On 7 April, the New Scene of the National Theatre in Prague presented the long-awaited premiere of the opera adaptation of Ivan Klíma’s mystery novel The Sufferings of Prince Sternenhoch. Its author, primarily a scenic music composer and musical autodidact Ivan Acher (*1976) had already written music for the book’s theatre adaptation at Divadlo Komedie eleven years ago; … Read more
On 9 March at the Morat-Institut in Freiburg, ensemble recherche, top-class German contemporary music ensemble, gave world premiere to String trio no. 2 by Czech composer Petr Bakla. In the 2017 piece, the author asks the players to produce “an objective, pure sound”, devoid of any interpretational stereotypes, one he has since long found to be the “most … Read more
“… Impressions and Touches in the Soul…”, this year’s first concert by the Konvergence composers’ association, took place on 5 March in the Church of St Lawrence in Lesser town, Prague. It presented, among others, the premiere of Doteky milosrdenství (The Touches of Mercy), a new piece by a well-known Brno-based composer Pavel Zemek-Novák. The programme also included La Mandragore (Tristan Murail), Ambre … Read more
Led by their artistic director Pavel Šnajdr, the Brno Contemporary Orchestra on 31 January in Besední dům, Brno, presented the first of the two concerts commemorating and celebrating the 100th anniversary of the founding of Czechoslovakia. It was named FROM CZECHOSLOVAKIA and the programme consisted of new pieces by Petr Bakla, Luboš Mrkvička and Marián Lejava … Read more
The composers’ association Konvergence dedicated this year’s last concert to the youngest generation of Czech composers and composition students. It was held on 12 December, as usually in St. Lawrence Church in Lesser Town, Prague. The evening was closed with the world premiere of All Ending, a piece by composer, director, poet and translator Ian Mikyska (*1994), performed … Read more
The BERG Orchestra ended this year’s season on 5 December with a concert in the St Salvator Church, Prague. They presented the Czech premiere of Circle for 4 trios, conductor and audience by the Chinese composer star, Oscar and Grammy winner Tan Dun. The second part belonged to the world premiere of a space composition shadows by day, Light by night by Czech … 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
This year’s topic of The Beauty of Today, the contemporary music concert cycle organized by PKF – Prague Philharmonia, was Dualism in the Czech 21st Century, or, the relationship between a living, active composer and his (former) teacher or mentor. On the last of this season’s concerts, which was held on May 30 at the Experimental Space NoD, … Read more
On 2nd May, the BERG Orchestra put on a concert at the Ss. Cyril and Methodius Church in Karlín, Prague. It included a world premiere of Lorelei by composer Robert Hejnar (*1969), a piece which – by its balladic subject – formed an interesting contrast of thought to the spiritual Sequentia by Arvo Pärt and Seven Words by Sofia Gubaidulina. … Read more
