SUMMER FESTIVITIES OF EARLY MUSIC
14th international music festival
14 July – 6 August 2013
ROMA AETERNA
This July, the Summer Festivities of Early Music will enter their fourteenth season. As each year, the festival takes place in the exquisite surroundings of some of the gems of Prague’s historical architecture: Prague Castle, St. Agnes Cloister, New-Town Hall, Břevnov Monastery, and Troja Chateau. The programming of the upcoming season focuses on the musical tradition of Rome: in each of the seven concerts it will let us glimpse the fascinating variety of genres and styles that thrived in the Renaissance and Baroque Rome as it held the status of one of the world’s music capitals.
The 14th edition of Summer Festivities of Early Music will open in full flourish: on 18 July the renowned Cantus Cölln will appear in the Spanish Hall of the Prague Castle. In a programme called Theatrum sacrum they will perform splendid oratorios by Roman and German baroque masters.
The festival will further host artists from Spain, Portugal, Norway, and Holland, and offer programmes of music from the Middle Ages to the High Baroque. The night of 2 August will be dedicated to one of the illustrious Roman authors, Arcangelo Corelli, whose innovations in instrumental music inspired several generations of composers.
On 6 August, the festival closes with a grand Roman Festival, held in Prague Castle’s Spanish Hall. The programme, comprising of arias by G. F. Handel and A. Vivaldi, and orchestral pieces by Handel and Corelli, is modelled on the opulent concert productions in the palaces of Roman cardinals. The brilliant French soprano Claire Lefilliâtre will be accompanied by an ensemble created especially for this festive occasion – the joint baroque orchestras of Arte Dei Suonatori from Poland and the residential Collegium Marianum.
The festive and at the same time relaxed, summery atmosphere of the three festival weeks informs the preceding Additional Event on 14 July when the Baroque Clam-Gallas Palace in the Old Town will transform into a Roman Palazzo in festa, throbbing with Italian music and permeated with the aroma of caffè and gelato.
