“This programme invites the listener on a journey across Europe through some of the most beautiful and expressive music ever written for the lute. From the profound melancholy of John Dowland, to the bold and inventive writing of Girolamo Kapsberger, the refined elegance of Robert de Visée and Marin Marais, and culminating in the transcendence of Johann Sebastian Bach, this recital reveals the extraordinary range of colours and emotions that the lute can offer. Each piece is a window into the soul of its time, showcasing the instrument’s poetic voice and its timeless power to move us. I’m very much looking forward to sharing this music with the audience in Prague,” says French lutenist Thomas Dunford, describing his debut recital at the Prague Spring. This affable artist, who has given debuts in London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie and the Philharmonie de Paris, will guide us through European Renaissance and Baroque music from a time when the sound of a fragile instrument evoking both melancholy and joy delighted kings and simple townspeople alike. In Prague you’ll be able to savour it in the ideal acoustic environment of St Agnes’ Convent.

Paris native Thomas Dunford is one of the most sought-after lute players on the scene today. He discovered this uncommon instrument at the age of nine, he continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire and then attended the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, where he was taught by celebrated lutenist Hopkinson Smith. He also attended masterclasses with such names as Rolf Lislevand, Julian Bream and Paul O’Dette. In 2003 he gave his first performances playing the role of the lutenist in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on stage at the Comédie-Française. Since that time he has appeared in some of the world’s most prestigious venues and he collaborates with the finest period instrument ensembles, among them the Academy of Ancient Music and Pygmalion. In 2018 he established his own Jupiter Ensemble where, with considerable open-mindedness, he presents a repertoire spanning an arc from Vivaldi to songs by The Beatles. His regular chamber partners include the harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, one of the discoveries of the Prague Spring 2023. Thomas Dunford’s critically acclaimed recordings are released under the Alpha Classics and Erato labels and he also collaborated on the album Bill and Friends for harmonia mundi where, together with other “friends”, he played alongside legendary conductor and harpsichordist William Christie. He performed at the Prague Spring in 2014 as a member of the famous French ensemble Les Arts Florissants.

At the concert in May 2026, his Prague Spring debut as a soloist, Thomas Dunford will present a cross-section of the most exquisite lute repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The evening will begin with a selection of works by one of the most renowned lutenists of the Elizabethan and early Stuart eras, John Dowland (1563–1626). We will hear the famous pavane Lachrimae with its well-known “weeping” motif; The King of Denmark’s Galliard, whose dotted rhythms and repeated notes imitate the sound of military drums and marching soldiers; and the enigmatic Frog Galliard, which became the model for the song Now, o now, I needs must part, about the ugly Duke of Alençon, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s suitors. The programme also offers music by composers associated with sunny Italy: the temperamental Calata alla Spagnola by Joan Ambrosio Dalza (?–1508) and the richly ornamented Toccata by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (1580–1651). We travel to France to hear music by Robert de Visée (1652–1725), lutenist at the court of Louis XIV and Louis XV, and Marin Marais (1656–1728), who was not only a productive composer, but also the father of nineteen children. From the latter’s oeuvre we will hear the piece Les voix humaines, a wonderful work of understated sincerity and depth, a “chant de mémoire”, as aptly described by leading viola da gamba player Paul Rousseau. The programme will end with Dunford’s own transcription of the violin Chaccone from Partita in D minor BWV 1004 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), of which Johannes Brahms wrote: “On one stave, for a small instrument, the man [Bach] writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.” As a matter of interest, you can hear the same piece in an arrangement by Ferruccio Busoni during Jan Schulmeister’s recital at the Convent of St Agnes on 23 May. With Thomas Dunford, however, you won’t experience the kind of sweeping gestures from Busoni that were typical for the close of the 19th century, but instead tender caresses from the eras of the Renaissance and the Baroque.

4 sextets, 3 world premieres
Nikol Bóková, Pavel Samiec and Matteo Hager

The now traditional MenART Academy concert at the Prague Spring is the outcome of further inspirational encounters between the youngest musical talents and their role models – leading figures on the Czech music scene: Tomáš Jamník, Jakub Jedlinský, Ivo Kahánek, Karel Košárek, Jan Ostrý, Irvin Venyš and Jan Fišer. On this occasion the programme will focus on the unusual combination of cello and accordion.

