The charismatic musical and lifelong duo of Terezie Fialová and Jiří Bárta have comprised the concert’s dramaturgy exclusively for the festival. We will hear Sonata for Violin and Piano from their newest CD Janáček (Animal Music 2024) as arranged by Jiří Bárta; Beethoven’s Sonata for Cello and Piano no. 5 D major op. 102 which is part of their joint double album (Animal Music 2021), which contains the complete recordings of Beethoven’s sonatas for piano and violoncello; and the sonata format will be concluded with the Sonata for Cello and Piano no. 1 H 277 from 1939, which Martinů wrote in Paris as a reaction to the formation of the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, and he dedicated it to the French violoncellist Pierre Fournier. The programme will be closed off by two variations on a theme of Rossini. The first one was composed by Nicolo Paganini, Rossini’s personal friend, and later altered for violoncello and piano by Luigi Silva in the 20^th century. The second variation was composed more than a century later by Bohuslav Martinů.