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Josef Suk Patron of this Festival

Divertimenti in Prague We are honoured and thrilled to have the greatest living Czech musician, Josef Suk as the patron of our Festival. Mr. Suk, the greatest living Czech musician, a world acclaimed virtuoso, but also represents a direct link to the musical heritage of the Czech Republic. He is the grandson of the composer Josef Suk and the great grandson of perhaps the most famous Czech composer Antonin Dvorak. Mr. Suk has said he is delighted to be the patron of our string quartet Festival. We look forward to having him attend our concerts and are deeply appreciative of his support for us and commitment to the further continuity of the Czech musical scene.

The festival entitled "Divertimenti in Prague", serves as a showcase for today's leading Czech string quartets who, although acclaimed internationally, rarely have the opportunity to be presented in a dedicated festival in their home city as distinguished local ambassadors of music.

Prague has been home to many legendary string quartets over the years and the quartets to be presented in our Divertimenti in Prague festival are no exception, ranging from the celebrated Prazak Quartet, to the exciting dynamism of the young Herold Quartet.

This second year of this String Quartet Festival features four of the world renowned Czech Quartets and one concert giving an opportunity to hear two great sextets played by the Kocian Quartet and members of the Prazak Quartet. Three concerts will be held in the romantic garden setting of historic Villa Bertramka with the musicians playing on the terrace of the Villa. Two other concerts will be in the historic Lichtenstein Palace.

Divertimenti in Prague grew from an idea of Sasha Stepanova, a Czech Australian an international lawyer, working in Prague for 12 years and Vivienne Pittendrigh, an Australian living on the Greek Island of Corfu during the 2006 festival Divertimenti in Corfu. Vivienne has been organising this festival since 1992 in conjunction with Chamber Music Holidays which began in 1982. As we feel that Prague is one of the greatest musical cities worldwide, especially for chamber music, a new Festival dedicated to String Quartets would add to the already fantastic music scene here.

A garden concert in historic Villa Bertramka where Mozart lived
and composed Don Giovanni when he was in Prague.

Villa Bertramka – Wednesday 20th  August
19.00 Herold Quartet
Mozart: String Quartet K.V. 465 in C major “Dissonance”  
Smetana: String Quartet no 2 in d minor
Dvorak: String Quartet op 106

Villa Bertramka - Saturday 23rd August
19.00 Stamic Quartet
Mozart: String Quartet in G minor K 145
Janacek: String Quartet no 2 “Intimate Letters”
Smetana: String Quartet no 1 in E minor “From My Life”

The Lichtenstein Palace – 26th August
20.00 Kocian Quartet
Haydn String Quartet op 74 no 1 in C major
Schubert String Quartet op 125 in E flat major
Dvorak String Quartet op 96 “American”

Villa Bertramka – Wednesday 27th August
19.00 Prazak Quartet
Mozart: String Quartet K.V. 438 “The Hunt”
Martinu: String Quartet no 3
Schubert: String Quartet no 13 in G major

The Lichtenstein Palace - Thursday 28th August
20.00 Kocian Quartet and friends
Concert to include two sextets – Brahms op 18 in B flat and Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence

In addition there will be two Chamber Music concerts in the Ledebour Gardens of Prague Castle on Friday 22nd August and Friday 29th August. Details on this website in the near future. These concerts are part of Chamber Music Holidays August programme but are not in the Divertimenti in Prague.

Tickets for Villa Bertramka - Czk 450 - are available from bertramka.com or ticket agencies. As there is a limit of 200 seats it would be advisable to make a reservation in advance.

Tickets for the Lichtenstein Palace Czk 400 are available at ticket agencies and at the door.

The Herold Quartet

Petr Zdvihal (1st violin), Jan Valta (2nd violin), Karel Untermuller (viola), David Haverlik (cello).

The Herold Quartet was established in 1998 and in 2001 received the annual award from the Czech Chamber Music Society – part of the Czech Philharmonic. They perform regularly in major European cities in France, Spain, England, Greece, Germany and Italy. In 2005 their highly successful tour of Brazil and their concerts in Australia received high praise from critics and audiences. Earlier this year, the critic of The Independent in England wrote “It was a real privilege to hear this string quartet. They are an ensemble made of four superbly talented musicians who produce the most homogenous of sounds you could ever want to hear.” Some of their recordings can be heard on their website www.heroldq.cz including a live broadcast of Dvorak’s String Quartet op 96 ‘American’ from Sydney, Australia.

The Kocian Quartet

Pavel Hula (1st violin), Milos Cerny (2nd violin), Zbynek Padourek (viola),Vaclav Bernasek (cello).

The Kocian Quartet has played a prominent role in Czech concert life in the programmes of the Prague Spring Festival, the cycles of the Czech Philharmonic and the Czech Society for Chamber Music. Having toured in 35 countries in Europe, North and South America, Thailand and Japan they have been the Quartet in Residence at the Divertimenti in Corfu Festival for the past 8 years. The repertoire of the Kocian Quartet concentrates on the basic classics - Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Brahms and specializes in Czech works by Smetana, Dvorak, and the 20th-century composers Janacek and Martinu.and many works by living composers. The Kocian Quartet have made many recordings and received Grand Prix International du Disque for the complete String Quartets of Paul Hindemith. In 2005 the Kocian Quartet and the Prazak Quartet were awarded the "Diapason d´or de 2005" in Paris for the Mendelssohn Octet and Piano sextet as a best chamber music recording of the year.

The Stamic Quartet

Jindřich Pazdera (1st violin), Josef Kekula (2nd violin), Jan Pěruška (viola), Petr Hejny (cello).

The original Stamic Quartet founded in 1985 was Bohuslav Matoušek (violin), Josef Kekula (violin), Jan Pěruška (viola) and Vladimir Leixner (violoncello). As both violinists were born in Havlíčkův Brod, they choose Jan Václav Stamic, also born in this town as the name of their quartet. The quartet’s focus is on string quartets of Czech and the famous composers including Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven. Recently they have, in addition, concentrated other works of chamber music in cooperation with famous musicians in their well known concert series - EuroArt Prague. The Stamic Quartet and Guests was established in 2000. and the Quartet tours in many countries of Europe, North America and Japan and play often in their home country the Czech Republic. They have made numerous recordings including 10 volumes of Dvorak String Quartets.

The Prazak Quartet

Vaclav Remes (1st violin),Vlastimil Holek (2nd violin), Josef Kluson (viola), Michal Kanka (cello).

The Prazak Quartet are one of the leading international chamber music ensembles. For nearly 30 years they have played in the major European musical capitals -  Prague, Paris, Amsterdam, Brussels, Milan, Madrid, London, Berlin, Munich - as well as numerous other cities where they have participated in many international festivals. They regularly perform in the main concert halls in Japan and have toured Australia on two occasions. In North America they have performed in all the major concert halls and their 2006/07 tour took them to twenty three cities, including New York (Carnegie Hall), Boston, Houston, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tucson, Vancouver, and Montreal. The Prazak Quartet has released 35 award-winning CDs exclusively for Praga Digitals/AMC, Paris. In 2005 with the Kocian Quartet they were awarded the "Diapason d´or de 2005" in Paris for their Mendelssohn Octet and Piano sextet as the best chamber music recording of the year. 

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