Concert of the group Hradišťan & Jiří Pavlica, 1 July - 8:30 p.m., Hradec Králové, Velké náměstí
Hradišťan, with artistic director and violinist Jiří Pavlica, is a unique ensemble with a high artistic and interpretative level, an unusually broad genre range and an unconventional repertoire which in its beginnings drew mainly on folk tradition. It often combines folk musical tradition with historical events, for example in the albums There Was War at Slavkov and Moravian Outlaw Songs. Hradišťan crosses the boundaries of musical genres and collaborates with personalities from various cultures of the world. It has performed on four continents, recorded more than 30 major sound recordings, collaborates with radio, television and film, and is a frequent guest at domestic and foreign festivals of traditional, alternative and classical music. Jiří Pavlica with Hradišťan has received gold records for the albums AG Flek a Hradišťan, Echoes of the Soul, Cape of Good Hope, Hradišťan Live, Fragile Seconds and a platinum record for the album At the Solstice.
Concert of the folk group Kantoři, 2 July - 7:30 p.m., Hradec Králové, Velké náměstí
The Czech folk group Kantoři has existed since 1970 and is thus one of the longest continuously active musical groups in the Czech Republic. On the evening of 2 July they will perform a programme called “There by Hradec of the King”, following the legendary album of the same name from 1985. Among other things, wartime songs will be heard, such as The Eighteenth Company, Cannoneer Jabůrek, The Prussians Are Coming.
Concert of the Hradec Králové Philharmonic, 2 July - 9:30 p.m., Hradec Králové, Velké náměstí
The Hradec Králové Philharmonic will present at the evening open-air concert a selection of compositions by authors who in their works captured a varied image of the period with wartime events as well as human tragedies. For example, the concert will include Bedřich Smetana's Triumphal Symphony in E major op. 6 and Johann Strauss Sr.'s Radetzky March. “At the end of the approximately forty-minute programme, the famous composition by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, Festival Overture 1812 op. 49, will appear, joined towards the end by the Austrian band Artillerie Traditionskapelle Von der Groeben from Vienna. The finale will be accompanied by battlefield sounds and artillery salvos,” said Václav Derner, director of the Hradec Králové Philharmonic. The concert will be conducted by the Hungarian conductor, composer, pianist and harpsichordist István Dénes, who works as conductor of important musical ensembles in Hungary and Germany, as well as numerous festivals in Austria, Germany and Italy. For the 150th anniversary of the Battle of Hradec Králové, he composed the piece Hradec March, in which he combines well-known musical motifs. The composition includes, for example, the imperial anthem, the Rákóczi March, the Czech anthem and the song Cannoneer Jabůrek. “This musical collage should be a reminder, a tribute to that period and an expression of respect for the thousands of war victims,” added Václav Derner. The individual compositions will be linked by recited excerpts from the book In the Fortress by the writer Ignát Herrmann, who as a boy recalled the year 1866, when he lived with his family in Hradec Králové. The recited excerpts will be performed by actor Jiří Balcárek.
At separate concerts in the historic centre of Hradec Králové as well as at the sites of battle
demonstrations, visitors will also see:
The Band of the 6th Field Rifle Battalion from Náchod, the Czech band Spielmannszug 1. Garde Regiment zu Fuss, the German musical groups Heidedragoner Uetzingen e.V. Berittenes Trompeterkorps from Walsrode and Spielmannszug Radeberg, and the Austrian band Artillerie Traditionskapelle Von der Groeben from Vienna.