Dear friends,

I have the honour and pleasure to inform you that the new CD from the prepared set of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s Sonatas for Piano and Violin has been successfully launched. The launch took place in the fantastic atmosphere of the crowded Břevnov Monastery Hall. It was moderated by Jan Tůma, a Czech Radio editor. There was also Ms Táňa Medvecká as the “godmother” and His Excellency Koichi Takahashi, ambassador of Japan, as the “godfather”.
Ms Medvecká performed a Jaroslav Seifert’s poem to see the recording off. His Excellency Takahashi read out, in his charming Czech, an introductory salute; the rest of the congratulation was left in English. I and my colleague Norbert Heller used this occasion to give a short concert and played to the public two sonatas from the just published CD.
The recording and the planned set are interesting in being performed on a historic hammerclavier from the workshop of Conrad Graf, which is exhibited in Muzeum české hudby (Czech Music Museum) in the Libochovice Chateau, and a violin from the workshop of Kašpar Strnad from the year 1795, which is also borrowed from the Czech Music Museum. The used tuning is 415 Hz. The whole recording is coming into existence in the mentioned Libochovice Chateau in Saturn’s Hall. The sound quality is looked after by our friends Lukáš Matoušek, a recording producer, and Aleš Dvořák, a recording engineer. They were also seen at the launch.

Naturally, we also introduced the recording company that undertook to publish the CD, i.e. Digital Media – Gramofonové závody Loděnice, a. s. and the ICZ firm, which is the financial partner and the patron of the whole project.

I and Norbert enjoyed our short performance and the audiences were excited about the musical gustation. The instruments almost played by themselves in such dignified, beautiful, and inspirational surroundings.
I truly believe that the recording and the set we plan to complete during the next year will find its way to your hearts. W. A. Mozart’s music is so clear and sincere. To our surprise, the only other recording of the set (in our country) was recorded many years ago by J. Suk and J. Panenka.

Have a taste, at least from the photographs, of the great atmosphere of the night, which was captured for you by Lukáš Fronk, my webmaster and photographer.

Yours sincerely,

Gabriela Demeterová