Commissioned by the Prague Spring festival, two sextets by Nikol Bóková and Pavel Samiec will be performed in their world premieres, written in response to works by Manuel de Falla and Astor Piazzolla. The third anticipated premiere will be a piece by Matteo Hager, violinist and composer, to whom MenART awarded its Comenium Musicum scholarship, which is providing long-term financial support for his studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London. His new composition for piano trio gives us the opportunity to hear another original voice from the young generation. Matteo will also be presenting his Violin Sonata.

The Music School Salon makes its own special contribution to the Prague Spring programme: the world of classical music seen through the lens of the youngest performers – people with courage, true dedication, creative fervour and new, fresh energy. Come and support the future of Czech music!”

Artist-in-Residence of the Prague Spring 2026 Barbara Hannigan is one of the most original figures in the sphere of classical music. With her typical courage and determination she sings and also conducts, she inspires the finest contemporary composers in their endeavours, and she creates unique projects which go far beyond the customary concert experience. Born in Canada, she has performed the premieres of more than one hundred works. She collaborates with some of the world’s most distinguished conductors and orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic. She is Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, she holds the positions of Associate Artist of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Première Artiste Invitée of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and in the autumn of 2026 she will take up her post as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Her exceptional artistic achievements are moreover reflected in a number of prestigious awards, among them a Grammy Award, the title Artist of the Year from Gramophone magazine, and the Polar Music Prize 2025, a Swedish international award established by music publisher and manager of ABBA Stig Anderson, which she won together with jazzman Herbie Hancock and the rock band Queen. Her Prague Spring residency will consist of four concerts.

In 2026 pianist Jan Schulmeister celebrates his twentieth birthday yet, despite his young age, he has already won awards from more than thirty competitions, among them the César Franck International Piano Competition in Brussels, the Manhattan International Competition in New York and the Concertino Praga International Radio Competition. His biggest success to date is the third prize awarded to him at the Van Cliburn International Junior Piano Competition in Dallas, USA, the junior offshoot of its famous namesake. For his debut at the Prague Spring this talented artist has chosen a programme which he, himself, describes as “a journey across various epochs”. Works will include one of the most famous “encores” of all time – Prelude in C sharp minor by Sergei Rachmaninov (1873–1943) from the cycle Morceaux de fantaisie or the powerful Sonata 1. X. 1905 by Leoš Janáček (1854–1928), which was written in response to a real-life incident – the tragic death of joiner’s apprentice František Pavlík during the unrest in Brno in 1905. The programme will culminate in a brilliant transcription of Bach’s violin Chaccone from Partita in D minor, with which its author – the Italian-German piano virtuoso Ferruccio Busoni (1866–1924) – dazzled his concert audiences at the turn of the 20th century.

Jan Schulmeister is a member of what is now the sixth generation of musicians. The founder of this family musical tradition was his great-great-grandfather, trumpeter František Černý, a pupil of Antonín Liehmann and schoolmate of Antonín Dvořák in Zlonice. “As a bandmaster he went off to earn a living in St Petersburg, he left his wife and three children behind, and he never returned home. But we all like to boast that he was a classmate of Antonín Dvořák at the school in Zlonice!” Jan told us with a smile in one of his interviews. If you are wondering whether he is related to the second violinist in the Wihan Quartet, you’d be absolutely right: These namesakes are father and son.

