The large hall of the Thermal hotel is being converted for the needs of the Czech Philharmonic with the choir

thermal

Karlovy Vary - Concerts prepared exclusively for Carnegie Hall in New York will be performed by the Czech Philharmonic on Friday and Saturday in the Great Hall of the Thermal Hotel in Karlovy Vary. The hall, which was built for film screenings, also has to adapt to the concert. The stage must accommodate 170 people, Michal Starý, who is in charge of the hall's renovation, told ČTK today. The fourth edition of the event Variations, organized by the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival and the Czech Philharmonic, brings exceptional concerts and film screenings to the city. This year, Variations will take place on Friday, November 22, and Saturday, November 23.

"The renovation will take about three days. Then lighting and sound must also be installed. Everything must be ready by Friday so that a rehearsal can take place and the performance can be held in the evening," Starý from the company Starý and Starý described the timeline to ČTK. The company is a court partner of the film festival and annually ensures the setup and subsequent dismantling of all sets for the Karlovy Vary International Film Festival. The employees of the Thermal Hotel, which is state-owned, know the venue perfectly well.

"We had to remove the first five rows of seats and partially one more. The stage needs to be widened and extended so that it can accommodate 80 choir members and almost 90 Philharmonic musicians," Starý specified. This is all being managed by a team of twenty technical staff.

The Great Hall of the Thermal Hotel was built as part of the hotel and was predetermined for the film festival. It has 1,148 seats and usually features a stage that measures 22 by 5 meters. It will now be significantly larger. The hall was primarily constructed as a film venue, so the balcony allows for a view of the screen but not the stage. For the concert, only the seats in the main part of the hall will be used.

On Friday, Janáček's Glagolitic Mass and Dvořák's Violin Concerto in A minor will be on the program under the baton of Semyon Bychkov. On Saturday, three poems from Smetana's cycle My Country and Dvořák's Piano Concerto in G minor will be performed. These pieces will be played only at the Variations in Karlovy Vary in this presentation.

In addition to Thermal, audiences can also attend concerts in the former Sparkasse building and the Vřídlo Colonnade. These concerts will be free.