Slovak Christmas music in Reduta
On Thursday, 14 December, the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra is throwing a concert full of music by composers whose life was linked to the territory of what is now the Slovak Republic. Its program manager Juraj Bubnas has more:
“It will be already a concert in a pre-Christmas mood. There will be two Christmas cantatas by Jan Levoslav Bella on the program. The cantata “Vianoce” (Christmas) sung in Slovak and the cantata “Uns ist zum heil ein Kind geboren” (To us a child is born for salvation) sung in German. It will be the Slovak Philharmonic Choir singing. After that, the Slovak trumpet player Stanislav Masaryk will play a trumpet concerto by Johann Nepomuk Hummel, an Austrian composer born in Bratislava, known at that time as Pressburg. Stanislav is a magnificent soloist who now holds the position of solo trumpet in the Czech Philharmonic. And in the second half of the program, we will present The Mass in D-minor by Slovak composer Mikulas Moyzes. This is a work that was newly reconstructed and published and it will be presented for the first time in public. Our orchestra and choir also recorded this mass together with other sacred works by Mikulas Moyzes which will be released on a CD next year. We will be happy if you join us for this concert of the Slovak Philharmonic, Slovak Philharmonic Choir and great vocal soloists under the baton of Leos Svarovsky on Thursday, 14 December.”
Christmas themed workshops in museums
A community programme and quality pre-Christmas products will prevail at a pre-Christmas Saturday in Schaubmar’s Mill in Pezinok, a branch of the Slovak National Gallery 20 km from Bratislava. The Christmas market in the Mill offers live singing, workshops, local baked goods, and will be selling local design and art as well as sustainable fashion, cosmetics and decorations. The proceeds will go to help people in need and refugees.
The Slovak National Museum in Martin, northern Slovakia, is organising a workshop focused on the Three Magi as part of the nativity scene. On Saturday, 16 December, it is possible to make a traditional Magi hat and learn about the history of folk theatre in Slovakia. Also on Saturday, another Christmas themed event will be held at the Museum of Puppet Cultures and Toys in Modry Kamen castle in southern central Slovakia. It will be possible to learn how to produce traditional straw decorations using the spiral weaving technique. The baroque hall of this castle will house a Christmas concert one day later, on Sunday, 17 December.
Winter in works by Czech born female illustrator
Having opened on 7 December, a display of works by the Czech-born and Bratislava-based female illustrator Blanka Votavova present one of the top representatives of this genre in Bratislava’s TOTO! Gallery. Votavova was a co-founder of the international festival known as the Bienalle of Illustrations Bratislava in the early 1960s. Inviting us to the recent display of her art is its curator Ida Želinská: „She had to literally squat down so she wouldn't stand out above the children. This is something that many artists simply cannot - kindly convey understandable beauty, to create a magic world, in which the little readers find the same things they see around them every day. What a skill, isn´t it?“
