August 16, 2009 - Podbřezi: Brass Band and Old Jewish Cemetery

Opočenka Band

This afternoon we went to the nearby town of Podbřezi for a concert by an Opočenka band. This is a traditional Czech brass band with roots in the late 1800s. This one included 3 clarinets and 3 vocalists with the brass. Probably about 400 mostly elderly people were in the audience.

The Audience

Most of them would have lived through both WWII and the communist years, and their faces were full of character. For once there were no songs in English. The concert was in a park by the river with a castle on the cliffs above. The atmosphere became rather magical towards the end when the band played some favorites that everyone knew and suddenly we were surrounded by people quietly singing these old songs.

Jewish Cemetery

After the concert we followed a forest trail along the river through the woods to the old Jewish cemetery for the town - again a magical place - the sound of the running river, shade from the high evergreens, and the late afternoon sun filtering through onto these very old, moss-covered gravestones with Hebrew inscriptions. Even the ones that had so much moss that none of the writing was visible still had stones of remembrance balanced on the top. The local Catholic priest and some village residents came along on our cemetery walk. The remembrance continues.

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