Event: Czech Republic - Prague

Prague Horn Festival

When:	Aug 2007 (annual)
Where:	Prague
Costs:	Kcs300; concessions Kcs100; season ticket for all concerts Kcs1000
Opening Hours:	Various

Prague is a musical city, and has been so since well before Mozart's day, when he came and bequeathed the Bohemian capital not only his Prague Symphony (No 38) but also perhaps his most famous opera, Don Giovanni. Mozart is also one of the composers who had a special affinity with the French Horn, and it is this magnificent instrument that Prague has celebrated since 1997 with a special festival each August.

Throughout the festival - which also teams up with the annual Horn Class (which predates the Horn Festival by six years) - there is ample opportunity to sample the majestic qualities of the instrument, which can also bluster comically (as Mozart never seemed to tire of pointing out, in his constant banter with Joseph Leutgeb, his horn-playing friend who was the butt of so many jokes).

The 2003 festival opens with a concert given by the Brno Horn Quartet in the Martinu Hall of the Liechtenstein Palace, while the bicentenary of the death of Bohemian composer Jan Václav Stich-Punto (1746-1803), who wrote extensively for the horn, is commemorated. His grave in the Košíre cemetery will be adorned with a commemorative plaque during the festival, serenaded by fanfares on 40 horns!

The house in which Stich Punto died will also be graced with a memorial plaque, and the festival ends with two concerts, first a memorial concert including his Piccolo Horn Concerto and Mozart's Requiem, and then an open-air concert in the Ledebour Gardens (or, if raining, in the Liechtenstein Palace), both played by the Camerata Filharmonica Praga.