On 15 January, the renowned Quatuor Diotima presented a new piece by Miroslav Srnka. The concert was a part of Biennale de Quatuors à cordes, a festival of string quartets held by the Philharmonie de Paris. Future Family analyses the traditional distribution of musical roles between the players as well as other conventions typical for a string quartet and explores … Read more
On 14 December, the New Stage of the National Theatre in Prague premiered the second opera by composer, and this time also a librettist Miloš Orson Štědroň (*1973). Subtitled “Poetic Images from the Life of Bohumil Hrabal”, Don Hrabal reveals, in nine images, the personality and attitudes of this famous Czech authorr, as well as the background of his relationship … 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 a part of the chamber cycle of the Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK, Bohemia Saxophone Quartet gave a concert on November 23 at the Convent of St Agnes of Bohemia. It included the world premiere of Sherlock Holmes, a new piece by instrumentalist, multi-genre composer and FOK’s long-standing collaborator Martin Kumžák. The audience also had a chance to hear E. Bozza’s Andante … Read more
On November 17 in the Mozart Hall of Reduta, Brno, Ensemble Opera Diversa introduced the first opera by Vienna-based composer and musicologist Lenka Nota I Am the Princess of Fools. It tells the story of Božena Němcová as written into the libretto by a famous Czech documentary director Olga Sommerová. “Božena is a friend of all Czech women … Read more
On November 16 in the theatre hall of Metropol, České Budějovice, the South Czech Philharmonic gave world premiere to Lachian Pictures, a new piece by composer and clarinettist Aleš Pavlorek (*1971). This suite for small orchestra drew inspiration from the Lachian folklore, which is manifested also in the titles of its four movements – Lachian Janáček, Lachian Yodel Songs, … Read more
One of the guests of the 20. international festival of contemporary music and multimedia projects Meetings of New Music Plus, held between October 11 and December 6 in Brno, was the Prague-based ensemble MoEns. Their concert took place on November 9 at the Chamber Hall of the Faculty of Music of Janáček Academy of Music and Performing … Read more
Opera povera ensemble introduced a second part of their experimental project Echo – Metamorphoses, subtitled “All that connects sound and space can become an opera.” It was created by Rocc (*1979), Slovenian opera director and opera povera’s art director, and composer and musicologist Vít Zouhar (*1966). “Content-wise, we tried to return to the original inspiration of the very first … Read more
A part of the concert called “garden” held by the Konvergence composers’ association on October 31 at the already traditional venue of the church of st. Lawrence in the Lesser Town, Prague, was a world premiere of Landscape: HypnoticPulsation, a piece by composer one of Konvergence’s co-founders Tomáš Pálka. It was performed by Kalabis Quintet, a young successful ensemble composed … Read more
