The Prague Spring International Music Festival (, commonly , Prague Spring) is a

classical music Classical music generally refers to the art music of the Western world, considered to be #Relationship to other music traditions, distinct from Western folk music or popular music traditions. It is sometimes distinguished as Western classical mu ...

festival A festival is an event celebrated by a community and centering on some characteristic aspect or aspects of that community and its religion or cultures. It is often marked as a local or national holiday, Melā, mela, or Muslim holidays, eid. A ...

held every year in

Prague Prague ( ; ) is the capital and List of cities and towns in the Czech Republic, largest city of the Czech Republic and the historical capital of Bohemia. Prague, located on the Vltava River, has a population of about 1.4 million, while its P ...

, Czech Republic, with symphony orchestras and chamber music ensembles from around the world. The first festival was held in 1946 under the patronage of Czechoslovak president Edvard Beneš, and its organizing committee was made up of important figures in Czech musical life. In that year, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra was celebrating its fiftieth anniversary and was therefore granted to appear in all of the orchestral concerts. The project was initiated by Rafael Kubelík, chief conductor of the orchestra at the time. Such musicians as Karel Ančerl,

Leonard Bernstein Leonard Bernstein ( ; born Louis Bernstein; August 25, 1918 – October 14, 1990) was an American conductor, composer, pianist, music educator, author, and humanitarian. Considered to be one of the most important conductors of his time, he was th ...

, Sir Adrian Boult, Rudolf Firkušný, Jaroslav Krombholc, Rafael Kubelík, Moura Lympany, Yevgeny Mravinsky, Charles Münch,

Ginette Neveu Ginette Neveu (11 August 191928 October 1949) was a French violinist. At the age of 15, she beat David Oistrakh to win the Polish Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition. She made several concert tours and was considered to be 'one of the finest vi ...

, Jarmila Novotná, Lev Oborin,

David Oistrakh David Fyodorovich Oistrakh (; – 24 October 1974) was a Soviet Russian violinist, List of violists, violist, and Conducting, conductor. He was also Professor at the Moscow Conservatory, People's Artist of the USSR (1953), and Laureate of the ...

, Ken-Ichiro Kobayashi and Jan Panenka have appeared at the festival. Since 1952, the festival has opened on 12 May, the anniversary of the death of Bedřich Smetana, with his cycle of symphonic poems '' Má vlast'' (''My Country''), and it used to close (until 2003) with

Ludwig van Beethoven Ludwig van Beethoven (baptised 17 December 177026 March 1827) was a German composer and pianist. He is one of the most revered figures in the history of Western music; his works rank among the most performed of the classical music repertoire ...

's Symphony No. 9. The festival commemorates important musical anniversaries by including works by the composers concerned on its programmes, and presents Czech as well as world premieres of compositions by contemporary authors. Artists and orchestras who performed at the festival include Sviatoslav Richter, Lorin Maazel, Herbert von Karajan,

Mstislav Rostropovich Mstislav Leopoldovich Rostropovich (27 March 192727 April 2007) was a Russian Cello, cellist and conducting, conductor. In addition to his interpretations and technique, he was well known for both inspiring and commissioning new works, which enl ...

, Julian Lloyd Webber, Boris Pergamenschikow, Lucia Popp, Kim Borg, Sir Colin Davis, Maurice André, Dmitry Sitkovetsky, Leonid Kogan, Paul Klecki,

Gustav Leonhardt Gustav Maria Leonhardt (30 May 1928 – 16 January 2012) was a Dutch keyboardist, conductor, musicologist, teacher and editor. He was a leading figure in the historically informed performance movement to perform music on period instruments. Leo ...

, Anne-Sophie Mutter, Giovanni Bellucci, Alfred Brendel, Heinrich Schiff, Leopold Stokowski,

Arthur Honegger Arthur Honegger (; 10 March 1892 – 27 November 1955) was a Swiss-French composer who was born in France and lived a large part of his life in Paris. Honegger was a member of Les Six. For Halbreich, '' Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher'' is "more even ...

, Arthur Rubinstein, and Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Prague Spring's traditional venue is the Rudolfinum concert hall, a neo-renaissance building situated on the bank of the

Vltava The Vltava ( , ; ) is the longest river in the Czech Republic, a left tributary of the Elbe River. It runs southeast along the Bohemian Forest and then north across Bohemia, through Český Krumlov, České Budějovice, and Prague. It is com ...

River. It is complemented by Prague's ornate Municipal House (), which has a larger seating capacity. The Prague Spring has a particular focus on supporting younger performers. The Prague Spring International Music Competition was established just one year after the festival itself and is held each year in various instrumental sections. The list of past winners of competition includes

, Saša Večtomov, Natalia Gutman, James Galway and Maurice Bourgue.

Competitions, disciplines, and laureates

*Piano: Giovanni Bellucci,

Martin Kasík Martin may refer to: Places Antarctica * Martin Peninsula, Marie Byrd Land * Port Martin, Adelie Land * Point Martin, South Orkney Islands Europe * Martin, Croatia, a village * Martin, Slovakia, a city * Martín del Río, Aragón, Spain * M ...

, Ivo Kahánek *Organ: Václav Rabas, Aleš Bárta, Martin Sander, Jaroslav Tůma *Violin: Ivan Štraus, Bohuslav Matoušek, Ivan Ženatý, Petr Messiereur, Jindřich Pazdera, *Cello:

*Trumpet: Vladislav Kozderka, Vladimír Rejlek *Trombone: Nicolas Moutier, Carl Lenthe *Flute: Jean Ferrandis, Andrea Lieberknecht, Tatjana Ruhland, Dora Seres, Denis Bouriakov, Yubeen Kim, Chaeyeon You *French Horn: Radek Baborák *Basson: Luboš Hucek, Václav Vonášek *Oboe: Liběna Séquardtová *Singing: Dagmar Pecková, Štefan Margita, Magda Ianculescu *Harpsichord: Jean Rondeau, Anastasia Antonova *Conducting: Charles Olivieri-Munroe, Pierre-Michel Durand

References

Bibliography

* Antonín Matzner a kol.: Šedesát pražských jar. Togga: Praha, 2006.

External links

*
The first Prague Spring International Cello Competition in 1950 in photographs, documents and reminiscencesPrague Spring International Music Festival

List of all flute competition laureates
* {{Authority control Music in Prague Classical music festivals in the Czech Republic Festivals in Prague 1946 establishments in Czechoslovakia Music festivals established in 1946 Spring (season) in the Czech Republic Czech Philharmonic

Competitions, disciplines, and laureates

See also

References

Bibliography

External links