A tourist visiting Prague late last month was so incensed by a classical music concert he attended that he hand-delivered a complaint to The Prague Post afterward. "Either [the soloist's] instrument was ill-tuned or he can't play or he was drunk," Ipe van der Deen of Holland fumed. "As our tickets tell us that no refund is possible, I suggest [the soloist] pay the 1,200 Kč [$54] as a gift to train children who want to learn how to play a cello."

Ilja Šmíd, the new director of the Prague Symphony Orchestra, feels van der Deen's pain. "I hate these people who dress like Mozart and pull in tourists off the street to these concerts," Šmíd says. "It's a great shame for Prague."

It's certainly a dichotomy that a city with one of the proudest musical traditions in Europe has little to offer summer visitors other than "tourist music," second-rate ensembles playing tired renditions of Mozart and Vivaldi standards. That's changing — last month, with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra's excellent "Prague Proms" series, and this month with Šmíd's Prague Music Festival, a series of seven concerts featuring the Prague Philharmonia as the house orchestra. Visiting orchestras include the Pilsen Philharmonic and the South Bohemia Chamber Philharmonic.

Like Prague Proms, the Prague Music Festival is built on easily accessible programming: Beethoven symphonies, well-known works by Smetana and Dvořák, and dashes of flavoring from familiar names like Tchaikovsky, Liszt, Rossini and Mozart. Šmíd, a respected musicologist coming off 12 years at the helm of the Prague Philharmonia, adds depth to the programming by his selection of performers and venues.

The festival is bracketed by two outstanding conductors with international credentials: Martin Turnovský for the opening concert (Aug. 12, Mozart and Beethoven) and Jiří Bělohlávek for the finale (Aug. 24, Smetana, Dvořák and Liszt). Turnovský's granddaughter Julia, a promising young violinist who has been playing since the age of 5, is the featured soloist in the Mozart Concerto for Violin and Orchestra ("Turkish," Köchel 219).

Young performers are featured throughout the festival. Yuki Takahashi, a rising vocal star from Japan, will also be onstage for opening night. Conductor Jakub Hrůša, who at 25 is already a veteran of the Czech regional orchestra circuit, will be at the podium for "Praga Mia Bella" night (Aug. 19, Rossini, Tchaikovsky and Beethoven). And a pair of young stars, violinist Jiří Vodička and pianist Veronika Böhmová, will be performing at the final concert, with Böhmová playing a Liszt piano concerto.

Along with the five orchestral concerts, there will be two chamber concerts at a very unusual venue: Galerie Miro, a unique former church space opposite Strahov Monastery that now houses one of the city's better art galleries. The programs there are equally distinctive. On Aug. 16, the Moravian male vocal quartet QVOX will show their incredible repertoire with a cappella renditions of songs ranging from French and Italian Baroque to modern-day spirituals, swing and pop. On Aug. 20, a female foursome — soprano Alena Miro, viola player Jitka Hosprová, guitarist Denisa Veškrnová and dancer Tereza Burešová — offers another program that spans the centuries, from Händel and Schubert to a Piazzolla tango suite.

"I tried to do programming for people who don't regularly attend classical concerts," says Šmíd. "It features popular composers and works that are not as hard or serious as you would find during the regular season. I hope this will provide a pleasant experience for visitors to Prague."

At last year's Prague Music Festival, Šmíd estimates that 90 percent to 95 percent of his audiences were tourists. This year, he says, "I hope that some Czech people will know that this festival is on, and that we're trying to do quality summer music in Prague."

If they somehow miss it, Šmíd has grand plans to attract their attention next year. Though it's not firm yet, he's hoping to put his festival along with Prague Proms and several other high-caliber music events under one umbrella with the working title of Prague Musical Summer. The idea would be to organize a two-month series of festivals and concerts that complement rather than compete against each other, and give both visitors and locals one identifiable brand name for good music.

"We would like to combine our ideas and advertising, and make all the festivals stronger and more visible," he says. "And of course we would like audiences to know this is where to find serious music during the summer."