The traditional Christmas concert, organized annually by the law firm Císař, Češka, Smutný in collaboration with the Czech National Symphony Orchestra at Prague’s Rudolfinum, cannot take place this year due to the pandemic. However, audiences won’t miss out on the experience – the orchestra has prepared a special Christmas program titled Christmas Festival, which will be broadcast on Mall.tv on Tuesday, December 22 at 6:00 PM. The concert will thus be a unique pre-Christmas cultural event that people can look forward to.
The holiday concert will be broadcast from the home studio of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra, where they recently recorded, for example, Andrea Bocelli’s album Believe, and earlier also the Oscar-winning score by Ennio Morricone for Quentin Tarantino’s film The Hateful Eight. The program will feature traditional Czech carols, famous melodies by classical composers such as W. A. Mozart and J. S. Bach, as well as more modern American Christmas tunes by Leroy Anderson and Irving Berlin. The concert will be conducted by Jan Chalupecký, with soprano Ester Pavlů performing as the soloist, joined by a chamber choir of scholarship recipients from the MenART program, which supports students in elementary art schools.
“For the past five years, meeting at the Rudolfinum for the Christmas concert has been a beautiful and cherished tradition for us. Unfortunately, this year has not favored traditions, gatherings, or music. That makes it even more important for us to ensure that the series of Christmas concerts is not broken, but rather preserved, even if in a somewhat altered form. That’s why we’ve moved the concert into the virtual space, where it can bring joy to an even larger audience,” says Petr Michal, Chairman of the Board of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra and partner at the law firm Císař, Češka, Smutný, which is a proud long-term partner of the orchestra. The concert is part of a series of charitable activities by Czech artists, made accessible to the public during the challenging times of the COVID-19 pandemic, and serves as a partial substitute for traditional Advent concerts.
“Thanks to the continued support of the law firm, we’re able to bring back part of our Christmas program in a new format and showcase the range of talent and musical diversity that our orchestra has long demonstrated. That’s also why, alongside classical pieces, you’ll hear modern arrangements – and with them, not only Baby Jesus, but Santa Claus as well,” says Jan Hasenöhrl, trumpeter and director of the Czech National Symphony Orchestra.
You can watch the concert for free on the online TV platform Mall.tv as part of the #kulturažije series on Tuesday, December 22, from 6:00 PM. The concert will remain available for streaming afterwards. For more information, visit www.vanoce.akccs.cz.
