Happy birthday, Ostrava!!!
This year’s Janáček May, whose opening concert the organisers have entrusted to the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, will take place from May 22 to June 9. At the Social Hall of Ostrava’s House of Culture the PRSO will mark 750 years since the foundation of a city that is at first glance rough but with closer acquaintance and understanding is a place with a unique artistic tradition where a staggering galaxy of talents have been born and developed.
The unjustly overlooked composer Rudolf Kubín captured Ostrava’s pulse and the rhythms of the industrial city with the symphonic poem Ostrava.
The leading Czech cellist of his generation Petr Nouzovský will deliver Bohuslav Martinů’s First Concerto, while a cult piece that grew out of the spirit of the regime, Janáček’s world famous Sinfonietta, will also be performed. The programme will be conducted by Leoš Svárovský while Jiří Vejvoda will introduce the evening.
The 2017 Janáček May will deliver 23 concerts by artists from 19 countries over 19 days and at nine cities and towns in the Moravian Silesian Region. The programme includes recitals by Ivana Ženatý and Pavel Šporcl, performances by the piano maestros Andrew Von Oeyen of the US, France’s Jean-Philippe Collard and the Czech Republic’s own Lukáš Vondráček, winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, and more.
Lovers of the art of singing will enjoy an evening of songs with the Austrian soprano Ildikó Raimondi and an Italian evening of bel canto with the style’s greatest contemporary exponent Lawrence Brownlee. A special festival project, Silesian Organ Day, is also worth mentioning.
