Kryštof Mařatka

The Exposition

of New Music 2003

Kamil Doležal

czech music3 | 2003 bimonthly magazine

3czech music 3 | 2003

Contents 2003

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editorial

It is summer and we are leaving the

cities and looking for quiet places. In

our age, which is dominated by

machines, also many artists look

their way back to the roots. This

year’s Exposition of New Music in

Brno has as its title “Echoes of the

Nature”. How can be this motto

reflected in music, you can read in

our report. Another way to the roots

found Kryštof Mařatka. This compos-

er, who now lives in France, searched

through the folk music of nations of

the whole globe and transformed

their melodies and rhythms into his

own language. From this, his Clar-

inet concerto was born, which was

performed on this year’s Prague

spring festival. The interview, of

course, does not concern only this

piece. Another person in this issue is

also connected with clarinet. Kamil

Doležal is leader of the Mondschein

Ensemble (or MoEns) and also mem-

ber of group Why Not Patterns,

which crosses the borders between

classical and rock, between com-

posed and improvised music.

I wish you pleasant summer and look

forward to greeting you again in the

next issue of Czech Music.

Czech MusicInformation Centre, Besední 3, 118 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic, fax: ++420 2 57317424phone: ++420 2 57312422e-mail: his@vol.czhttp://www.musica.cz

Czech Music is issued bimonthly by the Czech Music Information Centre with the support of the ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Bohuslav Martinů Foundation, Leoš JanáčekFoundation and the Czech Music Fund The Editor: Matěj Kratochvíl, Translation: Anna Bryson Graphic design: Ditta Jiřičková, Photos: Karel Šuster (p. 4-7, cover) and archives, DTP: HD EDIT, Print: TobolaISSN 1211-0264The subscription fee is 25 for Europe, $ 30 for overseas countries, or respective equivalents.

MATĚJ KRATOCHVÍL

EDITOR

Wading in the Stream and Strolling in the MeadowsAn interview with Kryštof MařatkaMIROSLAV PUDLÁK

Echoes of Nature - The 15th Exposition of NewMusic 2003PETR BAKLA

“Some music assumes that the performer willbecome its joint creator”An interview with Kamil DoležalEVA VELICKÁ

Art Nouveau: Parallels in the Piano Music ofV. Novák, J. Suk and M. K. ČiurlionsVÍTĚZSLAV MIKEŠ

The Prayers and Czardas of Ágnes KutasADAM JAVŮREK

The Greek Passion. The Fate of One Opera.EVA VELICKÁ

CD Reviews

2 | interview | czech music 3 | 2003

wading in the stream and strolling in the meadows_________interview with kryštof mařatka

MIROSLAV PUDLÁKYour piece for clarinet and orchestrapremiered at the Prague Spring wassurprising for its synthetic conception.What led you to folk music and non-European musical culture and its inte-gration into a contemporary compos-ing idiom?

Folk music is a living form that reflects realityand through tradition captures time, and sothe mystery of existence as well. For as longas I can remember this fact has botheredand excited me, drawing me towards folk. Ifwe have the chance (thanks to professionalrecordings) to enter the world of ethnicmusic, we find an ocean of fascinating kindsof musical expression, so diverse, contrast-ing and structurally complex that we realisethat “western” classical music forms a merefragment of the whole. In my clarinet concerto “LUMINARIUM”I wanted to give up my own initiative as muchas possible and accept the particular musicalfragment as it is itself formed by rhythm, har-mony, tempo, dynamics and do on, since themere fact of transcription for orchestra is arecasting and a deformation. The piece iscomposed in the spirit of a documentary filmthat follows different cultures independentlyof each other and tries to illuminate theircharacteristic signs, the distinctive identity ofdifferent kinds of music and so of differentpeoples. In the piece this synthesis results in theinter-penetration of atonal music, tonalmusic, modal, pentatonic, micro-interval andso on, and their “universal” location then nat-urally shifts the different musical aestheticsto a single level and relativises them by jux-taposition.

Numerous commissions and perform-ances are a sign that your music enjoysconsiderable success in France, but interms of style it is not part of theFrench musical mainstream. How

Only a few Czech Composers have managed to make a suc-

cessful career in France. The most obvious examples are

Antonín Rejcha and Bohuslav Martinů, but recently there has

been ever more talk of a young Czech composer who has been

living in Paris since 1994 and has already attracted attention

on many occasions not just in France but also at festivals else-

where in Europe, in the United States and Australia. Kryštof

Mařatka was born in Prague in 1972 into a family with strong

cultural interests and traditions. He studied piano and compo-

sition in Prague at the conservatory and the Academy of Per-

forming Arts). He went to France first on a French government

scholarship, studied at IRCAM and won further scholarships.

He also married in France and works there today as a free-

lance composer. He has received commissions from festivals

including Festival Présences, Dresdener Musiktage, and the

Korsholm Music Festival in Finland. His pieces have been

played by leading performers like Patrick Gallois, Michel

Lethiec, Franz Helmersohn, Gustavo Romero, Raphaèl Oleg

and Vladimir Mendelssohn, by ensembles such as the Talich

Quartet, Quatuor Ysaïe, Quatuor Kandinsky, the Mozart Piano

Quartet, Ensemble Fa, and the Grieg Trio, and by orchestras

including the Orchestre de Radio France, the St. Petersburg

Camerata, the Brno State Philharmonic, or the FOK Prague

Symphony Orchestra. He has also written a piece as a com-

mission for the Czech Season in France and one of his pieces

was played at this year’s Prague Spring Festival.

czech music 3 | 2003 | interview | 3

would you characterise your positionas a composer in France?

Let’s underline the word mainstream. Itmeans that one form of musical thinking(which is neither better nor worse, anddoesn’t represent the majority anyway) is infashion and dominates certain music institu-tions that have some kind of power andmedia impact on the public, i. e. a few con-temporary music festivals, a few ensemblesthat present the pieces of selected com-posers and so on. But that is just one side of the coin. Thereare also many organisers and institutionswho don’t have a clear and often dogmaticattitude towards the music of contempo-raries, “non”-contemporary music festivals orjust Music festivals, musicians, conductorsand various funds and foundations, and nowthere’s also the Presences Festival in Paris,probably the biggest French festival of con-temporary music, which is becoming verydemocratic, and so on. The situation is para-doxical, then. My pieces are not in the handsof so-called “specialists” on contemporarymusic, but in the hands of simply and uniquemusicians, who stand up for it. I find this atti-tude natural, and it strikes me as healthy.

