In 2026, the Easter Festival of Sacred Music will reach its 33rd year, thus fulfilling its Christian tradition. We sincerely hope that in the years to come, the concerts of the Easter Festival will continue to resound in Brno’s churches and other venues, bringing joy to the hearts of listeners.
In his first letter to Thessalonica, the Apostle Paul writes that the local believers should not cease in their prayers. However, a few of his preceding words could perhaps serve as a compass for today’s diverse society: See that no one repays evil for evil, but always strive for what is good among yourselves and toward all. Rejoice always.
The theme of the 33rd Easter Festival is precisely this constancy and joy. That is why psalms permeate the festival, because even from the deepest despondency, one can sing one’s way to the light.
The first week of the festival will feature Psalms 51 and 130 in the form of the Czech premiere of Larghetto for Orchestra by composer James MacMillan, who reworked his original composition Miserere for choir, and, conversely, Arvo Pärt‘s setting of De profundis for male choir, organ, and percussion. The psalm theme is interwoven with an organ recital in St. Peter and Paul Cathedral with a romantic program and a monothematic concert dedicated to the fragile work Exile by Gija Kancheli from 1994.
Holy Week and Easter Week will be bridged by compositions commissioned by the festival in the form of chamber oratorios, and the Renaissance dark hours of Good Friday will be followed in Easter Week by the performance of Giovanni Antonio Rigatti’s magnificent Baroque Vespers. While the opening concert brings to Brno previously unheard works by French composers Tomasi and MacMillan, the closing concert in St. James’s Church uses the motif of home and the joy of return. It will feature a joyful Easter composition by David Matthews, commissioned by the Easter Festival of Sacred Music in 2018, the fifth symphony by Pavel Zemek Novák, subtitled Sources of Mercy and Light in St. James’s Church in Brno, and Missa in C by Ludwig van Beethoven. The original printed score, from which this intimate work was premiered in Brno exactly two hundred years ago, is still preserved in the St. James parish.
Vladimír Maňas and Ondřej Múčka, festival dramaturges
