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Holiday classics

A quick guide to the best concerts of the season
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By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
December 26th, 2007 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Playing at the master's hideaway. The M. Nostitz Quartet join fellow musicians this week up at Bertramka.
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It’s a banner holiday season for classical music, so there’s no reason to sit home this year. Along with the usual seasonal fare on the city’s major stages, you’ll find a wealth of orchestra concerts, chamber music performances and special events to lift the spirits and add a special luster to family outings.
Take your pick from the list of recommendations below: ballet, opera, easily accessible orchestral favorites or more refined ensemble programs. It’s all part of the greatest gift that Prague offers its residents, the rich musical tradition that remains alive and vital in the city’s renowned performing arts venues.
The Czech Touches of Music festival returns this year with one of its strongest lineups yet. On Dec. 28, the Virtuosi di Praga chamber orchestra will perform in Bethlehem Chapel in Old Town, a venue rarely open for concerts and worth a visit just to imagine Jan Hus preaching to his followers there in the early 1400s. Young cello star Jiří Bárta plays at St. Agnes’ Convent on Dec. 29, accompanied by Ivan Ženatý on violin and Jaromír Klepáč on piano in a mostly Czech program. And on Jan. 6, the Smetanovo Trio closes out the festival with a peformance at Suk Hall in the Rudolfinum. If you have not seen this outstanding trio yet, you should, as they are on their way to international stardom.
Church concerts take on added meaning during the holidays, especially if you’re sitting amid all the angels and saints feeling the heavenly throb of one of the city’s regal organs. Arguably the best is at St. Jacob’s Basilica in Old Town, where on Dec. 29 soprano Zuzana Šebestová will be singing Slovak Christmas carols along with selections by Bach, Vivaldi and Handel, accompanied by Stanislav Surin on the organ. On Jan. 1, Irena Chřibková takes the keyboard with Ladislav Kozderka on trumpet for a lovely Baroque program.
Speaking of Baroque, the city’s finest purveyors of early music, Collegium Marianum, are putting on a holiday program called “Christmas in Baroque Naples” twice (at 4 and 7:30) on Dec. 28. Sopranos Marta Fadjevičová and Barbora Sojková will join the ensemble for Christmas cantatas by Scarlatti and Provenzale, and traditional Neopolitan songs. If you have never been to a concert at the group’s Baroque library hall in Old Town, this would be a perfect time to treat yourself to that charming pleasure.
Bertramka, Mozart’s home away from home when he was in Prague, is continuing its fine chamber music program during the holidays with three of the city’s better young string ensembles. On Dec. 29, the Kocian Quartet is joined by bassist Pavel Nejtek and the outstanding pianist Ivo Kahánek for Mozart and Haydn selections. On Dec. 31, the M. Nostitz Quartet adds Dvořák to the Mozart and Haydn mix, and the following day the Stamic Quartet offers an intriguing trio of string quartets by Mozart, de Arriaga and Grieg.
If your tastes run to larger venues and events, you’ll find everything from family-friendly performances throughout the week to dress-up fun for adults on New Year’s Eve.
The State Opera reprises its annual staging of Strauss’s Die Fledermaus, with standard performances scheduled for Dec. 29 and 30. The New Year’s Eve performance is a gala event that includes a cocktail reception, buffet dinner, midnight drink and dancing on stage until 3 a.m. If you are looking for a classy and memorable way to welcome in the new year, this is it.
You can also enjoy a Metropolitan Opera production over the holidays, courtesy of the live high-definition broadcasts being shown in Prague this season (see cinema story on page B9). On Jan. 1 at Kino Aero at 7, it’s Englebert Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, with Vladimir Jurowski at the podium and a bit of a cross-dressing cast: Christine Schäfer as Gretel, Alice Coote as Hansel and Philip Langridge as the witch.
The Czech Philharmonic gives a nod to popular tastes with an afternoon concert on Dec. 31 that everyone can appreciate. Maestro Zdeněk Mácal leads a performance of a suite from Smetana’s Bartered Bride, selections from Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier, Johann Strauss’s Emperor Waltz and Ravel’s Bolero. If that program doesn’t send you home happy and humming, nothing will.
As always, conductor Friedemann Riehle has organized easy-on-the-ears New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day concerts with the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. At the afternoon performance Dec. 31 at Obecní dům, soprano Anda-Louise Bogza joins him for a program of Strauss, Mozart, Dvořák, Smetana and Puccini. The same program will be performed at the Rudolfinum the following day.
And if you can never get enough of The Nutcracker, the National Theater is offering plenty of opportunities to see it over the coming week (Dec. 30 at 2 and 6, Dec. 31 at 3, Jan. 3 at 8 and Jan. 5 at 2 and 6). This version, choreographed by Youri Vamos, artistic director of the ballet at Deutsche Oper am Rhein Düsseldorf, combines Tchaikovsky’s holiday classic with elements from Charles Dickens’s Christmas Carol. It’s a lively, colorful production, perfect for an afternoon out with the kids.
For more information on individual events, check the daily Calendar listings

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


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