Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Czech Philharmonic
November 22–23, 2024
Karlovy Vary
Every fall, Variations brings film and music, those two kindred fields of art, to Karlovy Vary. Two leading cultural institutions, the Czech Philharmonic and the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival, joined forces to present a unique cultural program. Variations 2024 was the only event in the Czech Republic where you could hear the program that the Czech Philharmonic has put together for its performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall.
Program
Fri 22 November
4:30pm
Sparkasse
Fri 22 November / 4:30pm / Sparkasse
ČRo Vltava: Akcent LIVE with host Saša Michailidis
Czech Radio Vltava broadcasts its program Akcent live from Variations. Saša Michailidis and his guests will talk about the ways in which classical music is reflected in cinema. Admission to the show and the subsequent concert is free.
Fri 22 November
5pm
Sparkasse
Fri 22 November / 5pm / Sparkasse
Mysliveček, Mozart at Sparkasse
A wind octet composed of members of the Czech Philharmonic and the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, under the artistic direction of Ondřej Vrabec. Admission free.
Fri 22 November
7pm
Hotel Thermal, Grand Hall
Fri 22 November / 7pm / Hotel Thermal, Grand Hall
Czech Philharmonic: Leoš Janáček and Antonín Dvořák
A Czech Philharmonic program prepared exclusively for its residence at Carnegie Hall in New York. This will be the philharmonic’s only Czech performance of Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass and Dvořák’s Violin Concerto in A minor, Semyon Bychkov conducting.
Sat 23 November
2:30pm
Thermal Spring Colonnade
Sat 23 November / 2:30pm / Thermal Spring Colonnade
Albinoni and Dvořák at the Thermal Spring Colonnade
A chamber ensemble composed of members of the Czech Philharmonic and the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra under the artistic direction of Irena Jakubcová gives a free public performance of baroque composer Tomaso Albinoni’s Trumpet Concerto in B-flat major and a selection from Antonín Dvořák’s Serenade for Strings in E major. Admission free.
Sat 23 November
3pm
Imperial Baths
Sat 23 November / 3pm / Imperial Baths
The Room Next Door
Pedro Almodóvar presents his first English-language feature. Ingrid (Julianne Moore) and Martha (Tilda Swinton) are old colleagues whose friendship is rekindled thanks to a curious wish by the seriously ill Martha. The film was awarded the Golden Lion at this year’s Venice Film Festival.
Sat 23 November
3pm
Imperial Baths
Sat 23 November / 3pm / Imperial Baths
Exclusive film screening
The detailed program of film screenings will be published during October.
Sat 23 November
7pm
Imperial Baths
Sat 23 November / 7pm / Imperial Baths
A Real Pain
Jesse Eisenberg wrote and directed this story about the New Yorker David (played by Eisenberg himself), who sets off for Poland with his cousin Benji. They are there to visit the place which their grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, left decades ago to. A Real Pain was an audience hit at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.
Sat 23 November
8pm
Hotel Thermal, Grand Hall
Sat 23 November / 8pm / Hotel Thermal, Grand Hall
Czech Philharmonic: Bedřich Smetana and Antonín Dvořák
The second part of the Czech Philharmonic’s exclusive planned program for New York’s Carnegie Hall. Semyon Bychkov conducts three poems from Smetana’s Má vlast and Dvořák’s Piano Concerto in G minor.
Tickets
Tickets for the Czech Philharmonic concerts at the Thermal Hotel can be purchased directly here on the website. Tickets for film screenings are available at the box office and on the Imperial Baths website.
Dear Friends,
when we first came up with Variations four years ago, our goal was to present a new cultural event in Karlovy Vary that would enrich the city’s cultural program outside the main season.
The project’s brief history has shown that we made a truly fortu-nate decision when we chose to combine two artistic fields – music and film – and two traditional names from these fields – the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Czech Philharmonic. For proof of this fact, we need look no further than audiences’ annual growing interest in Variations.
We are glad that this year’s Variations will again be an extraordinary musical event, with two concerts at which the Czech Philharmonic will present the program it has put together for its December guest performances at New York’s Carnegie Hall. Variations is the only opportunity to hear these concert performances in the Czech Republic – held, for the first time in our project’s history, in the iconic Grand Hall at Karlovy Vary’s Hotel Thermal. As in the past, Variations will also feature the popular free public concerts at the Thermal Springs Colonnade and in the Sparkasse building.
This is the first year that the Imperial Baths will host screenings of attractive films that have aroused attention at international film festivals.
I am sure that Variations 2024 will again be a cultural event for both residents of and visitors to Karlovy Vary and the surrounding region.
Jiří Bartoška
President, Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Ladies and gentlemen,
it gives me great joy to see that Variations is thriving and is this year being held for the fourth time. As part of 2024’s Year of Czech Music, the Czech Philharmonic will quite logically present an exclusively Czech program, one that it will immediately afterwards perform at New York’s famous Carnegie Hall. Audiences can look forward to Antonín Dvořák’s Violin Concerto and Piano Concerto featuring Czech soloists Jan Mráček and Ivo Kahánek, plus the first three symphonic poems from Smetana’s cycle Má vlast, and finally Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, which the Czech Philharmonic has rehearsed along with several excellent soloists and the Prague Philharmonic Choir. All performances will be conducted by chief conductor and music director Semyon Bychkov.
An interesting aspect of the Karlovy Vary concerts is the fact that four members of the philharmonic’s Orchestral Academy will be appearing with the orchestra alongside four students from London’s Royal Academy of Music. In New York, these talented musicians will be joined by another four students from Carnegie Hall’s National Youth Orchestra, and on 2 December they will all jointly appear at the Bohemian National Hall in Manhattan, where they will open Czech Week in New York.
In addition to the two aforementioned concerts, which for the first time this year will take place in the Grand Hall at the Hotel Thermal, audiences can also look forward to two other musical performances. At the former municipal savings bank, Ondřej Vrabec will lead a wind octet composed of members of the Czech Philharmonic and the Karlovy Vary Symphony Orchestra, and a chamber ensemble composed of members of the same two orchestras will appear at the Thermal Spring Colonnade under the direction of Irena Jakubcová.
We wish all audiences a wonderful experience – artistic and otherwise!
David Mareček
General director, Czech Philharmonic
and director of the Prague Philharmonic Choir
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