Arts
Music Kuhn choir
The Kuehn children's choir from Prague received rapturous applause after their concert in New York's Carnegie Hall last weekend. Their repertoire included Christmas songs by the 18th and 19th century Czech composers and a costume performance of music and dance depicting the birth of Jesus. Most of the audience were of Czech origin and they in particular enjoyed the choir's performance tremendously. The choir's director, Jan Marsalek said after the concert that his choir's debut in Carnegie Hall had overturned the myth that Carnegie Hall is accessible only for celebrities. Last weekend's concert was the fourth concert given by the Kuehn choir in the United States. The ensemble will celebrate its 70th birthday later this year.
The Municipal House in Prague is currently hosting an exhibition acquainting visitors with the life and work of Jan Kotera, one of the most significant of all Czech architects.
The Jan Kotera exhibition is organized to mark the 130th anniversary of the great architect's birth, and the opening ceremony took place on his birthday -December 18th. The organizers say while there had been three exhibitions of Jan Kotera's work since his death in 1923, the current one is the biggest yet.
The Jan Kotera exhibition will be open till the end of March and it's accompanied by a large book in both Czech and English and by a series of lectures on the great architect's life and work.
Incunabula, that is the first prints dating back to the 15th century are usually - in addition to old manuscripts - the most precious parts of any library's collection. The National Museum in Prague recently presented a catalogue containing a scientific description of more than 2,000 volumes of incunabula to be found not only in the museum itself, but also in castle and chateau libraries within the Czech Republic. According to one of the catalogue's authors, Jaroslav Vrchotka librarians try to find the most careful ways to preserve those precious prints but at the same time want them to be accessible to academics who need them for their studies. Mr. Vrchotka said the National Museum felt proud and satisfied over the fact that they had finished this long lasting and highly demanding work. The catalogue follows international rules - it is in alphabetical order according to names of authors or names of individual works, and it contains a list of printers and publishers, towns and printing dates.
