Foreword

Foreword by William and Alexandra Lobkowicz

6 Gluck, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Dvořák – these are just some of the names associated with the Lobkowicz family and the remarkable collection of over 4,500 music manuscripts and prints that comprise the Lobkowicz Music Collection. These musical treasures – restituted in the early 1990s after having been seized twice, first by the Nazis and later by the Communist regime – are now being catalogued and made accessible to scholars and the public. Since the 17th century, each generation of our family has enthusiastically pursued its musical passions. My own interests began in a school choir and later at Harvard University, where I performed in student opera productions. Despite aspirations of becoming an opera singer, I fear my talents did not meet the standards of my forebears! Very happily, though, we have created musical occasions for the public, with over 4,000 concerts performed in Lobkowicz family castles since 1993. Our vision, with the support of the Lobkowicz Palace in Prague, is to establish a Library and Study Center as well as a Dvořák House Museum and Music Academy at Nelahozeves Castle in Nelahozeves, the birthplace of Antonín Dvořák. Our dream is to follow family tradition by creating unique opportunities for musicians to share their gifts and inspire the world.

We would like to extend our heartfelt thanks to Dr Kathryn Libin for her years of commitment and exploration in our family archive. We also thank Dr Petr Slouka, curator of the Lobkowicz Music Collection, for his expertise on the Baroque music, as well as Mgr Soňa Černocká, Head of the Lobkowicz Library and Archive, for all her support. Finally, our deepest gratitude goes to the Achelis & Bodman Foundation for their faith and vision in supporting the music cataloguing project and making this publication possible.

Large salon with Lobkowicz children and family friends at Eisenberg, with grand piano in foreground. Painting by Carl Robert Croll (1842). The Lobkowicz Collections.