kamara.hu/1 Presented by Liszt Academy

“If you’re looking for infinity, just close your eyes”, writes Milan Kundera in his novel The Unbearable Lightness of Being. “And, of course, open your ears,” might add Izabella Simon and Dénes Várjon, who have chosen the Czech writer’s world-famous work as this year’s theme for kamara.hu. An entertaining yet thought-provoking story spiced with acerbic humour and served with eroticism, with the eternal question of opposites at its heart. Is what is light also weightless? And what is heavy is consequently weighty? In addition to these questions, the festival will feature Czech music as represented by Dvořák, Janáček and Martinů, and focus on 1968 – a pivotal year in the novel and in Shostakovich’s life – and on persecution, repression, censorship and emigration, as well as Don Juan, Dante and Nietzsche. Also, Mozart will clarify what ‘facile’ means to them and, of course, the book’s key piece, Beethoven’s last quartet, is played. All this is a mixture of the finest colours from the international musical palette.