The Ambassadors of Czech Music

F. X. Richter, F. Benda, L. Koželuh, J. L. Dusík, A. Krafft, V. Jírovec

Tuesday 20 July 2004, 7.30 pm
Baroque Library Hall, Melantrichova 19, Praha 1

Capella Apollinis – classicist piano trio (Czech Republic)

The Czech Lands of the 18^th and 19^th centuries were short of a distinct cultural centre as well as large aristocratic courts that would provide Czech musicians with quality employment. A number of monastic orders offered exquisite musical education, but the graduates then had to seek elsewhere for its application. As a result large number of good musicians left the Czech Lands to look for work in Vienna or outside the Austro-Hungarian Monarchy. Thus Leopold Koželuh and Vojtěch Jírovec made Czech music famous in Vienna, František Benda in Berlin and Potsdam, František Xaver Richter in Mannheim and Jan Ladislav Dusík all over Europe from England to Russia.