What’s your experience when it comesto comparing the two music cultures,Czech and French, from the point ofview of the composer?

The difference comes from the difference innational character.France is a country where many culturesmingle. This encourages a certain opennessand courage for confrontation with the

unknown. It can also be a temptation to com-petitiveness, a predatory attitude andcareerism, but it can nonetheless be a motorforce for seeking out and discovering newtechniques, methods and forms, althoughthen again that sometimes makes for exces-sive conceptualism, an exaggerated need fortheoretical backing and compartmentalisa-tion. People have a strong sense of responsi-bility, they’re serious but sometimes too self-important. And also they talk too much. In Czecho what’s important is a quiet life andeasygoing approach. There’s a far freer andinformal atmosphere, which is a temptationto slowness, not really pushing thingsthrough to the finish and to delays. Czechhumour, irony, scepticism… is a unique spiceof life, but in destructive form it can result inlack of genuine seriousness, trivialisingimportant things, irresponsibility and philis-tinism. Then of course there is the fact thatthere’s just one people here and one culture,which means a tendency to introversion,ignorance, and fear of the “big” world, but onthe other hand creates a unique culturalinheritance and tradition that sustains unityand a sense of a whole moving through time. In France I feel as if I’m in a metropolis,which offers a mass of possibilities, new dis-coveries, events, and spurs to action. In Cze-cho I’m in the woods, wading in the streamand strolling in the meadows where I at lastfeel a fresh wins, a kind of authentic inclina-tion to nature and the foundation of things.

You’ve had the chance to work withoutstanding performers. What doescontact with performers mean to youand how does it affect your work? In my eyes an outstanding performer isn’t

just a musician who is a master on his instru-ment. He is its soul and creative imagination,and so shares something with me. The com-poser and performer meet at the level of fan-tasy and imagination and that is where youfind the key to most of my pieces. To bringmusic to birth I need a musician who is him-self born with the music, who regenerateshis musical experience with new discoveries,thirsts for exploration, and realises that intheir time the pieces that are “repertoire”today were once contemporary, new and sounconventional music. In my experience it’sthe performer who has the real executivepower over new pieces. He’s someone whocan push to get them performed and per-suade people that they are worthwhile, andso we need to ensure that a creativeapproach to music is cultivated in schoolsand conservatories. For me when I came to Paris (1994) one ofthe pleasant discoveries was this hunger forknowledge on the part of musicians.

What are your plans for the future? Doyou have a particular dream?

At the moment I’m working on a compositioncalled “OTISK” [”PRINT”], a 30-minute piecefor large symphony orchestra which followstraces of the origin of musical instruments,above all from the early stone age. It is a fas-cinating view of the cradle of music. Thepiece is a co-production commission from anumber of orchestras and institutions, whichis interesting from the financial point of viewfor the organiser and from my point of viewbecause it will be played by different ensem-bles in several different places. Currently theinstitutions involved in the project are theToronto Philharmonic (its principal conductorPeter Oundjian is the initiator of the project),the Caramoor Festival in the USA, the St.Louis Philharmonic,the Colorado Philharmonic and theOrchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.My great wish is that one of the Czechorchestras would join in the project and sothe piece would get played in what for me isstill my home. I don’t know how to explain,exactly, but despite my travels it’s here inCentral Europe that I feel at home, and I’m aCzech to the marrow of my bones.

4 | festival | czech music 3 | 2003

echoes of nature -the 15th exposition of new music 2003

PETR BAKLA

POLEMICMy reservation concerns the video projectionon the back of the stage during the concerts.And since the issue is a more general one,and the ENM is far from the only event con-cerned, I permit myself to go into it in a bitmore depth. Essentially there are two alternatives. Thefirst is that the composer himself supplies avisual accompaniment to his music, and it ispart of the effect he wants. In this country itis an approach that has been adopted by VítZouhar and Daniel Matej, for example. Wemight interpret the matter as a case of com-posers feeling a need to illustrate their musicin some way. At bottom therefore we aretalking about a kind of programmatic music.The composers involved would most likelyobject to this classification on the groundsthat they were trying to achieve a synthesisof musical and visual experience, and notsome “explanation” of the piece (the videostend to be abstract in style), but the factremains that while visual associations aredefinitely a part of the experience of listen-ing to music, presentation of a visual accom-

paniment necessarily occludes the range ofpossible associations by pointing the audi-ence in a particular direction. And there isalso a problem in the marked disproportion(at least in terms of professionalism)between the quality of the music and thevisuals, which are often amateur and banal.Finally, one cannot help the suspicion thatwhat the composer is actually saying is thathe doesn’t trust his own music enough to beconvinced that it is interesting enough on itsown. But that is his problem.The second alternative is worse, involving thepresentation of a visual accompanimentwithout the composer’s knowledge, and atthe will of the performers or organisers of aconcert. Unfortunately this was the case atthis year’s Exposition, and many of the con-certs were accompanied at least by video ofthe performers, often perhaps without theirknowledge either. Furthermore, the imagewas often distorted in the cheapest possibleway, and so Catherin Tunnell, for example,looked like a banshee. What is the point of itall? I must say I can see none. I assume that

the idea this time (as it usually is) was to tryand make the concerts in some way “moreinteresting” (as if they weren’t interestingenough in themselves), and “more accessi-ble” (was someone getting in the way?), andperhaps to convince the less enlightenedmembers of the audience that even seriousmusic can “keep up with the times” and isn’tjust a museum art (but this is something thatmust be – and was – hearable). I fear that itis far more likely to give people the idea thatmusic in which there is no singing, whichlasts longer than three minutes and is gener-ally utterly weird is something inferior, andnaturally no one could believe anybody couldbear it, let alone listen to it without visual dis-tractions. If I am right, the projections arequite obviously counterproductive, andunless we are already so postmodern thatwe claim, for example, that Cage’s music ison the same level as operating a digitaleffect, we must also admit that screenings ofthis kind are contaminating, if not degrading.The giggling of the audience during particu-larly puzzling distortions of the wretchedmusicians showed that the projections werenot simply ignored.

