Czech and Moravian Christmas Mass

Performed in the Czech original with Czech and English subtitles. Concert duration: 2 hours, 1 intermission Concert performance. Affectionately nicknamed Rybovka, it was created in 1796 and is by the Czech composer Jakub Jan Ryba, who also wrote his own Czech text for the mass. Although Ryba respected parts of the Latin musical mass, he actually created a pastoral play about the announcement of Christ's birth and the arrival of the shepherds to the manger, which, thanks to its fresh and joyful melodies, became immediately popular and even today, more than two hundred years after its creation, is an integral part of the Christmas season. However, Ryba's Mass was not the only one at the time of its creation; one of its predecessors is the charming work of the Moravian cantor Josef Schreier, Missa pastoralis in C boemica, also known as the Moravian Christmas Mass "Listen, Miko, listen!", which was created around 1755. Schreier's Mass is actually a series of small pastorals that humorously mix Latin text with texts in the Wallachian dialect. Its musical style is based largely on Moravian folk music of the late Baroque period, making it an interesting counterpart to Ryba's classicist Mass.