The Czech National Concert Band Paid Tribute to Smetana and Shakespeare with Two Concerts

The Czech National Concert Band didn’t take a break during the summer and accepted an invitation to perform at two significant events.

On Friday, July 26, the band performed at the prestigious Shakespeare Festival in Litomyšl. In the beautiful setting of the riding hall at Litomyšl Castle, they presented a program that combined the works of Litomyšl native Bedřich Smetana with those of the greatest playwright of all time, William Shakespeare. Under the baton of chief conductor Václav Blahunek, the concert opened with Smetana’s majestic March for Shakespeare’s Festivities. This was followed by the world premiere of Sonnet 18, a composition by Jiří Kabát, which skillfully set Shakespeare’s verses to music. The solo part was performed by soprano Irena Pohl Houkalová, founder of the ZUŠ Open festival and director of the Magdalena Kožená Endowment Fund.

The event in Litomyšl was organized under the auspices of the ZUŠ Open festival. The program continued with the energetic Skočná and Mařenka’s aria from the opera The Bartered Bride, and the finale featured two Slavonic Dances by Antonín Dvořák. On Saturday, July 27, the band performed in the picturesque southern gardens of Prague Castle. Once again with soprano Irena Pohl Houkalová and conductor Václav Blahunek, they presented the same concert program from the previous day, this time enriched with additional arias and overtures by Smetana and Dvořák. The performance concluded with Fučík’s Florentine March and Kmoch’s Music, Music.

The band will return to the stage in autumn with two concerts in Pardubice. On October 12, they will perform in Suk Hall at the House of Music, where they will accompany trumpeter Jiří Houdek. On November 2, everyone is warmly invited to the swing festival at Ideon Hall, where the band will take part in the final gala concert with Felix Slováček Jr.