Event date
17 / 07 / 2025 - Thursday 19:30
Event venue
Event type
Chamber Concerts
Congratulatory Concert: Štěpán Rak 80
Congratulatory concert on the occasion of the 80th birthday of guitarist Štěpán Rak. With his son Jan-Matěj and the Prague Guitar Quartet, he will rock the Masquerade Hall with six guitars.
Artists
Štěpán Rak – guitar
Jan-Matěj Rak – guitar
Prague guitar quartet: PGQ
Marek Velemínský
Eliška Holá
Matěj Freml
Patrick Vacík
Program
Štěpán Rak: Fanfare
Jaroslav Ježek: Isabel Valse
Štěpán Rak: Suite Again (selection)
Jaroslav Ježek: Life is just a coincidence
Štěpán Rak: Variations on a Theme by Jaromír Klempíř
--- intermission ---
Variations on a Baroque Theme (improvisation)
Antonín Dvořák: At the Old Castle
Štěpán Rak: Fantasy-Rhapsody
Štěpán Rak: Moods (Lento cantabile, Allegro, Tombeau, Toccata)
Edvard Hagerup Grieg: Peer Gynt Suite č. 1 op. 46
“Morning Mood” “Anitra's Dance” “In the Cave of the Mountain King”
Štěpán Rak: Rumba
Štěpán Rak
Czech guitarist, composer and pedagogue. He studied guitar and composition at the Prague Conservatory and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. During his studies, he won a competition for young composers with his composition Hiroshima. In 1975 he was invited to Finland, where he taught at the conservatory for five years, gave master classes, lectured and gave concerts. Since then he has toured more than seventy countries with his guitar. In 1982, Štěpán Rak founded the guitar department at the Prague Academy of Performing Arts, where he currently teaches improvisation. President Václav Havel appointed him the first university professor of guitar in the Czech Republic. Štěpán Rak is known primarily as a guitarist, composer and improviser. The so-called “Rak tremolo” has become a term in the guitar world. He uses the technique of playing with all five fingers of the right hand on one or more strings simultaneously. Professor Štěpán Rak’s lifelong endeavour is to present the guitar not only as a solo instrument, but also as an orchestra.
Jan-Matěj Rak
In the Rak family, the love for the guitar is inherited, which is confirmed by the son of this year’s jubilant Štěpán, Jan-Matěj Rak, guitarist, songwriter, enthusiastic amateur astronomer, great photographer and creative soul full of ideas. He has mastered the difficult task of arranging Jaroslav Ježek’s music for solo guitar. His treatments of Baroque music, as well as that of Antonín Dvořák and Bedřich Smetana, are also revelatory. He plays these compositions on a unique historical guitar from 1830. Together with his father Štěpán Rak, he has been performing for years and their RAK and RAK concerts are characterized by originality and always offer numerous surprises. Many of the songs are given their final form on stage, so the audience always has something to look forward to.
Pražské kytarové kvarteto: PGQ
The Prague Guitar Quartet was formed in 1984 at the Prague Conservatory. It is appreciated by professional critics and audiences all over the world. The PGQ has performed at music festivals and has given concerts in most of Europe, the USA, the Middle East and many places in the Czech Republic. It is characterized by perfect harmony, distinctive musical style and unique sound of four guitars, which inspired Czech and foreign composers to compose pieces directly for the ensemble. In addition to the original repertoire, the ensemble also performs its own transcriptions of various stylistic periods. The Prague Guitar Quartet currently consists of Marek Velemínský, Eliška Holá, Matěj Freml and Patrick Vacík.
Masquerade Hall, Castle
When you enter the Masquerade Hall of the Český Krumlov Castle you will feel like in the 18th century, when it was decorated by Josef Lederer. While listening to chamber concerts you can admire the painting with motives of members of aristocratic society entertaining themselves amidst masquerade bustle. Before the tones fill this hall with […]