HIGHLIGHTSIn content this year’s ENM was rather moreconservative than last year’s (see CzechMusic 4/2002), but the more coherent as aresult, and in my view better as a whole.There was no repeat of the situation lastyear when much above average and unusualmusic was immediately followed by fairlypoor and conventional stuff. Within the limitsof possibility different movements in contem-porary serious music were equally represent-ed, and so the festival definitely fulfilled its

“For me personally the tasksince 1993 has been to createawareness of contemporaryserious music in world context.”“Only quixotic aims are worthanything.”

I have rather mischievously tak-

en these two statements from an

interview with Jaroslav Šťastný,

the programme director and

organiser of the Exposition They

give a good idea of the almost

missionary enthusiasm Jaroslav

Šťastný which generates around

him, and which breathes

through the copious and careful-

ly prepared publicity materials

Tunning Metronomes

czech music 3 | 2003 | festival | 5

informative, initiation function. There werepieces by the “textbook reader” composers(Cage, Brown, Ligeti, Reich, Scelsi), a num-ber of names from home (although it wouldadmittedly be possible to raise questionsabout how representative they were…), andthe music of composers who have beenunfairly neglected (Josef Adamík, JamesTenney; both by only one piece each, unfor-tunately).

Rather little known in this country, the spec-tralist Horatiu Radulescu (born 1942 inRumania, living in France) came to Brno withhis wife, cellist Catherin Marie Tunnell.Apart from three pieces by Radulescu sheplayed one piece by M. Mark and one by T.Demenga. Radulescu is a composer who inorthodox “spectralist” fashion plunges intothe interior of sound, but his electrifyingmusic is quite the opposite of similarly moti-vated “aesthetics of long notes”. We shall bepublishing an interview with him in the nextnumber. The concert by the Veni Ensemble is worthmentioning mainly because of the realisationof Brown’s famous visual score December’52 (here the projection of the score wasmeaningful), the inclusion of the earlyAdamík piece Stínování [Shadowing] andabove all an exemplarily disciplined perform-ance of Cage’s Branches, which drawssound from plant materials, mainly dried.Although the piece is a temptation to vaude-ville, it was performed with no sensationaleffects, and with a concentration worthy ofthe laboratory. It is interesting that some of the composerson the Slovak scene have a fondness foramateur pub music effects (see e. g. NewMusic Marathon, and this year in Brno

Messrs. Zagar and Matej). If I have to returnonce more to the educational impact of thefestival, then I should just like to note thatthe pieces of this type won the most enthusi-astic applause. It seems that more educa-tional efforts will be necessary. There was a great performance from a NoraŠkutová – there would definitely be a casefor recording her interpretation of Cage’shuge cycle of Sonatas and Interludes forprepared piano. The stupid video-projectionwas the only flaw, and of course the per-former was guiltless. A note for experts onthe conditions in Czech art and music col-leges – working up the piece for perform-ance was part of dissertation work at theUniversity of Performing Arts in Bratislava… The international recorder ensemble, theMalle Symen Quartet, was formed in 1994at the Amsterdam conservatory, where theunder-valued recorder can be studied as aseparate discipline. The character of theinstrument means that the quartet devotesitself on the one hand to early music(Renaissance and medieval) and on the oth-er hand to contemporary music, generallywritten directly for Malle Symen. The con-temporary repertoire therefore consistsmainly of pieces by Dutch composers, butthe declared hopes of the quartet to findcomposers from other countries to work withthem can be taken as a challenge. Apart from the fantastic sound and brilliantintegrated play, the instrumental range of theMalle Symen ensemble was remarkable initself. They brought about 30 recorders toBrno, including many types hardly ever seen(the quartet owns about 50 recorders). Par-ticular attention was attracted by the mon-strous four-sided bass and contrabassrecorders created by the German instru-

for the festival. (By the way, the

whole interview is worth read-

ing, and you can find it with the

programme materials on

www.enh.3web.cz.) Such an

explicit striving to change any-

thing, and such an urge to

spread enlightenment are rare

indeed in this country. Šťastný

simply refuses to reconcile him-

self to the idea that supporters

of New and Other music are a

small sect destined for extinc-

tion, and he tries to attract

potential new recruits “from

outside” in the hope that the

music they hear will take them

beyond the point of “no turning

back”. I can’t judge how far he is

managing to achieve this goal.

To be honest, I am much more

interested in the way that he

tries to achieve it, and the way

he ensures that the result is a

professionally run festival of

high quality. On the other hand,

it needs to be said that efforts to

spread enlightenment may be

slightly risky in the sense that

they may over-simplify, offer up

pre-digested fare or cheapen.

Naturally this isn’t what really

happens at the exposition – it’s

not an educational concert, but

one small doubt remains, and I

think it worth discussing.

Malle Symen Quartet

6 | festival | czech music 3 | 2003

AGNMIn 1970 Manfred Peters founded the Work-ing group for New Music (Arbeitsgemein-schaft Neue Music) at Leiniger SecondarySchool in Grünstadt The aim was and is tocreate an alternative to standard schoolmusic education, which mainly consists inthe passive reproduction of music by otherpeople, often bad music, and in makingapproving nods towards mass culture (“closeto the kids”), all of which is only giving up onthe educational mission. It is precisely the idea of lifting music from

ment-maker Petzold, who was inspired bythe form of wooden organ pipes. Of the six pieces that they performed at theExposition, I would like to mention the tran-scription of Reich’s Nagoya Marimbas, whichmay even have sounded better than the“original” and Jacob Veldhuis’s Jesus is com-ing. Constructed on an essentially minimalist(or perhaps more a rock) base, the latterpiece contained samples of the cries of aNew York religious fanatic and the chatteringof a child, and according to the composer itwas inspired by pop-culture. Despite thisominous profile, the piece turned out to benot bad at all – there’s no postmodernismlike postmodernism, I guess. The Tuning Metronomes from Prague (seeCzech Music 5/2002) are gradually turninginto an extremely worthy performing (andcomposing) group. What’s more, with theirregular concerts in the Atrium in Prague theycan take the lion’s share of the credit for thefact that some major 20th-century com-posers are played in this country at all, anddon’t “live” here purely in recordings andtextbooks. At the Exposition the group pre-sented a programme to mark the G. Ligeti’s80th birthday (1st String Quartet, 10 Piecesfor Wind Quintet and Etude No. 4), endingup with Déja vu, by the leader of the ensem-ble Michal Trnka. I was rather puzzled by the festival’s invitingDavid Matthews and his “court” violinistPeter Sheppard. Academic Neo-Classicismá la Britten doesn’t seem to me to fit in muchwith the festival philosophy. But the perform-ance was first class. The concluding appearance by the AG NeueMusik ensemble fulfilled a direct “meta-edu-cational” function, i. e. it was a lesson in howto teach music teaching.

the level of passive consumption to some-thing that children can and must think aboutthat is the main starting-point of AGNM, aswell as mediating active experience andpleasure in creation. The means adopted arethe approaches, sound apparatus and aboveall the free expression of an undogmaticallyconceived New Music (we should rememberthe time when AGNM was born), and a the-atrical element is a natural part of it all. Dur-ing it long lifetime AGNM has made manyappearances, worked with famous com-posers and made several recordings.

