janáček Hukvaldy is also augured by notable music anniversaries of 2012, i.e. primarily the 150th birth anniversary of Claude Debussy, French musical impressionist, 75th death anniversary of George Gershwin, American composer, and 200th birth anniversary of Friedrich von Flotow, German composer. To remember these artists, separate festival programmes as well as minor music reminiscences at the individual festival concerts are devoted to them. As a matter of course the programme also plans to include works of other great Czech and world composers, from the Renaissance to the 20th century.
The history of the International Music Festival Janáček Hukvaldy dates back almost 20 years, during which this music event has been honoured to welcome notable artists, Czech and foreign performers. It is an open-air festival with a unique atmosphere predetermined by the actual venue, summer amphitheatre in the Hukvaldy game preserve or the Hukvaldy castle motto. Over the recent years the Festival has also been hosted in the St. Nicolas Church in Rychaltice with excellent acoustics, a place suitable particularly for sacred music, and the Knights' Hall of the Frýdek-Místek Chateau, under the co-operation with the Beskydy Museum.
In 2012, the International Music Festival Janáček Hukvaldy hosts as usual resident artistic ensembles, inherently including the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava, Janáček Chamber Orchestra and State Opera Banská Bystrica representing drama. For the first time, the festival will welcome Melody Makers of Ondřej Havelka, performing a concert devoted to the music of George Gershwin. In terms of vocal art, the Great Don Cossacks ensemble, consisting of primarily Russian singers residing in Austria, will introduce the legacy of Russian sacred music as well as Russian folk songs, and last, but not least, they will perform some choral pieces of Leoš Janáček. The concert of the Moravian Chamber Choir will be almost exclusively devoted to Janáček choral works. Concerts by Musica Bohemica and Krumlovští pištci promise to offer insights into old music, Renaissance and Baroque.
The International Music Festival Janáček Hukvaldy will also offer excellent domestic and foreign performers of young, middle and elder generations. Among them, no doubt, Kateřina Chroboková, organist and cembalist, Martin Kasík, pianist and regular guest of the Hukvaldy festival, Emil Viklický, world-known music composer and pianist. For the first time this year, Hukvaldy will be proud to introduce two young foreign piano artists, Juliette Granier from France and Carl Petersson from Sweden. The concerts of Iva Bittová, baritone Roman Janál with the pianist Karel Košárek and excellent Danish violoncellist of Czech origin, Michaela Fukačová, hosted by the Janáček Chamber Orchestra, also promise interesting music experiences.
With respect to stage art, visitors can look forward to an interesting music-dancing project to the "Four Seasons" by Antonio Vivaldi performed by the ballet ensemble of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre in Ostrava or performance of Simone Boccanegra by the State Opera Banská Bystrica.
The International Music Festival Janáček Hukvaldy reaches for a broad audience, which includes, in addition to regular festival visitors among classical music lovers from the Ostrava and Moravia Silesia region, tourists from all over the Czech Republic and abroad who perceive Hukvaldy as an attractive destination offering, in addition to natural and historical monuments, superior quality cultural enjoyment. For many residents of the wider Hukvaldy region the festival brings the opportunity to encounter outstanding music art that they do not have to travel far to more distant city music centres.
We are looking forward to seeing you in Hukvaldy where you can enjoy not only a friendly atmosphere of this picturesque municipality, beautiful countryside overlooked by the majestic Hukvaldy castle but surely also nonrecurring music experiences.
Mgr. Bohdana Rywiková
Chairwoman
The Janáček Hukvaldy Fund
Prof. MUDr. Jaroslav Slaný, CSc.
Director
International Music Festival Janáček Hukvaldy