Leoš Janáček’s opera of loneliness, love, and the price of passion, in a dramatic concert performance from Sir Simon Rattle and a hand-picked cast sung in Czech. Káťa is young, sensitive and desperate for love. But trapped in a remote country village with a bored husband and his snobbish family, she has no way out,... Read more »

This Czech ensemble, almost from its inception, began to win prizes internationally. These include the ISA Festival and the International Johannes Brahms Competition, both in Austria, plus the Parkhouse Award in London. It was also selected for the 2021 Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme.   Matouš Pěruška violin Kristina Vocetková cello Jan Vojtek piano   For tickets see link... Read more »

The Czech group returns with one of the most popular classics written for its medium. Composed in 1891, Dvořák’s ‘Dumky’ Trio is named after the originally poetic ballad form that alternates cheerful with sad elements. Heard in the composer’s own arrangement, Liszt’s Carnival in Pest (1847) makes use of folk material from various countries – not just... Read more »

To mark the publication by Karolinum Press of the first English translation by Mark Corner of Jan Procházka’s masterpiece, David Vaughan and Peter Hames discuss both, the book and the film at 6.30pm, followed by a screening of the 1970 classic at 7pm. The Ear – Ucho in Czech – is one of the greatest of all Czech... Read more »

The programme performed by this Czech quartet opens with the attractive final quartet by the prolific Bohuslav Martinů, written in New York in 1947, followed by the fourth of Bartók’s six masterpieces for the medium (1928); next they are joined by a leading pianist for one of the most immediate and melodious works in the... Read more »

An introduction by Ivan Margolius to avant-garde design in architecture, engineering, furniture and interiors, its international influence and how it affected the development of modern architecture in Britain. Ivan Margolius is an architect and award-winning writer. His latest book, 'Jan Kaplický: For the Future and for Beauty' (Edition Axel Menges, 2022) received the 2021 Miroslav... Read more »

Celebrating the UK release of his sweeping new “picaresque romp of black humour and fantasy” (TLS), Czech writer Jáchym Topol and translator Alex Zucker read from and discuss an award-winning novel A Sensitive Person with critic and scholar Dr. Kathryn Murphy, followed by an audience Q+A and a book signing. A Sensitive Person (Yale University Press... Read more »

Rusalka, a water spirit, lives with her family in the pure waters of the forest lake. When she falls in love with a Prince, she sacrifices her voice and leaves her home in the hope of finding true love in a new world – a world that does not love her back. Natalie Abrahami and... Read more »

To celebrate a new edition of Antonín Dvořák’s beloved opera Rusalka and a new staging by the Royal Opera House, the editors Robert Simon and Jonáš Hájek discuss Dvořák‘s lyrical fairy tale, and their work on the score and Jaroslav Kvapil’s libretto with musicologist Nigel Simeone. Anna Blackmur, principal 2nd violin of the ROH orchestra,... Read more »

The Wihan Quartet's focus is appropriately on their Czech repertoire, though the group begins with one of Beethoven’s most stirring middle-period works for the medium. An ensemble founded and renewed over a period of nearly 40 years has won numerous prizes and accolades for its performances and recordings of wide swathes of the repertoire. Programme... Read more »