Tunning Metronomes

Catherin Marie Tunnell

czech music 3 | 2003 | festival | 7

The basic working method is play, play that iscollective but in no way suppresses individu-ality. It is a question of responsibility to acommon work and the finding of one’s ownplace and “function” in a piece. The sociolog-ical and “educational” aspects would providefood for long debates, but in terms of com-position technique we can describe the typi-cal AGNM composition as a the controlledaleatoric realisation of a (musically anddidactically simple but cleverly thought upconcept. Every single pupil (from 12 to 19years of age) has to think independentlyabout how it should be filled. Silke Egeler-Wittmann, who has led the group since 1996and is herself a graduate of the secondaryschool and work in AGNM, refuses on princi-ple to tell anyone what they ought specifical-ly to be doing, and she only co-ordinates theoverall result. The main instrument used issimply the voice, which is logical since it isavailable to everyone and makes unmediated(“barrier-free”) musical creation a possibilityfor everyone. Don’t start imagining amateurattempts at choral singing! One of the keyprinciples is precisely to reveal that musiccan use sounds other than the conventionalones easily digested by the masses. Some-times the use of melodic phrases is actuallyforbidden for educational reasons. The resultis often a layered effect analogical to certaintypes of minimalism – it was graphically obvi-ous how natural human beings find it to thinkin patterned formulae and in vocal expres-sion.

David Matthews

Malle Symen Quartet

AG Neue Musik

8 | interview | czech music 3 | 2003

The clarinet is an instrument

with huge possibilities,

since it is what is called

“flexible” and usable in

almost any kind of chamber

ensemble. In terms of sound

it never sticks out in a way

that upsets the integrity of

the whole, but nonetheless

has a colour that is

always clearly identifiable.

Contemporary composers

and in fact what is called

“modern music” in general

are very fond of using it, but

of course this makes corre-

sponding demands on the

performer, who must ideally be highly competent, technically perfect and at the same time

capable of individual input into compositions and improvisation.

One such ideal clarinettist is Kamil Doležal, whose studies with the legendary Milan Kos-

tohryz might said to have predestined him to an interest in contemporary music from an ear-

ly stage. He attended the Conservatory in Prague and the Musical Academy of Performing

Arts, and in 1975 won 1st Prize in the Dušek-Mozart Competition in Prague. From 1987 to

1994 he was a member of the Agon Ensemble, and these days he is involved in performance

of contemporary music as a soloist at his concerts, as the music director of the Mondschein

Ensemble and as a member of the alternative group Why Not Patterns. He has played on a

number of CDs, and in 1995 recorded his first solo CD “Czech Contemporary Clarinet Music”.

“some music assumes thatthe performer will become itsjoint creator”_____interview with kamil doležal

EVA VELICKÁ

You are a versatile performer, andmany compositions have been writtenfor you. How would you characteriseyourself, your way of playing the clar-inet? Do you have your own specialstyle or tone or something similar?

It’s hard to characterise yourself, but for meit has always been the music that is the mainconsideration, and that’s why I like listeningto piano, violin and symphony orchestra, andI’ve learned from that. Otherwise every playerhas a specific tone and style, but the laymanusually doesn’t recognise it. What is certainlyrecognisable, however, is whether you playwell or badly, in an interesting way or boring-ly.

How did you come to decide to focuson contemporary music? When did ithappen? I’ve been involved in contemporary musicsince the time I was at the Prague Conserva-tory, where I was studying in Prof. Dr. MilanKostohryz’s class, and he made that pathvery much easier for me. He was one of thefew teachers with an active interest in theperformance of contemporary music and heinitiated his students into it in an enlightenedspirit. But the fundamental turning point came lat-er, when I was collaborated with the AGONEnsemble and as a result attended the sum-mer courses on contemporary music inDarmstadt in 1988, where I was taught byRodger Heaton.

Is there a big difference between play-ing classical repertoire and what iscalled the “modern”, and if so whatexactly is it? From the point of view of the performer, wecan divide contemporary music into two cur-rents to answer the question. One currentfollows on closely from classical music andsimply makes increased demands on theperformer in terms of the technical possibili-ties of play on his or her instrument. Thismusic is popular among performers and isoften played. Essentially these increasedtechnical demands were the only differencebetween playing contemporary music up to1960 and the classical repertoire. The second current is concerned with differ-ent possibilities as well, most of the aesthet-ic (changing the quality of the note, certaindeformations of tone--frullato, smorzatto,multiphonics, playing in extreme registersand with extreme dynamics and so on).Some of this kind of music assumes that theperformer will be a joint creator, and so ofcourse here you need to know what is goingon in this music and what you can and can-not do.

What attracts contemporary com-posers to the clarinet? What is the spe-cific character of the instrument? What principally attracts contemporary com-posers to the clarinet is its range, its dynamicand colour possibilities, mobility and itscapacity to deform notes in various ways.

These are all qualities that are often used incontemporary music.

It’s said that an interpreter matureswith every piece, and learns somethingnew. Which music has been fundamen-tal or a turning point in your develop-ment?The music and the composers that have hada basic influence on my view of contempo-rary music and my play on the clarinet arethese. John Cage, who in his pieces givesthe performer the chance to decide quitefreely which version to use at any moment,but at the same time his music has consis-tent rules. His music makes extremedemands on the interpreter both technically,and in various different ways of playing, toneand so forth. The situation is a little differentas regards other pieces that have had a fun-damental influence on me, since in thesecases everything is written down and fixedand the performer can’t change anything inthe music. For me these key pieces are: K. H.Stockhausen: In Freundschaft, M. Kopelent:Canto Espansivo, H. Lachenmann: Al Niente.

