Baroque under the stars, virtuoso Vengerov and a Sunday spiritual afternoon. The 34th Festival Krumlov has begun.

14 / 07 / 2025

The start of the 34th International Music Festival Český Krumlov confirmed that the traditional, yet original event can start in style. The weekend concert marathon featured the music of the Baroque masters, emotive 20th century Italian, Russian and Estonian works, German Romanticism, and spiritual reflections in the temple space. Whether sung and danced in the water, played in the Castle Riding Hall or in the historic church, all concerts were united by top performances, strong emotions and the main theme: unexpected connections.

🎭 Unexpected Baroque: music, dance, and story in the open air

On Friday 11 July, the opening evening, entitled Unexpected Baroque, transformed the castle park and lake into a theatrical stage where music from the 17th and 18th centuries met live dance, lighting design and impressive choreography. With the artistic concept of RUN OPERUN and directed by Vilma Bořkovec from the same creative collective, the baroque concert was transformed into a ritual performance, during which the audience walked through the landscape between daylight, dusk, and darkness, guided by mysterious figures to the pond – the very heart of the musical world.

The musical aspect was taken care of by the Barocco sempre giovane orchestra under the baton of Vojtěch Spurný. Slovak soprano Simona Houda-Šaturová excelled in the role of the Queen, while the regal tone of Venezuelan trumpeter Pacho Flores stood out, for example, in Händel’s famous aria Let the Bright Seraphim from the oratorio Samson. The dramaturgy was built on the pillars of the Baroque – Vivaldi, Händel, Bach and lesser-known authors such as Neruda and Daquin. The music resonated not only with the surrounding nature, but also with dance performances by the water soul queen/baroque queen of the night, Polish-American artist Ida Victoria Nowakowska, and water creatures – JP Chandler from France, Mateusz Buszka and Piotr Promiński from Poland. Together they turned the opening night of the 34th Festival Krumlov into a dreamlike spectacle.

Spectators were also part of the ritual – from the path through the park to the musical climax at the pond. One visitor captured the atmosphere:

“Wonderful, admirable performance by the artists, the journey there and back lined with unexpected pageantry. Dreamy and enchanting. Bravo.“

🎻 Violin virtuoso Maxim Vengerov: Technique and passion

Saturday evening in the Castle Riding Hall belonged to one of the most important violinists of today – Maxim Vengerov. First, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, performing at the Festival Krumlov for the first time, under the baton of Daniel Raiskin, offered a remarkable contrast – Lucian Berio’s opening Rendering as an experimental “dialogue with Schubert”, Arvo Pärt’s meditative Cantus in memoriam Benjamin Britten, and Sergei Prokofiev’s classically tuned Symphony No.1 in D major. Everything seemed like a well thought out arc – from silence to sound, from classicism to passion.

After the break, the Grammy Award winner, often referred to by the music world as one of the best living violinists in the world, Maxim Vengerov, came on. He performed Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in E minor, Op. 64 with refinement and passion. The piece, which was unexpectedly performed instead of the previously announced repertoire, was chosen by the virtuoso because (with exaggeration) there are no pauses between the movements, so there is no clapping between them. The audience’s response was all the greater with the conclusion of the extraordinary concert. There was no end to the standing ovation and when the maestro’s unique stradivarius was followed by two encores of works by Tchaikovsky and Bach, the birth of an exceptional connection between the Festival Krumlov and a world-class violin legend was evident.

One audience member commented on the evening, “Amazing and hats off to the performance!”“

🎺 Organ Concert: when the church is filled with music

The afternoon of Sunday 13 July brought silence and contemplation in the form of an organ concert in the majestic St. Vitus Church in Krumlov. Trumpetist Jiří Houdek and organist Aleš Bárta paid tribute to the royal instrument and the rich tradition of sacred music.

The program offered a representative selection from Czech Baroque masters (Vejvanovský, Černohorský, Seger) through European composers such as Purcell, Clarke and Pachelbel to two works by Johann Sebastian Bach – including his popular chorale Jesus bleibet meine Freude. The pieces were performed with elegance and technical brilliance, and the temple space added to the intense experience.

How to express the feeling simply? The music resonated not only through the vault, but also through the inner silence of the audience. The dialogue between organ and trumpet sounded like an echo of the centuries, connecting the past with the present moment.

🎶 A beginning to remember

The opening weekend of the 34th International Music Festival Český Krumlov showed the breadth and boldness of the dramaturgy – from scenic baroque to new music in conjunction with the virtuosity of world-class soloists. It was the beginning of a festival that can be not only a musical event, but also a cultural experience that connects and transforms audiences and spaces.

Let the partners and visitors speak at the end:

“We are happy to be a proud partner of the festival.”

“A great opening weekend. A wonderful experience. 👏“