The 23rd season of the EuroArt Prague festival will be opened by Stamic’s quartet and pianist Ivo Kahánek
An attractive program performed by the festival’s resident ensemble Stamic’s Quartet and renowned pianist Ivo Kahánek will be heard on Tuesday, September 27, in Martinů Hall. The quartet Suk’s “Meditation” and Dvořák’s String Quartet in D minor will be followed in the second half by pianist Ivo Kahánek, who together with the Stamicovs will perform Franck’s challenging Piano Quintet in F minor.
During the season, the festival will present domestic and foreign artists, as well as laureates of prestigious competitions, and present a novelty in the form of cooperation with Open House Prague.
In the words of the pianist Ivo Kahanek is a conjunction with Stamicovci in addition to music and long-time friendship: “Stamic’s quartet has been accompanying me since the very beginning of my professional career, with whose members you use my friendship, and I am extremely happy that I can perform with them again at the EuroArt festival!” says the successful pianist. On Tuesday, September 27, the Martinů Hall will feature Suk’s Meditation on the Old Bohemian Choral of St. Wenceslas op. 35a, Dvořák’s String Quartet in D minor, op. 34 No. 9 and César Franck’s Piano Quintet in F minor.
(Source: Stamic Quartet)
The festival program runs from September to June next year and will offer nine concerts in the coming years. The young laureates of the Prague Spring competition will present themselves from local ensembles and performers Kukal’s Quartetfile Trio Bohémowhich is the holder of many prestigious competition awards, or the winner of this year’s Prague Spring competition for a French clarinetist Lilian Lefebvre. Other foreign guests – German – will also visit the festival Amaryllis Quartet or Vienna Piano Quartet.
The festival is also preparing a novelty in the form of cooperation with the organizations Open House Prague, which is presented by the festival director and a member of Stamic’s quartet Josef Kekula: “In the next one, we are preparing for our listeners a new type of concert thematically connected with architecture, which will take place in an interesting architectural building. In cooperation, they agreed with the organization Open House Prague, which has extensive experience in the presentation of interesting buildings, and so in the series Unity of Place and Time the works of Josef Suk, Bohuslav Martinů and Vítězslav Novák will be heard at the Autoklub České republiky in Opletalová Street. The concert will be dedicated to the important Czech architect Pavlo Janák on the 140th anniversary of his birth and will be accompanied by a professional lecture.” As part of the festival season, the premiere of Pavel Trojan’s piano quintet in collaboration with pianist Aneta Majerová will also take place in April 2023.
International chamber music festival EuroArt Prague became an obvious part of Prague’s cultural events in the field of chamber music during its duration. It brings top foreign artists to the metropolis and partner cities and gives space to domestic ensembles and soloists, often from the rising generation, to whom it opens up the possibility of young growth. It presents Czech and world premieres and thus develops the audience’s knowledge and awareness of world and domestic contemporary chamber music. The resident ensemble of the festival is his Stamic Quartet. Concerts are held year-round in the Martinů Hall of the Liechtenstein Palace on the Lesser Side in Prague.
Photo by Ivo Kahánek: Dušan Martinček