Do you play pieces written directly foryou in a different way?That depends. Sometimes there can be aproblem when you know the composer per-sonally and you want to oblige him at anyprice but in your heart of hearts you feel thatit’s not the right thing. But mostly it’s anadvantage to know the composer personallyand be able to discuss the piece with him. Icall that authenticity, and it’s important pri-marily for the performers who will come afteryou. But I also personally think that somecontemporary music is so specific that stan-dard musical notation isn’t enough, and thepiece needs to be equipped with guidelineson how to perform it correctly, since other-wise the composer risks having performersinterpreting his aims in an entirely oppositeway to whatever was intended.

You have played a great many contem-porary pieces, and premiered quite anumber of them. In your view doesthere exist some kind of Czech schoolof composers today?There isn’t any Czech school of compositionat all today, which is both an advantage anda disadvantage.

You yourself try to promote the clarinetwith young composers. How do thingslook at such courses?

Today most composers know nearly all thepossibilities of the clarinet and so the mainneed is to demonstrate the possibilities inreality, so that composers can check thattheir compositions aren’t operating in theworld of science fiction.

What happens for example at a MoEnsrehearsal when you get a new piece?Do you take any kind of controllingline? Each member of the ensemble prepares hispart at home and then we look for a commonstarting point at our rehearsal. The personalcomments and suggestions of each playerare more than just desirable, so long as theydon’t diverge too far from what the composerwanted. If so, then I have to intervene.

Apart from “serious” music, you arealso at home with what is known asalternative music (or just non-seriousmusic). Are you very much aware ofsome difference, or is it something youtake for granted? Yes, I play in the WNP (Why Not Patterns)group, which plays its own pieces (M. Pudlák,M. Nejtek, R. Pallas etc.) and this musicmight be described as something betweenminimal music, rock, classical and alternative.I’ll leave it to you to come up with your ownopinion about it, or better, why not come andhear us? You won’t regret it. Performing this music is a kind of creativequest. In some of the pieces the demandsand form of play are the same as in classicalmusic except that the performer has muchgreater freedom and can enrich the musicwith own personal input.

Do you think that you can influence theatmosphere at a concert in some way?I mean in some way change the moodof the public? Or is it something thatno one can do much about and essen-tially the old equation applies – seriousmusic = stiff public, non-serious music= more relaxed, accessible public?Of course the performer can affect theatmosphere at a concert. It depends on manydifferent things, such as how he is dressed,his manner, how he communicates with thepublic, what kind of charisma he has andabove all what he plays and how well heplays it. The difference between serious andother kinds of music is clear as day, and so isthe difference between the audiences. Butby saying that I don’t mean that someonewho passionately listens to serious musiccan’t also passionately listen to other music.

czech music 3 | 2003 | interview | 9

Why

Not P

attern

s

10 | history | czech music 3 | 2003

As the 19th century gave way to the 20thcentury European music experienced a mul-tiple branching of aesthetic and intellectualprinciples and values that in many waysreflected various kinds of social change. Insimplified terms, it is usual to identify threestylistic movements as dominant at the Fin-de-Siécle, and in a continuous process ofdevelopment (although each was naturally ina different stage of its development). Thesemovements are late Romanticism (in fact itstail end), Impressionism, and Expressionism,which was fast gaining ground. Regrettably,however, treatments of the music of the timeoften forget its relationship to Art Nouveauin the visual arts, although in fact within thecontext of the general aesthetic climate anArt Nouveau influence was to a greater orlesser extent expressed in the work of manycomposers. Art Nouveau (Czech Secesse, German

Jugendstil, French Art Nouveau, EnglishModern Style, Russian âoéepê) was a Euro-pean-wide style that emerged at the turn ofthe 19th/20th century de facto as a reactionto the luxuriant historicism and eclecticism

of the period. At the beginning Art Nouveauwas associated primarily with architecture (P.Behrens, O. Wagner, J. Kotěra), where itmeant the vanguard of several later con-structivist trends, and the fine arts (e. g. theFrench group Nabis, G. Klimt, A. Beardsley,M. A. Vrubel, and in the Czech Lands A.Mucha, J. Preisler, V. Preissig or F. Bílek). Itwas defined primarily by fondness for brokencolours, linearity, two-dimensionality, theunbroken undulating curve representingunforced movement on a surface, and con-cern for ornament, considered not just asdecorative function, but as symbol. Art Nou-veau influenced all the other arts and alsohad an effect on everyday life. Indeed, a con-vergence between poetry, music and thevisual arts was one of its characteristic fea-tures. The term “musical Art Nouveau” wasemployed only later, retrospectively, whenbooks and articles where written on thewhole subject. In the Czech Lands, Art Nou-veau took a very distinctive form in allspheres of the arts, and so there has beeninterest in the problem from a specificallyCzech angle. As far as Czech music is con-cerned, the names most often mentioned inconnection with Art Nouveau are those oftwo composers whose similarities in manyrespects are balanced by their huge differ-ences in others. They are Vítězslav Novák(1870-1949) and Josef Suk (1874-1935).Art Nouveau elements in the early work ofNovák have been the subject of JaroslavVolek’s article Vítězslav Novák a secese[Vítězslav Novák and the Secession] (Opusmusicum 1970, no. 8), and Suk’s debt to theSecession is explored in JarmilaDoubravová’s analytical essays Secesní rysydíla Josefa Suka [Secession Elements in theWork of Josef Suk] (In: Česká hudba světu –svět české hudbě [Czech Music of the World– The World of Czech Music]. Praha 1974)and Symbol stromu: secese, J. Suk a součas-nost [The Symbol of the Tree: J. Suk and theContemporary] (In: Dialog a imaginace [Dia-logue and Imagination]. Praha 1998). In the spirit of Asafjev’s concept of music

