Social Programme

 August 26, 2024 at 7 PM

The Bethlehem Chapel is a medieval landmark in the Old Town of Prague, founded in 1391.

You will have the unique opportunity to experience the birthplace of the European Reformation and to listen to beautiful music.

For more information click here.

Ensemble Inégal  - conductor and organ Adam Viktora, soprano Gabriela Eibenová, concert master Florian Deuter.

Programme:

Vivaldi in Bohemia

What connection does the life and work of the most played composer of all time, Antonio Vivaldi, have with Bohemia?

It is almost certain that the composer visited Prague at the turn of 1729 and 1730 on the occasion of the performance of his operas, which represent one of the most important areas of his work. Among the numerous nobles with whom Vivaldi maintained contacts were several noblemen settled in Bohemia. To Count Václav Morzine, in whose Prague band Vivaldi held the honoured position of honorary Kapellmeister, he dedicated his famous violin concertos Le quattro stagioni (The Four Seasons) in 1725. Vivaldi dedicated his lute trios to Count John Joseph of Vrtba, an enthusiastic lute enthusiast. This programme will feature a performance by the renowned baroque ensemble Ensemble Inégal with soprano Gabriela Eibenová of Vivaldi's compositions that have been preserved in Czech baroque archives. The copy of Salve Regina RV 617 in the Moravian Museum is the only surviving source of this Vivaldi work.

The programme is supplemented by works by the Czech composer Jan Josef Ignác Brentner, a contemporary of Vivaldi, who was one of the most played composers in Central Europe in his time. His compositions have been preserved not only in Bohemia, Poland, Germany and Austria, but also in South American Bolivia, where they were brought by Jesuit missionaries in the first half of the 18th century.