Prague Spring to focus on French music

Prague, March 21 (CTK) - This year's 68th Prague Spring international music festival will put an emphasis on French music, it will offer concerts in unusual premises and also a new piano festival to be held in autumn, the festival's director Roman Belor told journalists Thursday.

Prague Spring annually starts on May 12, the death anniversary of Czech composer Bedrich Smetana (1824-1884). It runs through June 2. This year's festival will continue with an autumn piano festival for the first time.

The festival's opening concert has traditionally been My Country, a cycle of symphony poems by Smetana. This year it will be performed by the Radio France Philharmonic Orchestra.

On May 20, the ensemble Schola Gregoriana Pragensis will present Gregorian chants among exhibits in Prague's Technical Museum.

Significant guests to the 68th Prague Spring will include U.S. pianist Garrick Ohlson who will play in the Rudolfinum hall on May 26.

Ostravska banda, a Czech ensemble focusing on contemporary music, will give a concert in the Archa theatre on May 31 together with Belgian pianist Daan Vandewalle as the soloist.

The festival will also offer concerts of renowned Czech mezzo-soprano Sona Cervena, English Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Munich Philharmonic, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra together with pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic playing with another famous Czech mezzo soprano, Magdalena Kozena, and conducted by her husband Simon Rattle.

The players' competition, the annual part of Prague Spring, will be held in the horn and organ categories this year.

The commission has admitted 59 and 42 contestants from all over the world in the two categories, respectively.

The new piano festival in autumn will be a celebration of piano and Rudolf Firkusny, the late Czech pianist linked to Prague Spring. The event will open with U.S. pianist Emanuel Ax's concert on November 24.