Luxembourg: May 2006 Report

Music from Luxembourg Abroad

The international Festival "European Crossings –
Prague Premieres 2006" has presented a review of selected contemporary works from Austria, Belgium, Czech Republic, Germany, the Netherlands and Luxembourg. As part of this Festival — which took place from 18 to 24 March 2006 — three orchestral works by Luxembourg composers were performed at the Dorak Hall, Rudolfinum in Prague. This special event was organized by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra with the cooperation of the Luxembourg Embassy to Prague and with the support of the Luxembourg Society for Contemporary Music.

The Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, with Jacob Hrusa conducting, performed Altars of Light by Camille Kerger. His composition won First Prize in Paris in the year 2000. The Prague premiere of Marcel Wengler's Flute Concerto was given on 21 March by the Pardubice Philharmonic Orchestra with its chief conductor Leos Svarovsky and the Luxembourg soloist Carlo Jans. Georges Lentz has composed his piece Caeli enarrant... from 1997-2004 which was presented by the Prague Chamber Orchestra under the direction of Jaroslav Kyzlink.

The "Prague Premieres" is by today still a young but already firmly established event in the world of contemporary music, with a wide European and international participation. I am particularly pleased that the 2006 festival will focus on the composers and performers from neighboring nations, furthering in this fashion a platform where public and professionals can meet over a most intensive period of seven days. I hope that the unique atmosphere of Prague will help inspire future cross-border cooperation and an even more interactive European contemporary musical scene. I wish the festival, its public, its performers and composers, as well as its organizers many moments of musical bliss, as well success and recognition for their truly groundbreaking initiative.

Pierre-Louis Lorenz
Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to Prague