The gifted pianist’s first victory in competition occurred in Milan when he was just seven years old. This was followed by competition successes in the Czech Republic, Switzerland, Sweden, Spain, Austria, Estonia, Belgium and the USA, which in turn led to collaboration with leading Czech orchestras and conductors, among them the Brno Philharmonic under Dennis Russell Davies, the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic Orchestra with Tomáš Netopil and the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under Jiří Rožeň. In January 2026 Jan Schulmeister will make his debut with the Moravian Philharmonic Olomouc in Vienna’s Musikverein. In addition to these achievements, he already has four solo albums to his name. “My Prague Spring programme will take us on a journey across different eras,” he says. “Each of these pieces evokes strong emotions in me – from the spiritual depth and serenity of Bach’s Toccata and the inner restlessness and lyricism of Rachmaninov, to the pain and urgency of Janáček’s Sonata. The final work, Bach’s Chaconne in a transcription by Ferruccio Busoni, blends profound spirituality with Romantic monumentality. I chose these pieces with the aim of creating a contrasting but internally cohesive programme, which would offer listeners both a profound musical encounter and also an emotional experience,” he adds. “Just seeing the young pianist step up onto the stage told us that this concert was going to be something truly special. He radiated strength, determination and joy, all of which accompanied him throughout his performance,” wrote a music critic on the KlasikaPlus website in a review of one of Jan’s concerts. After Jan Čmejla’s debut in 2025 the Prague Spring thus brings you a recital by another exceptional talent on the young Czech music scene, a concert you really won’t want to miss.

“An ensemble that one could spontaneously count as one of the best one has ever heard.” “Perfect mastery of style and real experience of this repertoire.” “The Bennewitz quartet is downright wonderful, with a perfect balance of warmth and objective clarity.” This is how one of the finest Czech string quartets is described by the prestigious world media: the German Süddeutsche Zeitung, French Diapason and British Gramophone. The Bennewitz Quartet is undeniably one of the best that the fertile and successful Czech quartet school currently has to offer. In 2026 the ensemble returns to the festival with a programme structured exclusively for the Prague Spring. In the attractive surroundings of St Agnes’ Convent they will perform the final string quartets of British composer Benjamin Britten and Antonín Dvořák.

String Quartet No. 3 is not only the final quartet, but also the last major work by Benjamin Britten (1913–1976). The five-movement structure and the seemingly light character of the music suggest Classical divertimentos. However, alongside the playfulness Britten retained despite his illness, even in his advanced years, the work stands out for its experimental sound, its personal references and profound nostalgia. The British composer wrote the first four movements at Chapel House in Horham, Suffolk. The last movement, subtitled “La Serenissima”, was written in the famous Hotel Danieli in his beloved Venice. Here he incorporated a quotation from his opera Death in Venice, based on the novella of the same name by Thomas Mann. In all likelihood, however, this is not a further exploration of the destiny of Gustav von Aschenbach, but instead a moving farewell to tenor Peter Pears, Britten’s life partner and muse for more than forty years. Pears described the quartet in a letter as a work “of a profound beauty more touching than anything else, radiant, wise, new, mysterious – overwhelming”. The composer did not live to see the work’s premiere. It was performed for the first time by the famous Amadeus Quartet in December 1976, two weeks after Britten’s death.

“This programme invites the listener on a journey across Europe through some of the most beautiful and expressive music ever written for the lute. From the profound melancholy of John Dowland, to the bold and inventive writing of Girolamo Kapsberger, the refined elegance of Robert de Visée and Marin Marais, and culminating in the transcendence of Johann Sebastian Bach, this recital reveals the extraordinary range of colours and emotions that the lute can offer. Each piece is a window into the soul of its time, showcasing the instrument’s poetic voice and its timeless power to move us. I’m very much looking forward to sharing this music with the audience in Prague,” says French lutenist Thomas Dunford, describing his debut recital at the Prague Spring. This affable artist, who has given debuts in London’s Wigmore Hall, New York’s Carnegie Hall, the Berliner Philharmonie and the Philharmonie de Paris, will guide us through European Renaissance and Baroque music from a time when the sound of a fragile instrument evoking both melancholy and joy delighted kings and simple townspeople alike. In Prague you’ll be able to savour it in the ideal acoustic environment of St Agnes’ Convent.

