Czech Philharmonic ⬩ Christmas Concert

“When Jakub Jan Ryba composed his Czech Christmas Mass in 1796 for the church in Rožmitál, he may very well have had the music of Mozart in his ears—it was heard everywhere. The cantor of Rožmitál had enormous admiration for the Austrian genius, and he regarded Mozart’s works as the embodiment of musical perfection. In the simple harmonies of Ryba’s Mass, we cannot miss that Mozart was his model, nor can we fail to notice the melodic inventiveness of this extremely well educated musician. Besides his best-known Mass, he also composed a large quantity of very demanding and artistically ambitious works, but the simple music of this pastoral Mass still bears the hallmarks of Ryba’s genius”, says Václav Luks.