THE TRADITIONAL Bratislava Music Festival / Bratislavské Hudobné Slávnosti (BHS) celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2014, and the organisers have invited an impressive group of orchestra to participate.
Twenty-five concerts have been scheduled between September 21 and October 12. Eight foreign and eight Slovak orchestras will join with three choirs in the Reduta building of the Slovak Philharmonics (SF) in Bratislava. Foreign orchestras will include the London Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra from Moscow, the Czech Philharmonic, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the Orchestra National de Lyon and the Orchestra Sinfonica de Barcelona y Nacional de Cataluna. The Israeli Philharmonic will perform for the first time in the Slovak capital.
Well-known conductors will include Zubin Mehta, Valery Gergiev, Vladimir Fedosejev, Jiří Bělohlávek, Leonard Slatkin, Peter Schneider, Iván Fischer, Pinchas Steinberg and Emmanuel Villaume of the Slovak Philmaronic. Among the performers, violinists Julia Fischer, Renaud Capuçon and Andrej Baranov stand out, as well as pianists Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Jean Bernard Pommier, cellist Raphael Wallfisch and guitarist Juan Manuel Canizares. Singers include Richard Šveda, Max Emanusel Cenčic, Dagmar Pecková, Jana Kurucová, as well as the honorary president of the festival, Slovak soprano Edita Gruberová. There will be an “organ duel” between Loic Mallié and László Fassang.
The programme for the 50th year of the BHS festival (unfortunately only in Slovak so far) can be found at bhsfestival.sk. Tickets are now available in the ticket office of the Reduta building in E. Suchoňa Square 1 (phone No 02/2047-5233). They will be on sale until July 11 and then later from August 20 until the end of the festival.
