9TH Zelenka Festival Prague – Dresden, 4th -8th OCTOBER 2023
This year’s Zelenka Festival Prague – Dresden will take place from 4th to 8th October 2023 in Prague and Dresden. The opening concert will present a programme of operatic pieces from the Dresden repertoire during Jan Dismas Zelenka’s tenure as teacher of Italian castrato singers. It was for such concert programmes that Zelenka procured the latest operatic material. Virtuosic and passionate arias di bravura will be performed by soprano Gabriela Eibenová and countertenor Filippo Mineccia together with the Slovak ensemble Musica Aeterna and its artistic director, Peter Zajíček. A spectacular setting of the Psalms in the programme Psalmi Vespertini II, performed by Ensemble Inégal and the Dresdner Kammerchor under the direction of Adam Viktora, will be performed on Friday 6th October in Prague and on Saturday 7th October at the Dreikönigskirche in Dresden. The final concert, dedicated to music from Zelenka’s copies arranged in his four books Collectaneorum Musicorum, will be performed by the internationally-renowned vocal ensemble Cinquecento specialising in Renaissance music. They will perform Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina and his legendary Missa Papae Marcelli combined with his Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah and Gregorian chant.
Wed 4/10/2023 – 19.30
Knights‘ Hall of the Grand-Priest’s Palace, Lesser Town
IL DUELLO AMOROSO DI DRESDA
/Vivaldi, Hasse, Giacomelli, Posile, Händel/
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Gabriela Eibenová – soprán / Filippo Mineccia /IT/ – alto
Musica Aeterna /SK/
Peter Zajíček – artistic director
The virtuosic and passionate arias di bravura in this programme give an insight into the concert repertoire at the Dresden court during J. D. Zelenka’s tenure as a royal musician, composer, bandleader, singer, teacher and curator of the royal music collections.
Fri 6/10/2023 – 19.30
Church of Our Lady under the Chain, Lesser Town
J. D. ZELENKA: PSALMI VESPERTINI II.
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Dresdner Kammerchor /DE/ and Ensemble Inégal /CZ/
Adam Viktora – conductor
Zelenka’s second vespers cycle Psalmi Vespertini II, will be performed in a joint production of Ensemble Inégal and Dresdner Kammerchor under the direction of Adam Viktora. The composition of this and the other three cycles is related to Zelenka’s growing importance and prestige in the milieu of his residence, the Dresden hofkapelle. From the second half of the 1820s onwards, the composer Zelenka also established himself there as a Kapellmeister, and for this reason, he began to build up his own repertoire consisting of his own works and those of his contemporaries.
Sat 7/10/2023 – 17.00
Dreikönigskirche, Dresden
J. D. ZELENKA: PSALMI VESPERTINI II.
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Dresdner Kammerchor /DE/ a Ensemble Inégal
Adam Viktora – dirigent
Sun 8/10/2023 – 19.30
Church of Our Lady under the Chain, Lesser Town
G. P. DA PALESTRINA: MISSA PAPAE MARCELLI
/from Zelenka’s Collection: Collectaneorum Musicorum/
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Cinquecento /AT/
Terry Wey – countertenor
Achim Schulz – tenor
Tore Tom Denys – tenor
Tomáš Lajtkep – tenor
Tim Scott Whiteley – baritone
Ulfried Staber – bass
Palestrina’s legendary Missa Papae Marcelli from Zelenka’s Collectaneorum Musicorum, a collection of Renaissance and early Baroque music, and Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah with Gregorian chant performed by Cinquecento, an international vocal ensemble specialising in Renaissance music.
Sun 8/10/2023 – 17.00
Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary and St. Charles the Great, Prague Karlov
TRADITIONAL MASS FROM THE 19TH SUNDAY AFTER THE SENDING OF THE HOLY SPIRIT
/Latin Mass in the Tridentine Rite with Renaissance music from the circuit of Zelenka’s interest/
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Traditional Holy Mass from the 19th Sunday after the Descent of the Holy Spirit offered for Jan Dismas Zelenka. Annually, in this way, at the Church of the Assumption and St. Charles the Great in Prague’s Charles Square, we honour the memory of Jan Dismas Zelenka as a godly man to whom we owe much of the beauty that surrounds us.
Societas Literatorum Sancti Henrici, Free Music Fraternity /CZ/
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The festival is organized by Ensemble Inégal with the financial support of the Ministry of Culture, the City of Prague and the Czech-German Future Fund.
