The 2008 Concert Season

Bertramka’s concert season begins on April 12 and concludes with a concert on October 29, 2008. Just as in past years, many of Mozart’s pieces will be performed here, as well as pieces by his contemporaries and pieces by modern composers. The majority of the concerts will take place in Bertramka’s concert hall, though during the summer months (July and August) selected concerts will be held in the picturesque setting of the garden. In 2007 we commemorated the 180th anniversary of the death of Ludvig van Beethoven with the “Mozart Meets Beethoven” project, a concert series which featured all of Mozart’s and Beethoven’s string quartets in performances by the foremost Czech ensembles. We will be examining the string quartet during this year as well in the concert series “Quartets of Two Centuries, 1750–1950,” which again presents a number of Mozart’s quartets as well as the works of other composers who lived during the given time period, (including Dvořák, Haydn, Mendelssohn, Ravel, Smetana and Schubert). The project also features such leading Czech string quartets as the Talich, Kocián, Stamic, Škampa, M. Nostitz and Zemlinský quartets. The Czech string quartet tradition is a grand one, and very significant in terms of the propagation of Czech music throughout the world.

Last year we inaugurated the “Divertimenti in Prague” summer festival under the auspices of master Josef Suk. He himself considers the string quartet to be the “ideal ensemble” and is quite fond of chamber concerts of this type. The festival continues this year as well and will take place during the second half of August in the Bertramka garden. We have the honor to announce that the members of the world-famous Pražák Quartet have accepted our invitation. Concertgoers will have an opportunity to hear the works of Mozart, Smetana, Dvořák, Janáček, Borodin, Haydn and other composers.

In the concerts listed under the title “Mozart vs. Salieri” we would like to aquaint listeners with Mozart’s Italian contemporary, the excellent musician and conductor Antonio Salieri. After 1766 he made his second home in Vienna, where he worked as the kapellmeister and composer of the imperial court. He also ranked among the best teachers of his age, particularly in the areas of voice, composition and music theory, as evidenced by his pupils, who included Ludvig van Beethoven, Johann Nepomukk Hummel, Ignaz Moscheles, Franz Schubert, Franz Liszt, Franz Xaver Süssmayr and even Mozart’s son Franz Xaver. Most people who have heard the name Salieri know him primarily as the man guilty of killing Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart. Aleksander Sergeevich Pushkin, for example, wrote the beautiful poem “Mozart and Salieri” in which Salieri is branded a murderer whose motive was the oft-quoted uprising of the “spirit of mediocrity.” Further misconceptions about the relationship between Salieri and Mozart were reinforced by Miloš Forman’s world-famous film Amadeus. These misconceptions are often due to distortions of history, mistakes in time relationships between events and blatant factual errors. Salieri had no need to claim Mozart’s compositions as his own, nor even to envy his younger contemporary. Musical historians have long since dismissed the idea of any contribution by Salieri to Mozart’s death. On the contrary, all period documents, letters and event testify to the fact that Mozart and Salieri respected each other and had a very proper relationship.

This September, the Monument to W. A. Mozart and the Dušeks at Bertramka will be host to the 10th Annual Mozartiana Iuventus music festival. This nine-concert cycle, whose programming includes music by contemporary composers, is a traditional opportunity for extraordinary young talents to perform for Czech and international audiences. Each program on the festival contains a work by W. A. Mozart, creating a fascinating confrontation between Mozart’s pieces and contemporary pieces by composers who were inspired by the spirit of Classicism as they wrote. Young artists welcome this chance to present themselves every year, just as the festival organizers are pleased to present the winners of many competitions, including Prague Spring (Tomáš Jamník and Ivo Kahánek, for example).

ABOUT BERTRAMKA VILLA

The Villa Bertramka is the most significant place in Prague connected with one of the worlds greatest composers - Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (who stayed at this 17th-century Villa during his visits to Prague in 1787 and 1791). A former vineyard manor house from the turn of the 17th century became in 1784 the property of the singer Josefina Duskova and the pianist, pedagogue and composer Frantisek Xaver Dusek.

In 1956 the Museum of Mozart and the Duseks was opened on the Bertramka premises, bearing witness to the history of the place and Mozart’s visits. All available memorabilia of W. A. Mozart and the Duseks, namely personal keepsakes, musical instruments, manuscripts, letters, period pictures, engravings, prints and other documents testifying to Mozart’s close relationship to Prague and to distinguished personalities of the then affluent Czech culture, have been gathered in this exhibition. The exhibition occupies what was then residential floor with seven rooms of which the salon, where Mozart allegedly used to stay and the bedroom, where the original painted wooden ceiling has been successfully restored, are the most impressive.

The music salon with period decoration that would be used for music purposes at the time of Mozart’s visits, now hosts regular chamber music concerts sought by all music-lovers visiting Prague because of the constant high standard of artistic quality. In the summer months concerts are held in the Bertramka garden (from April to October), as its amphitheatre-like terrain not only provides ideal acoustic conditions for music productions, but also transforms the whole place into an enclosed oasis of peace, tranquillity and memories!

Travel

Metro: Andel (line B), Tram 4, 7, 9, 12, 14 - Bertramka stop

Mozart stayed in this 17th-century house, which features several rooms set up as a museum dedicated to the famous composer.