as an intonational art, in which composer andcomposition interpret the “intonationalawareness of the age”, I want in this text todraw attention to certain “Art Nouveau” par-allels, certainly not based on direct mutualinfluence but nonetheless very striking,between Novák’s early piano compositions,Suk’s piano compositions, and the pianomusic written by the founder of Lithuaniannational professional music, Mikalojus Kon-stantinas Čiurlionis (1875-1911), who isbetter known in the world today as a painter,but who produced an original and quite largecorpus of music. All three of the figuresmentioned were not just inventive com-posers but good pianists. This was no doubtone reason why they quite frequently com-posed for the piano (in Čiurlionis’s casepiano is the main source for any understand-ing of his composition style), another beingthe considerable popularity enjoyed by pianomusic as a genre at the turn of the century.How did the influence of Art Nouveau mani-fest itself in their piano music? What in thepiano music of Novák, Suk and Čiurlionis canbe identified as typically Art Nouveau? Volek believes that Novák’s work displays a

parallel to Art Nouveau for example in the“power of the principle of variation (…),which affects the very shape of the pieces,transforming it in Protean fashion, and so ismore than the mere use of one or other tec-tonic form.”. He also talks about Novák’sclose contact with Vallach or Moravian Slo-vak folk song, which in his view explains “theapparent contradiction between the ’roman-tic’ elevation of Novák’s aims, musical idealsand notions and at the same time his everemphasised (…) rational craftsmanship, andsensitivity, down-to-earth attention to materi-al”. Finally Volek identifies an “Art Nouveau”colour, not obscuring contours in the mannerof Impressionism but fitting with them exact-ly, and led by the supple curve. We couldhardly deny that these features are presentin Novák’s first major piano piece, Variationson a Theme from Schumann (1893) andBallade, op. 2 (1893), inspired by Byron’sManfred, in which there are still obvious typi-

art nouveau: parallels in the piano music of_____ v. novák, j. suk and ________ m. k. čiurlionis

VÍTĚZSLAV MIKEŠ

Vítězslav Novák

czech music 3 | 2003 | history | 11

cally romantic glints, such as the inwardlytorn tragic aesthetic of Schumann and Liszt-ian virtuosity and theatricality. By contrast,the three pieces that followed, put togetherin the cycle Vzpomínky [Memories], op. 6(1894), clearly suggest a gradual rebirth,which culminates in the cycles of 1895-1896: Serenades, op. 9, Barcarollas, op. 10,Eclogues, op. 11 and Za soumraku [AtDusk], op. 13. Each of these cycles containsfour miniatures, intimate lyrical confessionsin which the themes of nature and passion-ate eroticism are in first place. Here Novákturned to a small, mainly three-movementforms, usually based on a single idea, or per-haps two excessively contrasting ideas.Expression comes to the fore, with structuresubordinated to its needs and compared tothe preceding pieces much more sober, forexample sometimes limited to a duet ofthirds framed by a lightly applied fermata(the third Eclogue). More use is also made ofpolyphony (most often an imitation tech-nique) and polymelodics, affecting the wholecolour pallet of the pieces, and so on. These features of Novák’s first piano cyclesbear the mature signature of the composerand are the key to the later, “Moravian peri-od” (e. g. the piano cycle Můj máj [My May],and Sonata eroica) and the crowning period1900-1912, when Novák combined theinfluences of literary symbolism and musicalimpressionism in a highly individual modernmusical language (in terms of piano worksthis period is represented by the “poem innotes” Pan).

Josef Suk’s style as a composer for pianowas something that developed over hisentire productive career, but in this contextthe most fertile phase was the last decade ofthe 19th century and first decade of the20th century, since thereafter Suk composedonly occasionally. The piano works form acounterpart to his symphonic output andthus present us with a kind of microcosm ofSuk’s musical thought, developing from thefirst more distinctive cycles Piano Composi-tions, op. 7 (1893), including the famousPíseň lásky [Song of Love], Nálady [Moods],op. 10 (1895) and Piano Compositions, op.12 (1896) to the mature Jaro [Spring], op.

22a (1902) and Letní dojmy [SummerImpressions], op. 22b (1902), right up to thecycles affected by the tragedies in his lifeand his subsequent efforts to come to termswith them: O matince [About Mama] , op. 28(1907), Životem a snem [In Life and Dream],op. 30 (1909), Ukolébavky [Lullabies], op.33 (1912). In essence this developmentinvolved the gradual abandonment of regu-larity and symmetry in melodic ideas andnew leaning to irregularity, the thickeningand chromatisation of the harmonic struc-ture, narrowing of form, and associatedincreasing accentation of expression, movingtowards an exalted subjectivism. The Art Nouveau spirit is much more inten-

sively represented in Suk’s work than inNovák’s. One reason may well have beenthat as a member of the Czech Quartet Sukmade concert tours throughout Europe andso had a better chance to encounter andexplore modern trends in the arts. Probablymore important, however, was his subjec-tivism, expressed in the deep lyricism andautobiographical qualities of his music. Thissubjectivism was behind another characteris-tic mark of Suk’s style, which was his ten-dency to symbolism, fully developed particu-larly through the use of numerous auto-cita-tions (quotes of his own works - let us recallthe “death motif” as one example to stand formany) modified depending on programmaticintention. The symbolism often affected themusical structure itself, for example in theuse of ostinata or fermata. Thus in the 5thpiece in the O matince [About Mama] cycle,called Jak zpívala matinka za noci chorémuděťátku [How the Mother Sang in the Nightto he Sick Child], in places the irregular osti-nato rhythmic figure on single note evokesthe breathing of the sick child, while therhythmic-melodic figure is repeated in lowregister in K uzdravení mého syna [TheRecovery of my son] from the cycle Životema snem [Through Life and Dream] suggeststhe peal of bells. To sum up, we can definethe most important elements of Suk’s workthat can overall be linked to Art Nouveau.They are stylised hedonism, fondness forsymbol, autobiographical quality, and tem-peramental lyricism. (J. Doubravová).In the Czech Lands the conditions for the

infiltration of Art Nouveau features intomusic were obvious enough, being based onthe general cultural climate, and so thereseems nothing odd about looking for ArtNouveau echoes in the work of Novák andSuk. In the case of Čiurlionis the wholequestion is rather more complicated, since atthe turn of the 19th and 20th centuryLithuania was in a very different situation.From the point of view of the social and cul-tural conditions of his work, therefore, weneed to look at Čiurlionis first and foremostin terms of Romanticism. The phenomenon of the rise of national

