President Gašparovič Address – 2012

Dear visitors of the Bratislava Music Festival, esteemed lovers of good music,

we have already got accustomed that autumn in our city is filled with sounds of classical music. Each year of Bratislava Music Festival is special in some way and brings unforgettable experiences for all those, who visit any of the numerous concerts. This year the music public will be interested not only in composers, conductors or musicians; the unique atmosphere will be underlined also by the renovated Reduta building. We may say, the building will be starring and will create a respectable frame for the concerts of the 48th BMF, twenty-six of them, with musicians from more than twenty countries of Europe, North and South Americas, Asia as well as distant Australia. Again an extraordinarily rich offer of renowned names and first-rate musical ensembles, e. g. Vienna Philharmonic with excellent Italian conductor Daniele Gatti, Czech Philharmonic with its new music director Jiří Bělohlávek, Budapest Festival Orchestra led by István Fischer, two excellent orchestras from England, Hamburg Philharmonic and Spanish National Orchestra. Do not forget Prague Radio Symphonic Orchestra under the baton of its present chief conductor Ondrej Lenárd – internationally respected Slovak personality celebrating a personal jubilee this year.

Besides being a genuine feast of music Bratislava Music Festival provides also for a positive confrontation and collaboration of artists from different countries. Thus Slovak Philharmonic will open the festival with its French music director Emmanuel Villaume and American violinist Sarah Chang. The closing concert will belong to Lebanese conductor living in Paris George Pehlivanian and excellent South Korean pianist Kun-Woo Paik; such examples as well as excellent experiences will occur in profusion. We will hear premieres, solo recitals, and a piece commissioned by the Festival Committee, this time from young Slovak composer Peter Groll. Musicians from Košice and Banská Bystrica will prove themselves, and the International Rostrum of Young Performers – New Talent has already become a respected tradition.

I believe that any music lover would choose from the rich programme one or more concerts and return home filled by impressions of amazing music. At the same time I hope that all participants as well as visitors, both domestic ones and from abroad, will feel deeply the excellent atmosphere brought by the festival, this year accentuated by the spaces of meticulously reconstructed and attractively re-created Reduta building.

I wish to all of you many gorgeous experiences

Ivan Gašparovič,
President of the Slovak Republic

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