The event will be reserved for a symbolic 1,200 people. Photo Credit: JMK
Brno, Sept. 21 (BD) – On Friday 23 September 2022, starting at 6pm, Hall G2 of the Brno Exhibition Centre will celebrate the 1,200th anniversary of the first written mention of Moravia and the Moravians in the Latin chronicle of the Annals of the Frankish Kingdom. Filharmonie Brno will perform the opera Sinfonietta a Taras Bulba by the famous Moravian composer Leoš Janáček.
“The capacity is symbolically 1,200 listeners. In South Moravia we are aware of our roots. Moravia is about people, lifestyle and culture. This is important to me,” said South Moravian Governor Jan Grolich.
“When considering the programme for such an important concert, the choice of Leoš Janáček fell naturally and without hesitation. He is the greatest Moravian composer, one of the most performed opera composers in the world, a symbol of our country’s identity,” said Marie Kučerová, director of Filharmonie Brno, adding that Janáček was part of the orchestra’s DNA.
The concert will open with Janáček’s Sinfonietta, the composer’s most famous orchestral work. It was written in the atmosphere of the preparations for the 8th All Sokol Meeting in Prague, when the 72-year-old composer was asked to write “some notes” for the event. “A pretty little Sinfonietta with fanfare,” he said of his last and possibly most famous orchestral work, in a letter to Kamila Stösslová. Part of this work became the Czech Republic’s presidential fanfare.
The Rhapsody for Orchestra Taras Bulba, which together with the Sinfonietta is the most famous symphonic composition by Leoš Janáček (1854-1928), is almost unique in contemporary national and world music literature. It is inspired by the short story of the same name by the Russian author Nikolai Vasilyevich Gogol, and premiered 101 years ago in Brno.
The Chronicle relates an event that took place in the autumn of 822: the then Frankish King Louis I the Pious, son of Emperor Charlemagne, ended his hunting expedition and came to Frankfurt am Main to spend the winter. There he convened a congress, in which the great men of the Frankish Empire were to participate and where the envoys of all the Eastern Slavs were also heard. Among them were the Moravians, appearing in their first written testimony. The parchment sheet bears the inscription ‘Marvanorú’, meaning ‘of the Moravians’. A copy of this rare source is now preserved in Austria.
“Moravia speaks of a way of life, of people and of how we look at the world. In South Moravia we are more aware of this than in other regions, which is why we want to remind people of it. It is not only about us, but also about respect for our ancestors,” said Grolich.
Tickets can be purchased at www.filharmonie-brno.cz . The tickets also serve as a parking permit in the BVV area.