music schools (Bohemia, Poland, Russia, theNorthern lands etc.) and the search fornationality in music is known to have beenone of the divergent features of Romanti-cism. Čiurlionis lived and worked at the timeof the formation of Lithuanian national cul-ture and took an active part in the process.This meant he was hardly likely to be attract-ed to impressionism with its “niggardly atten-tion to social problems”, still less the Expres-sionism that had parted ways with any kindof positive moral and social idea”. Obviouslymore to his taste was “progressive Romanti-cism, which encourages the pursuit of a pos-itive idea, the development of optimism, lovefor ethnic culture and the goal of founding anational culture” (J. Bruveris). We should notforget, of course, that the historical circum-stances of Lithuania (the repressive meas-ures taken by Tsarist Russia including a banon printing Lithuanian books in Latin scriptin 1864-1904 and a general policy of seek-ing to suppress Lithuanian national con-sciousness) meant that the Lithuaniannational revival lagged behind other Euro-pean revival movements. Subsequentattempts to “catch up with” Europe then ledto a rather surprising development, i. e. an“organic synthesis of folklore with moderni-ty”, from which “distinctive artistic forms andpoetics emerged” (R. Parolek). This situationwas fully expressed in the musical output ofČiurlionis. On close study it is ever more evi-dent that it reflects many trends in modernmusic (see for example V. Landsbergis’s

Josef Suk

M. K. Čiurlionis: Prelude

attempt to show that some of M. K. Čiurlion-is’s piano pieces contain the germs of serialwork with themes). It thus makes perfectsense to interpret Čiurlionis’s musical (aboveall piano) legacy from the point of view of ArtNouveau, especially if we remember that thecomposer himself studied in conservatoriesin Warsaw and Leipzig, later travelledthrough Europe and so certainly had thechance to get to know the spirit of the newstyle. In terms of form Čiurlionis was not an inno-vator in his piano music but merely gave anindividual content to the traditional forms:polyphony, the variational and small three-part form with reprise. The latter was hismost characteristic form, since it became thebasis for the shorter “Klavierstücke” – aboveall the prelude or quasi prelude -, throughwhich Čiurlionis in his distinctive way built ontraditional the Romantic lyric poem, especial-ly those of Schumann and Chopin whoseinfluence he had naturally soaked up in hisplaces of study. In his emotional attitude toform Čiurlionis is very close to Suk. We eventhem both using a comparable large cycleform in their work (in the case of Čiurlionisthe Sonata in F major, according to Lands-bergis’s catalogue VL 155 of 1898, and inthe case of Suk Suite, op. 21 of 1900, basedon the earlier Sonatina in G minor), but bothsoon abandoned this path and concentratedtheir ideas in a much smaller form, althoughhere we should note that Čiurlionisexpressed himself much more laconicallythan Suk. In general, however, the followingdescription of Suk’s approach can also beapplied to Čiurlionise: “The suite was tooobjective for him, too much a technical musi-cal composition, whereas he … desiredinstead to deepen his creative expression ona small canvas and sharpen it in a smallform” (O. Filipovský).Čiurlionis subordinated all the elements in

his piano pieces to the attempt to achievepower of expression. Achievement of themaximum expression affects every aspect ofstructure, so that the mannerisms of the lateRomantics, such as showy virtuosity, melodicdecorativeness, pomp in terms of sound oroverstrained chromatic density are given up,and replaced by simplicity, purity, lightnessand the sculpting of expression. Anothercharacteristic of Čiurlionis’s compositions isa lyricism derived from Lithuanian folksongs,which are almost entirely lyrical (a factsometimes explained by the dominant role ofwomen in the national folk music).Čiurlionis strengthened the macrotectonics

of his pieces with monothematism, either byhaving a common core of motifs or thematicheart, or by fragmenting the ideas. The lattermethod is closely connected with one of themost important components of Čiurlionis’smusical thinking – ostinato, although hebased it on a different principle than did Suk.We can demonstrate this principle in the

Lithuanian composer’s Prelude in D minor(VL 239) of 1903. Its two-bar primary is dis-tinguished by a convex form and in characterit is rooted in Lithuanian folk music, see forexample the extract from the song Anojpusėj Nemuno (On the Other Side of theRiver Nemunas), which, incidentally, Čiurlion-is harmonised for choral singing. The intro-ductory, rhythmically and melodically ratherunstable motif of the fifths is important forthe whole structure of the piece. Its functionin the Prelude and the way it is developedare more or less typical especially for theearly phase of Čiurlionis’s piano output. Thelittle motif is split up by the method of frag-mentation, (i. e. by the method of the leitmo-tif), which is freely turning into the method ofde-thematisation. The latter essentially mani-fests itself, in the words of Ch. S. Peirce, asthe “index substitution of the theme”. The fig-ure produced by the dethematisationprocess then “weaves through” the wholepiece and evokes the impression of ostinato.We might compare the motif itself and theway it is developed with the concept of ArtNouveau ornament as both decor and sym-bol at the same time. In the later, culminating phase of his cre-

ative development, Čiurlionis pushed theostinato principle even further to the fore,but usually worked in a different way. Hewould compose the ostinato figure as a rela-tively independent phrase and elaborate itright from the beginning of the piece as thelinear opposite pole of the other parts. In thishe was to some extent getting close to abimelodic conception of the musical flow. As in his paintings, in his music too Čiurlio-

nis made elaborate use of symbolism. Heapplied it in a conventionalised sense, amethod linked to self-citation based on sym-bolic reminiscence of an earlier work (see e.g. the kinship of motif between the sym-phonic poem Jūra [The Sea] and the Preludein D minor, VL 340, Nocturne in F sharpminor, VL 178 and the symphonic poemMiške [In the Forest] and elsewhere.), butalso in the non-conventionalised sense (e. g.variations on cryptogram themes Sefaa

Esec, VL 258 (1904) a Besacas, VL 265(1905). The Art Nouveau character of Čiurlionis’smusic is evident as it were in a nutshell inthe Fugue in B minor, VL 345 (1909). Thealready peculiarly expressive theme of theFugue, in which, with the exception of G, allthe notes in the chromatic scale are con-tained, could be compared to the undulatingArt Nouveau curve. Nowhere in the entirepiece does this theme appear in shortenedform, not even in the connecting links, andthe only transformations are inversion,diminution and at the “golden cut” of theFugue a quasi folk diatonisation, which cre-ates the veiled impression of a secondtheme. The entry of the second voice on the Lydi-

an fourth (tritone interval) is not sponta-neous and perhaps has a symbolic subtext:in the series of twelve fifths the relations ofthe augmented fourths have an importantmeaning, because they create a kind of cen-tral “point” in the fifth circle, in earlier andmore recent times as the image of the cre-ative power of the zodiac (it is no coinci-dence that Čiurlionis painted a cycle oftwelve picture The Zodiac) and brings fromthe past the symbolism of “world, fate, char-acter and other contradictions” (A. Hába).Also interesting is the creation of the indi-vidual counterpoints. All three counterphras-es appearing in the exposition are based onthe material of the theme, modified on thebasis of successive variation in which onecounterpoint always represents its preced-ing variation, leading to an apparent “annihi-lation of the identity” of the theme, which wemight also think of in its possible relation toArt Nouveau stress on ornament.

