Twin City Journal Bratislava       

Bratislava belongs in Europe not only because of its membership of the EU or the Euro which our country adopted without any problems, but mainly because of its culture: professional, with a wide spectrum of institutions as well as amateur or alternative. Long term and professional enrolment of children in the system of Bratislava art schools has always maintained a strong position of education in the arts. Therefore, the city has a background in discovering talents, new and hungry artistic ensembles and groups who want to succeed...

Thanks to well considered dramaturgy, exceptional interpretive performances and an informal atmosphere, the Convergence international festival of chamber music has been one of the most inspirational music events in Bratislava for the last decade. The eleventh annual event will open with the world renowned The Hilliard Ensemble together with the Norwegian saxophonist, Jan Garbarek (20. 9. ). The musicians will perform in St. Martin's Cathedral as part of a European tour to promote their new album, Officium Novum.

It’s almost unbelievable that the festival Cultural Summer and Castle Celebrations Bratislava 2010 has been at full power and has become more popular over the past 35 seasons. A jubilee cultural marathon full of music, dance, theatre, creative art and other artistic forms will fill Bratislava’s summer with diversions from mid-June until September. The main dramaturge and producer of the festival, Bratislava Culture and Information Centre (BKIS), is preparing more than two hundred programmes in fifteen town scenes for this year...

For one month in the year, Vienna changes beyond recognition. In the middle of July, choreographers, dance teachers and dancers from around the world start to arrive and the city of music changes into a dance metropolis. The slightly fairy tale story of the ImPulsTanz festival started a bit like this: In the artistically rather conservative city whose citizens, tourists and politicians mainly preferred musical art (because of a strong musical history), one art manager and one Brazilian dancer and choreographer decided to organise something containing contemporary dance...

The Slovak National Museum invites the public to visit its museums throughout Slovakia from Myjava to Svidník. This summer, children, adults and whole families can choose from many interesting events. On their wanderings through the museums, the visitors can not only to rest up and have a good time, but also understand the importance and need of preservation of cultural heritage...

Only three cities in Europe - Bratislava, Amsterdam and Budapest – can boast that they have museums with a similar focus. The Museum of Trade in Bratislava, Slovakia, is one of the youngest. It started to be put together twenty five years ago and today there are more than 61,000 artefacts in its collection. They all show the rich history of trade in Slovakia. The museum’s ambition is to be lively, interactive and to invoke pleasant memories of times when shopping was literally an event….

“Who does not communicate, as if would not exist,“ said Mgr. Monika Kozelová, director of the competition Corporate Medium of the Year, in which the magazine of the capital city Bratislava Twin City Journal already won first prizes in the category of non-profit, contribution and budget organizations of public administration in the last years. The capital city entered for the competition for the year 2009 also the new magazine in.ba...

When looking in the programme of this year’s Jazz Fest Wien Festival, you’ll be surprised by its diversity and then you’ll ask yourself the question, What is still jazz…? Really, jazz isn’t what it used to be anymore. Now, jazz music includes a large spectrum of interconnected styles and more and more new forms...

Club life has moved into Bratislava and audiences are anticipating good music in quality places. Our city has no need to envy the music metropoly. In new clubs, jazz players are getting more and more places to play. As the world renowned jazzman, Peter Lipa, said: ”For me, a good club is a place where the band can be seen by the whole audience. There must be a stage, equipment and lighting. The organiser’s approach is also important. They must be a person who loves music and who wants to support it. We have a few such clubs like that in Bratislava.“

Spring will arrive with the Wiener Festwochen in Vienna. The motto of this year’s giant theatre and music festival is “everything different?” Behind this question is the search for alternatives after a year of economic crisis and disclosure of market fraud which has woken in us the necessity to know the truth and to ask questions. “Suddenly there is space for disapproval, doubt, thoughts about changing the situation to something else,” said Stefanie Carp, Theatre Director of the festival.

The ballet company of the Slovak National Theatre (SNT) entered the Theatre’s jubilee 90th season with this slogan, and will conclude the season with a handful of outstanding artistic experiences. They are offering classic, neoclassic and modern, performances by major guests and a new premiere from the excellent choreographer, James Kudelka from Canada.

The Slovak opera scene is celebrating its ninetieth year of existence with a varied and quality programme. Its anniversary is reflected in the programme in various ways.

The historical centre of Bratislava will surprise with its quiet nooks and crannies and will bewitch with its majestic palaces. Residences of the former high aristocracy are protected today and at the same time, they protect themselves. Two of them hide the treasures of the Bratislava city gallery. Bratislava City Gallery has the second largest art collection in Slovakia. They protect more than thirty five thousand pieces of art: “We have to take care of the collections. This is how we preserve irreplaceable cultural valuables for future generations,” said the Gallery Director, Ivan Jančár.

