A Final Gift

By Christina Porkert – Kinderhook, NY

I have been to Cesky Krumlov before – in fact, this was my fourth visit, and I knew of its beauty. But I never cease to be overwhelmed by it anew. I often took a stroll to the castle gardens in the early morning and marveled at the workers who, every morning, sweep all the cobblestone paths and rake the gravel courtyards of the entire castle complex – not a small task, I can assure you. And it was always done with such care, only to be walked over again by hundreds of visitors who may never know what special care had been taken to prepare the way for them.

This is an image I would carry in my heart when I sat down to tune my lyre, like all the other 70 some participants from 20 different countries, preparing humbly for the precious moments of playing together and for the public concert at the end of the week.

It was astounding and heartwarming to hear the lyre being played in such a variety of different shapes, sizes, timbres, styles, as a solo or duo instrument, as well as in small ensembles and, of course, in the orchestra. Be it classic, contemporary, or folk music, composed or improvised, the many different contributions kept the audience in a wonderful, attentive, listening mood.

Our final concert piece, the Largo from Dvorak’s 9th Symphony “From The New World” (who would have thought this could be played on lyres?!) touched not only our mostly Czech audience deeply, but, I dare say, filled all our hearts with much gratitude for this very special week.