July 15th sees the start of one of the world’s most prestigious festivals of classical music — London’s BBC Proms. Hibla Gerzmava has an honour to perform at the opening concert with one of the most famous conductors — Jirí Belohlávek, who is the Principal Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra for the last five years. Hibla will be singing the soprano part in the “Glagolitic Mass” — an oratorio by Czech composer Leoš Janácek. This work is one of the greatest spiritual works of this genre written in the 20th century. Text of the “Mass” is written in the Glagolitic alphabet, which explains its name and stands out among other Catholic “masses”, which had always been written in Latin. “Glagolitic Mass” is a hymn to the ancient Slavic alphabet, as well as to Moravia — composer’s motherland, which he described: “The walls of my church are the mountains, its dome is the sky, its candles are tall firs, its carpet is the green grass, and incense smoke is Luhacovice forests fragrance.”