The inhaling and exhaling of Arvo Pärt versus the fiery meteor of Franz Liszt. This unusual programme from the two composers' works was performed on Thursday at the St. Wenceslas Music Festival. The Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren on Českobratrská Street was filled with the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, while the Permoník concert choir settled in the gallery. The walk through the suffering of Marsyas, who was skinned alive, and Dante Alighieri's inferno and purgation, can begin. (...) Regarding the performance of Lamentate, the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra played superbly with Estonian conductor Risto Joost.
(...) After such a flood of Liszt's heavenly music, the audience found it hard to breathe for a while. After some time, however, applause sounded, which rightly belonged to the superb Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra and the very attentive conductor, Joost, but especially to all the girls of the Permoník concert choir and their two muses: Ms Martina Juríková and Ms Eva Šeinerová. A person does not take such a powerful experience home from church every day – perhaps not even every year.