Musica Florea will perform spiritual arias of Czech classicism in Brno

10 February 2023, 1:00
Musica Florea will perform spiritual arias of Czech classicism in Brno

The Musica Florea ensemble will open this year’s concert cycle with a programme entitled The Splendour of Virtuosity of the Spiritual Arias of Czech Classicism, which will be performed three times in February in different locations around the country. In Brno, it will be performed at the Augustinian Abbey in Old Brno (Staré Brno). The soloist and guest will be the leading Czech baritone Roman Janál. The concert programme will offer sacred arias by Czech composers of the second half of the 18th century, many of which will be heard as modern premieres.

The original manuscripts of these arias are kept in the Czech Museum of Music in Prague. “Although these are sacred compositions, they are charged with a virtuosity that will certainly surprise and captivate the listener, while still being sophisticated in harmonic and formal aspects,” says Marek Štryncl, the artistic director of the ensemble. The concert will take place on 26 February 2023 at 19:00 at the Augustinian Abbey in Old Brno.

Listeners will be introduced to the Czech lands of the 18th century as a crossroads of classical musical Europe, or rather Europeans. You will hear the music of Dittersdorf, his pupil Vaňhal, Brixi and last but not least, the popular (thanks to the film “Il Boemo”) Mysliveček. They all lived part of their lives in the Czech lands. The predominance will be given to the compositions of Jan Křtitel Vaňhal. In the case of Musica Florea and Marek Štryncl, this will not be the first time that Vaňhal has had an exceptional position. For many years, the ensemble has collaborated with the Vaňhal International Society in an effort to highlight the composer’s high artistic qualities, which unhesitatingly bear comparison with artists such as Mozart and Haydn. And it was actually Mozart, Haydn, Vaňhal, and Dittersdorf who played together in a string quartet.

Roman Janál is a leading Czech baritone with an impressive range of interpretive abilities. Janál is a regular guest of the Musica Florea ensemble. One of the first meetings between Marek Štryncl and the ensemble and Roman Janál took place in 1999 at the Estates Theatre during the production of Castor et Pollux by Jean-Philippe Rameau. Roman Janál won the Thalia Award for one of the main roles.

This year, Musica Florea will offer much more musical beauty. The Musica Florea Bohemia 2023 cycle is dominated by two summer stage performances in the open-air auditorium of HAMU: Sub olea pacis et palma virtutis by Jan Dismas Zelenka and The Eye Doctor by Vojtěch Matyáš Jírovec. It is also worth mentioning that the multi-year project of performing and recording Dvořák’s symphonies in authentic performances on romantic instruments will be completed.

PROGRAMME:

Karl Ditters von Dittersdorf (1739-1799): Aria in C “Voces parate almas”

Jan Křtitel Vaňhal (1739-1813): Sinfonia I in D major (SIX SIMPHONIES A GRANDE ORCHESTRE) Allegro assai, Andante, Presto

František Xaver Brixi (1732-1771): Aria ex Dis “Mater misericordiae”

Jan Křtitel Vaňhal (1739-1813): Aria un Dis “Quis me separabit”

Jan Křtitel Vaňhal (1739-1813): Sinfonia XXII in D minor “Periodique” Allegro, Andante, Presto

Josef Mysliveček (1737-1781): Aria in D “Hic est locus ad laundandum Dominu”

Jan Křtitel Vaňhal (1739-1813): Mottetto in D pro Omni Festivitate et de B:V: Mariae et de S: Trinitate

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