Ticket presale opens for the 22nd St. Wenceslas Music Festival
Isabelle Faust, Spanish Brass, Mahan Esfahani, Luigi de Donato with Collegium 1704 are some of the stars you can look forward to in the 22nd edition of the Festival. This year from 2 – 28 September 2025, SHF will offer a total of 21 concerts in Ostrava and throughout the Moravian-Silesian region. Britten’s War Requiem, Liszt’s oratorio Christus, and the Czech premiere of Massenet’s Ève all promise spectacular performances. Ticket presale launches today.
“This year we we’ll open with Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem, which will be performed as a manifesto
to pacifism and a commemoration of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II. We have invited one
of today’s most talented choirmasters, Lukáš Vasilek, to perform this monumental work with nearly 250 performers in the church atmosphere of the Church of Virgin Mary the Queen in Ostrava – Mariánské Hory,” says SHF director Igor Františák.
The Festival’s traditional pillars, sacred and early music, will again be represented by both domestic
and international performers of European artistic calibre. The new top musical instrument in Ostrava’s Church of the Holy Spirit will be played by Luxembourg organist Maurice Clement (6 September), Austrian flutists from Element of Prime will visit the Festival with their Renaissance programme (7 September), Hana Blažíková, Vojtěch Semerád, and Jakub Kydlíček will present Guillaume de Machaut’s French courtly lyrics (10 September), and medieval Prague will be rediscovered by the Tiburtina Ensemble (22 September.). The Festival will also host legends of wind instruments: the German trumpeter Reinhold Friedrich
(26 September), and the Italian player of historical bassoons Sergio Azzolini (13 and 27 September).
“We greatly appreciate our long-term collaboration with the ensembles in residence whose concerts annually grace the dramaturgy of the St. Wenceslas Music Festival. Collegium 1704, under the baton of Václav Luks, will perform twice – at the start of the Festival on 9 September with works by Händel and Zelenka, and again at the close with bass singer Luigi de Donato. On 16 September, Collegium Marianum, with its artistic director Jana Semerádová and the brilliant soprano Hana Blažíková, will perform the programme entitled Under the Wings of Angels, dedicated to the legacy of Johann Sebastian Bach. A day later, on 17 September, the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno will present three oratorios by Petr Fiala, who will perform not only as
a composer but also as conductor,” adds Františák.
STARS OF THE 22ND EDITION
Harpsichord concertos by Bach, Haydn and Martinů will be performed uniquely on two harpsichords thanks to excellent Mahan Esfahani together with the Prague Philharmonia. In the middle of the Festival
(14 September), the new jewel of the University of Ostrava—the acoustically excellent Concert Hall of the Faculty of Fine Arts and Music—open its doors to our concerts. A week later, the world-famous Spanish Brass Quintet will perform at the same venue, offering some of their finest works from their 35-year repertoire as part of their tour (21 September). The charismatic Italian bass singer Luigi de Donato will undoubtedly be one
of this year’s standouts. He will perform with Václav Luks’ Collegium 1704 with their Italian Baroque programme “IL POLIFEMO” at the National House in Frýdek-Místek (23 September). However, the TOP performer of this year’s Festival will be the phenomenal German violinist, Isabelle Faust. She returns to the Festival after several-years to perform a contrasting programme of works by J.S. Bach and contemporary compositions, accompanied by the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava. Under the baton of Ondřej Adámek,
his new violin concerto will also be performed in its Czech premiere (24 September in Ostrava’s Vesmír Concert Hall).
The Festival will also welcome prominent Czech artists. Composer and pianist Nicole Bóková starts us off with her project Her Homeland (4 September), which was created in collaboration with Radek Baborák and his ensemble Orquestrina during last year’s celebration of the Year of Czech Music. The genius loci of Opava’s St. Wenceslas Church will be filled with the music of W. A. Mozart performed by soprano Kateřina Kněžíková and Valentin Uryupin together with the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava (5 September). The most beautiful neo-Gothic church in the region, the Church of St. Nicholas in Ludgeřovice, will resonate with Comenius’
The Labyrinth of the World and the Paradise of the Heart, in a unique musical adaptation by Petr Eben.
He will now speak through his son, the popular actor Mark Eben, accompanied by organist Tomáš Thon
(12 September).
The programme will traditionally culminate on 28 September, the Feast of St. Wenceslas. The closing concert in the Cathedral of the Divine Saviour in the Ostrava centre will be dedicated to the rarely performed oratorio Ève, a lyrically rich and dramatically impressive work by Jules Massenet. It tells the story of original sin and expulsion from paradise, noted for its elegant use of French melody and symphonic depth. This will be
the Czech premiere, which visitors will enjoy performed by a trio of French singers Claire Antoine (soprano), Léo Vermot Desroches (tenor), Ihor Mostovoi (baritone), the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, and the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of conductor Philippe Bernold.
Tickets for the 22nd St. Wenceslas Music Festival are on sale from 3 March 2025 at www.shf.cz. Visitors can take advantage of a special offer of the “4+1” subscription series, where they will receive the lowest priced ticket for free when purchasing five different concerts. Of course, discounted admission is also available for students, children, older adults, and ZTP or ZTP/P disability card holders. For more information on tickets, performers, and programme, see the Festival website.
