Elements of the National Orchestra's string section are currently in the Czech Republic's second city Brno to perform during the Spilberk Festival later this month. They have joined their hosts, the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, to perform during the festival on two concert nights.

Rehearsals are currently underway and see a number of string players from Malta's orchestra team up with some 80 colleagues from the acclaimed Brno Philharmonic with whom the National Orchestra has partnered on this Leonardo mobility project.

The great Czeck composer Leo Janácek had been instrumental in setting up what was to develop into the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, an orchestra that has developed under inspiring conductors including Petr Altrichter, who will be the conductor for the concert of operatic music tomorrow, the first of the two concerts the Maltese musicians will be participating in.

The rehearsal sessions are taking place in the orchestra's headquarters, the Besedni dum, a late 19th century structure built to the designs of the Danish-born Viennese architect Theophil Hansen, famed for the Musikverein in Vienna, one of the most renowned concert halls in the world.

The acoustics for which the Vienna theatre is known also enrich the Brno concert hall within the Besedni dum. Working within such an environment, alongside an orchestra with such a long tradition and fine reputation, and under Altrichter, is an enrichment for the Maltese contingent that has been very well received and valued.