Paris native Thomas Dunford is one of the most sought-after lute players on the scene today. He discovered this uncommon instrument at the age of nine, he continued his studies at the Paris Conservatoire and then attended the Schola Cantorum Basiliensis in Switzerland, where he was taught by celebrated lutenist Hopkinson Smith. He also attended masterclasses with such names as Rolf Lislevand, Julian Bream and Paul O’Dette. In 2003 he gave his first performances playing the role of the lutenist in Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night on stage at the Comédie-Française. Since that time he has appeared in some of the world’s most prestigious venues and he collaborates with the finest period instrument ensembles, among them the Academy of Ancient Music and Pygmalion. In 2018 he established his own Jupiter Ensemble where, with considerable open-mindedness, he presents a repertoire spanning an arc from Vivaldi to songs by The Beatles. His regular chamber partners include the harpsichordist Jean Rondeau, one of the discoveries of the Prague Spring 2023. Thomas Dunford’s critically acclaimed recordings are released under the Alpha Classics and Erato labels and he also collaborated on the album Bill and Friends for harmonia mundi where, together with other “friends”, he played alongside legendary conductor and harpsichordist William Christie. He performed at the Prague Spring in 2014 as a member of the famous French ensemble Les Arts Florissants.

At the concert in May 2026, his Prague Spring debut as a soloist, Thomas Dunford will present a cross-section of the most exquisite lute repertoire from the Renaissance and Baroque periods. The evening will begin with a selection of works by one of the most renowned lutenists of the Elizabethan and early Stuart eras, John Dowland (1563–1626). We will hear the famous pavane Lachrimae with its well-known “weeping” motif; The King of Denmark’s Galliard, whose dotted rhythms and repeated notes imitate the sound of military drums and marching soldiers; and the enigmatic Frog Galliard, which became the model for the song Now, o now, I needs must part, about the ugly Duke of Alençon, one of Queen Elizabeth I’s suitors. The programme also offers music by composers associated with sunny Italy: the temperamental Calata alla Spagnola by Joan Ambrosio Dalza (?–1508) and the richly ornamented Toccata by Giovanni Girolamo Kapsberger (1580–1651). We travel to France to hear music by Robert de Visée (1652–1725), lutenist at the court of Louis XIV and Louis XV, and Marin Marais (1656–1728), who was not only a productive composer, but also the father of nineteen children. From the latter’s oeuvre we will hear the piece Les voix humaines, a wonderful work of understated sincerity and depth, a “chant de mémoire”, as aptly described by leading viola da gamba player Paul Rousseau. The programme will end with Dunford’s own transcription of the violin Chaccone from Partita in D minor BWV 1004 by Johann Sebastian Bach (1685–1750), of which Johannes Brahms wrote: “On one stave, for a small instrument, the man [Bach] writes a whole world of the deepest thoughts and most powerful feelings. If I imagined that I could have created, even conceived the piece, I am quite certain that the excess of excitement and earth-shattering experience would have driven me out of my mind.” As a matter of interest, you can hear the same piece in an arrangement by Ferruccio Busoni during Jan Schulmeister’s recital at the Convent of St Agnes on 23 May. With Thomas Dunford, however, you won’t experience the kind of sweeping gestures from Busoni that were typical for the close of the 19th century, but instead tender caresses from the eras of the Renaissance and the Baroque.

Artist-in-Residence of the Prague Spring 2026 Barbara Hannigan is one of the most original figures in the sphere of classical music. With her typical courage and determination she sings and also conducts, she inspires the finest contemporary composers in their endeavours, and she creates unique projects which go far beyond the customary concert experience. Born in Canada, she has performed the premieres of more than one hundred works. She collaborates with some of the world’s most distinguished conductors and orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic. She is Principal Guest Conductor of the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, she holds the positions of Associate Artist of the London Symphony Orchestra and the Première Artiste Invitée of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and in the autumn of 2026 she will take up her post as Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. Her exceptional artistic achievements are moreover reflected in a number of prestigious awards, among them a Grammy Award, the title Artist of the Year from Gramophone magazine, and the Polar Music Prize 2025, a Swedish international award established by music publisher and manager of ABBA Stig Anderson, which she won together with jazzman Herbie Hancock and the rock band Queen. Her Prague Spring residency will consist of four concerts.

