BELLE ÉPOQUE

Belle Époque – beautiful times
This is how the happy period of prosperity of France, limited to the years 1890 to 1910, is described. What was it really like? At that time, railways connected cities with the most remote countryside, ocean liners plied the world's seas on regular lines, and wealth flowed from the colonies. Courageous "wonderful men on flying machines" floated in the air, pedestrians on the streets jumped in front of the first cars, frantically rushing up to thirty. It was a time of general progress, the advent of electricity, the telephone, and radio communications. Paris was decorated with the modern Eiffel Tower and the traditional Sacré-Cœur Basilica, residents cruised along the new Haussmann boulevards, had fun in cafes and dance halls, went to the countryside and to the sea. All the arts flourished, including music. Impressionism and Art Nouveau asserted themselves against classical painting and late musical romanticism.

CHARLES GOUNOD Little symphony for wind instruments
ALBERT ROUSSEL Divertimento for wind instruments and piano op. 6
VINCENT D'INDY Chanson and dances, divertimento for wind instruments op. 50
LOUIS THÉODORE GOUVY Little Gallic Suite for Wind Instruments Op. 90

Harmony of the Brno Philharmonic:
Petr Pomkla flute
Anikó Kovarikné Hegedűs oboe
Zdeněk Nádeníček oboe
Emil Drápela clarinet
Stanislav Pavlíček clarinet
Milan Mrázik forest horn
David Ryšánek forest horn
Dušan Drápela bassoon
Jiří Jakubec bassoon
Dana Drápelová piano
artistic director Emil Drápela