The Time Of The Arrival Of The Bethlehem Light
The album, Pozdraveno budiž světlo (i.e. Greeted Be The Light) is a recording for long winter evenings. It is full of not only the most beautiful Christmas carols, which Jiří Pavlica and Hradišťan recorded, but it also contains songs that relate to Advent, the arrival of the New Year and the whole period when the evenings are longer than the days and the landscape is covered with snow. These twenty-one meditations are not only about Christmas contemplation and the message of the arrival of the Bethlehem light, but also about a time of hope that this period brings to us.
Jiří Pavlica and Hradišťan included not only well-known Christmas carols on the album, but also original songs. Seven of the twenty-one tracks, including the title song, Pozdraveno budiž světlo, were written by Jiří Pavlica. “The presented selection begins with an excerpt of the biblical text of the Gospel of St. John the Baptist, followed by songs that reflect the current, often civil, perception of Christmas,” says Jiři Pavlica in the album introduction and explains the basic premise of the overall selection of the songs and the reason why it has such a symbolic name. “The symbol of light is one of the strongest and most vital because “the light shines in darkness and darkness doesn’t absorb it … ”. Every year we look forward to advent and Christmas as a time of hope, the birth of new life, and the arrival of the light of Bethlehem. Man longs for this symbolism and has expressed this desire through art, including music art in a variety of forms, over the centuries.” Christmas albums and selections are produced in large quantities each year. That is why Jiří Pavlica and Hradišťan watched carefully not only the artistic quality of the recordings, but an important element was also the message that the song itself brings. “I believe that in each of these songs there’s at least a small piece of light that shines in darkness, the darkness doesn’t absorb it and enlightens every human,” says Jiří Pavlica and so the whole compilation resonates with the symbolism of Christmas such as light and hope, which guides us not only throughout this recording, but also our entire life.
This compilation CD is in a digipack and, apart from the well-known songs, also contains five never released tracks from Hradišťan. These are Čas darů, Slava v vyšnijich Bogu, Puer natus in Betlehem, Wstaňcie, pasterze and Maria Panna. If you visit one of the regular Hradišťan Christmas concerts, you’ll hear most of the songs included in this album. They are part of the traditional Christmas concert program of Jiří Pavlica and Hradišťan.