We met after a demanding day of operations. I was looking for signs of tiredness but I searched in vain. How can someone look so fresh after a day-long medical marathon? His smile answered me: “You should come on Monday when we’ll finish one of the most demanding operations in spinal surgery – we’ll be removing the entire body of the sacrum and the operation will last at least six hours…” He also definitely gave a performance at the limits of human ability on Monday, a performance which brought back life and movement to ailing spines, knees and arms… To the question of what an orthopaedist feels when he discharges a patient who was admitted to the hospital and who now walks away on his own two feet, the exceptional Professor Ľuboš Rehák, Head of the 1st Orthopaedic-Trauma Clinic at the Faculty of Medicine UK, Teaching Hospital with Polyclinics and the State Healthcare Institution in Ružinov Hospital in Bratislava, answers very simply:

The original musical instrument – the fujara – started to produce tones in the endless green meadows of Slovakia, mainly in the Spring, when shepherds put the first herds of sheep out to pasture. Nowadays, its typical sound and noble shape is more part of folklore presentations, but it is experiencing a renaissance. This is definitely due to it also being listed in the UNESCO Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity. The fujara has also become the love of Bratislavian Marian Plavec’s life.

Dr. h. c. Anton Srholec (born 12th June 1929 in Skalica) is a Roman Catholic priest, writer and charity worker, establisher and director of RESOTY, a re-socialising centre for the homeless in Podunajské Biskupice in Bratislava.

In April, the Neue Oper Wien is presenting the world premiere of an opera from the Austrian composer, Herwig Reiter. The base for the libretto is – Goldoni’s Campiello with modern text from Peter Turrini. The author himself told us that even in modern opera, there can be melodious arias, dance music and that we can simply have good fun.

Music has sounded in our city forever. First in churches and monasteries as part of services, then gradually entering the houses of inhabitants as well as public places – squares and in public houses. Music and entertainment was part of life as well as work and trade. In the days when Bratislava was a King’s town, the city also experienced a previously unseen explosion in cultural public life. This was mainly down to the aristocracy...

Saturday, 15th May 2010
Bratislava museums and galleries invite you to spend an extraordinary day and night! For the sixth time, on the occasion of the International Day of Museums, we have prepared a unique opportunity for you to visit our exhibitions and displays until midnight. Celebrate this festival of museums with us and become more familiar with our work!

23. – 25. 4. 2010
7th open day of the municipality of Bratislava.
During the last weekend of April, the citizens and visitors of Bratislava will have the possibility to experience the capital city as a city full of entertainment, good mood and a rich programme offer. The cultural sites of the city will open their doors for all visitors for free and prepare special programmes. You can go sightseeing in the historical centre of the city by foot or by historical tram. The zoological and botanical gardens will welcome you with all-day programmes for children and adults...

When the doors of the Primatial Palace and other areas of the municipality were opened seven years ago for Bratislavians to see the ceremonial areas of our capital city, no one knew how much interest this event would attract. Today, it’s a large Spring event called Bratislava for Everyone, when the city and its organisations open their arms to all inhabitants and offer a weekend full of entertainment and education, the new and the traditional, meetings and get-togethers…Be there on the weekend of 24th and 25th April!

From 17th to 30th May 2010, as part of the ARCHDAYS 2010 festival, a programme of events focused upon the presentation upon modern architecture and design will take place in several places in Bratislava. The ARCHDAYS 2010 festival has been prepared by Design Slovakia with the support of the capital city of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava, under the auspices of the Faculty of Architecture of the Slovak Technical University and the Slovak Chamber of Architects, and in cooperation with other partners and institutions. Organisers are inviting not only specialists – architects, students or investors – to visit the exhibitions, presentations and lectures, but also the wider cultural public and those who are interested in good architecture and modern living.

The exhibition in Gallery of the City Bratislava presents the members of the Mikuláš Galanda Group - A. Barčík, A. Čutek, V. Kompánek, R. Krivoš, M. Laluha, M. Paštéka, A. Rudavský, I. Štubňa und P. Tóth - at the top of their artistic activity in the years 1957 - 1968. On display are more than 90 major paintings and 40 sculptures, more than a half of them are presented to the public for the first time.

This year, Vienna is commemorating the 150th anniversary of the birth of composer and conductor, Gustav Mahler. This musical genius, born in the Czech Kalište, had a great connection to this metropolis on the Danube. Vienna influenced him from the age of 15 when he started to study at a local conservatory. He later spent his most creative, fertile and personally most important years of his life in Vienna.

Before 1989, art collecting had no big tradition in Slovakia. One of a few collectors was Albert Tešínský, who however moved his collection to Vienna, where it served as a basis for the Albertina. Extensive collections were in the possession of the noble families Pállfy, Török, Nyáry. After 1948, art collecting actually ceased to exist in Slovakia. Smaller private collections were established not until the early 1960s. The most important collector was Ernest Zmeták, who dedicated his extensive collection to the Art Gallery in Nové Zámky in 1980...