The second day of MusicOlomouc festival offered a concert of German chamber vocal ensemble AuditivVokal Dresden. Its members, in the Atrium of Art Centre of Palacký University, performed a program consisting exclusively of 21st-century music, including the world premiere of Hláskopelní a špitocudní by pianist, composer and the festival’s director Marek Keprt (*1974). Keprt wrote it especially for this ensemble. … Read more
The 9th year of Olomouc-based international contemporary music festival MusicOlomouc was started on October 2. Its second concert, held at the theatre hall of the Art Centre of Palacký University, introduced Aleph Gitarrenquartett, which is a guitar quartet specializing in new music. The ensemble performed, among others, the world premiere of František Chaloupka’s (*1981) Guitar Quartet No. 1 … Read more
The BERG orchestra gave world premiere to a new piece by one of the most successful Czech composers of the young generation, Jan Ryant Dřízal. Lekce Váchal for countertenor and orchestra was performed on September 25 at the hall of the Masaryk Dormitory in Dejvice, Prague. The title refers to the composition’s two main sources of inspiration: Lekce … Read more
On September 13, the South Czech Philharmonic opened its 37th season with a concert at the Theatre Hall of Metropol, České Budějovice. A part of it was a world premiere of a new piece by composer and accordionist Jiří Lukeš. As the title suggest, Bukolika was inspired chiefly by commonly occurring natural phenomena (rain, wind, fog…). The author argues, however, … Read more
National Theatre Brno opened this year’s season by releasing Rules for Good Manners in the Modern World, an original Czech opera by composer Michal Nejtek and librettist Jiří Adámek, who is also the director. The piece is based on Jean-Luc Lagarce’s (1957-1995) drama for a solo actress, which introduces the spectators to the etiquette rules, as established … Read more
Held on September 4 in the Domovina hall in Holešovice, Prague, the first autumn concert by BERG orchestra was named “Surya Namaskar”, which means Sun Salutation. That was because the evening’s dominant theme was yoga, specifically as presented by composer and multi-instrumentalist Tomáš Reindl (*1971) in his premiere piece Yoga for Guru, Orchestra and Yogis. Commissioned by … Read more
One of the most eagerly anticipated events of this year’s Ostrava Days was undoubtedly the first Czech performance of Miroslav Srnka’s chamber opera Make No Noise. Written for five voices, thirteen instruments and electronics, the work was commissioned by the Bavarian State Opera and last time performed in August 2016 at the Austrian festival Bregenzer Festspiele. The … Read more
The fifth day of the Ostrava Days presented a concert of the festival’s residential orchestra Ostravská banda held at the Triple Hall Karolina. Led by four different conductors – Petr Kotík, Joseph Trafton, Bruno Ferrandis and Carl Bettendorf – the ensemble played a program consisting of nine compositions, none of which was more than 15 years old. One of … Read more
As would be expected, the 10 days and 22 concerts of the 9th year of the contemporary music biennale Ostrava days included several Czech premieres. From those by Czech authors they were first of all the chamber Nothing is Free by Petr Cígler, September by Petr Bakla and The Long Sentence II by Michal Rataj. All of them were performed during … Read more
At the fifth of eight concerts of Podkrkonošské hudební léto festival, world premiere was given to Mosaics, a piece for violin, clarinet and piano by composer Kateřina Horká (*1993). A young student of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague wrote it in autumn 2016, encouraged by the festival’s directress, violinist Ludmila Pavlová. The 15-minute-long piece in 3 movements was … Read more
