Smetana Hall - The Municipal House

The Municipal House is a magnificent Art Nouveau building constructed between 1905 and 1911 during the Hapsburg era. It was thoroughly renovated between 1994 and 1997. It has intricate stained glass windows, gold trimmings, the finest in Czech crystal and magnificent frescoes painted by the country’s most talented 20th Century artists. The Teplice North Czech philharmonic orchestra was playing a concert. Teplice is about an hour north of Prague and is a city of about 48,000. Ludwig van Beethoven began writing his 7th symphony in 1812 while staying in Teplice. I had supper with a delicious desert at one of the three restaurants and then heard a concert that consisted of “Carmen Fantasy by F.Borne for flute and orchestra, F.Mendelssohn-Bartholdy’s Violin Concerto in Eminor and then a fantastic performance of A.Dvorak’s Symphony No.9 “From the New World””.  Conductor was Min Chung and solo violinist Jiyeon Ryu.