The second project of her artistic residency at the Prague Spring is also the festival debut of the Belcea Quartet. The string quartet, which was formed in 1994 at the Royal College of Music in London, is today one of the world’s most highly respected chamber ensembles. They regularly appear in London’s Wigmore Hall, at the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, New York’s Carnegie Hall and Vienna’s Konzerthaus. In the years 2017–2020 the quartet was Ensemble-in-Residence at the Pierre Boulez Saal in Berlin. The German daily Hamburger Abendblatt wrote that “the Belcea Quartet plays concerts for eternity.”

“It adds up to almost one and three-quarter hours of incredibly stylistically varied music […] And so far as I can tell, this complete recording is the first to bring absolutely all of it together in one place, although their album’s greatest worth isn’t its comprehensiveness, but the playing itself,” wrote British magazine Gramophone, describing the album of complete works for violin and piano by Antonín Dvořák, released in 2024 on the Supraphon label by concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic Jiří Vodička and pianist David Mareček. Pieces from this album, which earned the title Editor’s Choice from Gramophone, a Choc de Classica award and a five “tuning fork” rating from Diapason magazine, appear on the programme for the artists’ first joint recital at the Prague Spring. “Antonín Dvořák’s music has always been close to my heart,” states Jiří Vodička. “David Mareček and I endeavour to present his works not merely as exquisite pieces from the concert repertoire, but as part of an integral musical world – with its own dynamic, drama and gentle lyricism. To perform this programme at the Prague Spring is an honour for us and also a great pleasure. We are convinced that, together with the audience, we’ll experience a concert in which the beauty of Dvořák’s simple yet immensely strong musical language will come alive.” Five of the most wonderful chamber compositions that Dvořák ever wrote for violin and piano will resonate in style in the Rudolfinum’s Dvořák Hall.

The concert consists of works which were written gradually from the 1870s to Dvořák’s period in America in the years 1892–1895. We begin with the popular Romantic Pieces from 1887, four short pieces of diverse character, filled with passionate determination and gentle lyricism. This is followed by Sonata for Violin and Piano in F major, Dvořák’s only sonata that has survived to this day. It was written within a mere fifteen days in the spring of 1880 more or less concurrently with Concerto for Violin and Orchestra in A minor. The second half of the concert will open with the joyful Sonatina in G major, which Dvořák wrote in New York in late November and early December 1893. The composition bears the opus number 100 and Dvořák, conscious of the significance of this number, dedicated it to his children Otilie and Antonín, who performed the piece for the first time at a private premiere. Dvořák described the work in a letter to his publisher: “It is meant for young people, but also for adults, let them enjoy it, too, they’ll have fun playing it as well.” The main theme of the second movement supposedly came to the maestro as he observed the Minnehaha waterfall in the state of Minnesota. Later on this part was published independently under various poetic titles, such as Indian Lullaby and Indian Lament. The concert will end with what are possibly two of Dvořák’s most impressive compositions for solo violin: Romance in F minor and the virtuosic Mazurek in E minor. Both were written in the 1870s and both enjoy huge popularity to this day, in the version for violin and orchestra as well as with piano accompaniment. It is interesting to note that Mazurek was premiered by violinist Ferdinand Lachner with composer Zdeněk Fibich at the piano.

The audience is in for a wonderful musical and visual treat with the second festival concert from stellar piano duo, brothers Lucas and Arthur Jussen. After their first appearance with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the Dvořák Hall podium will on this occasion provide the setting for two concert grands and a whole arsenal of percussion instruments handled by two of the world’s finest percussionists: a native of the German city of Essen Alexej Gerassimez and Istanbul-born Emil Kuyumcuyan. The programme offers a thrilling combination of American and European music: Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, the dance suite from Bernstein’s musical West Side Story, featuring the popular Mambo and a cha-cha version of the famous song Maria, and the ecstatic Sonata for Two Pianos and Percussion by Béla Bartók. The cherry on the cake will be a brilliant fanfare by John Adams, Short Ride in a Fast Machine, inspired by a drive in a luxury Italian sports car, along with an original piece by Alexej Gerassimez, whose music is a novel mix of minimalism, jazz and electronics. A programme which showcases the absolute synergy and temperament of the Jussen brothers and presents the piano in entirely new contexts.