With the benefit of hindsight it appearsthat the piano music (and by extensionwhole musical output) of both Novák andSuk, and also of Čiurlionis. displays a wholeseries of features that could be consideredtypically Art Nouveau, although of coursethis is no reason to label them purely ArtNouveau composers. It will in any case beobvious that many of the parallels pointedout in this text could also be found in thework of E. Satie, E. Grieg, A. N. Scriabin, K.Szymanowski and others. But this has beenour point. The piano music of our three com-posers reflected the colour pallet of thetimes and despite the undoubted originalityof each, taken individually, they also sharemuch of “whatever was simply in the air”. Inthis article we have talked about that “what-ever” in terms of Art Nouveau, but of coursethis does not mean it could not be exploredunder various other titles.

12 | history | czech music 3 | 2003

M. K. Čiurlionis

czech music 3 | 2003 | portrait | 13

the prayers and czardas of______ágnes kutas

ADAM JAVŮREK

Late DeveloperOn a first meeting with the Hungarian fromBřevnov Ágnes Kutas, you may well beinclined to compare her with Iva Bittová. It’s acomparison to which she is used. “It’s verynatural – I’m a woman, I sing and I accompa-ny myself on the violin,” she says. Both ofthem also have the blood of more passionateand fiery nations running in their veins. Onthe other hand, Ágnes Kutas goes on tostress that “I love Iva Bittová, but I don’t thinkthat she’s directly influenced me.”In her music she derives free inspiration fromHungarian folk music. Sometimes she simplysings in traditional style, or sometimes shesimply uses a text to which she composesher own melody. At other times she borrowsa particular motif, but then builds her owncomposition on it with her violin or viola, oreven uses the text of one folk song with themelody from a completely different piece.For Ágnes Kutas folk music is a buildingmaterial, which she uses with complete free-dom. Interestingly, however, she came tomusic quite late.Ágnes Kutas decided to come to Praguewhen she was twenty one. Before that shehad studied applied graphic art in Budapest,but it had failed to engage her. She turned tothe idea of studying puppet theatre, butsince there were no courses on the subject

available in the Hungarian capital, sheapplied to the Prague department of stagedesign. Not surprisingly then, her first musical per-formance was associated with the theatre.Live music was needed for a production ofGogol and Ágnes let slip that she played theviolin. Later she joined the Tuju theatre com-pany, established by the stage designerTomáš Žižka, whom she later married. Fortheir production of Kleopatra they created awhole music ensemble and Ágnes wanted toadd singing to playing. “When I asked in thegroup if they knew anyone who would teachme, they recommended Jana Lewitová.”She started to take lessons with Lewitová,and at the end of each lesson she wasalways supposed to have worked up some-thing to sing, “I was getting bored alwayssinging the same songs, and so I started tolook for others.” Gradually she built up arepertoire by arranging folksongs and addingher own.Her relationship with Jana Lewitová ceasedto be just one of student and teacher, andthe two musicians began to perform togeth-er. The results are recorded on the albumHalé dítě, for which Ágnes also designed thejacket, but recently there have been very fewjoint concerts. “We try, but we are terriblybadly organised people”, Ágnes confesses.

The end of last year turned the spotlight on three Czech women singers (or more precisely “three

women singers living in Czechia”), who seek and find inspiration in folk music. Iva Bittová out-

shone the acclaimed Netherlands blazers ensemble, and as they tried to get a grasp of her music

and Janáček’s, she gave them a lesson in spontaneity. At the request of the Partnership Founda-

tion, Zuzana Lapčíková recorded an album about trees, Strom života [The Tree of Life] – and man-

aged to breathe life into it with a highly individual folk mythology based on humility and a sense of

deep connection with nature.

But these are two very well-known and even quite famous names, of course, and what is interest-

ing is that a new face is appearing beside theirs. It belongs to a woman who has already been liv-

ing here for twenty years, but has not yet attracted so much attention. As her Internet page puts it,

her music is “free of ingratiating looks and fluttering eyelashes and seasoned with hot Hungarian

paprika… Her pieces are quiet prayers, but sleeping in those prayers is a fiery czardas, which when

it wakes devours everything in reach…”

14 | portrait | czech music 3 | 2003

Live Life as it ComesHer husband co-founded the Roxy Club, andso it was there that she made her solo debut.And once again it was Tomáš Žižka who rec-ommended Ágnes to drummer JaroslavKořán (see a profile in Czech Music5/2002), with whom she currently plays. “At that point we still didn’t start to playtogether, actually,” Kořán remembers. “Thetime wasn’t yet ripe for it. Before then I hadbeen playing much more chamber-stylemusic on the Horologe of Dreamers and inanother group on the pot, and I was tooabsorbed in that almost ambient music. AndÁgnes was also playing rather differentsongs, and so we only come together muchlater…”That “later” happened when Jaroslav recom-mended Ágnes to the “Neigbourhood inProgress” festival in Vienna. The organiserand already agreed one joint performance ofviolin and percussion and she wanted to lineit up with something similar. In the end shepersuaded Jaroslav Kořán to have a jointconcert with Ágnes. It was a case of the fes-tival absolutely living up to its name: inNovember 2001 the Austrian capital saw thepremiere of collaboration between a Czechdrummer and a Hungarian violinist.

Album in the Waiting RoomSince then, Kutas and Kořán have performedtogether ever more frequently and this yearthey he recorded material for a first jointalbum at Jaroslav’s cottage in the ŠumavaForest. It includes Ágnes singing both bal-lads and very forceful songs, their impactstrengthened by Kořán’s rhythm. She sometimes replaces Hungarian with anappealing if rather lisping Czech. Ágnessings her own arrangements of poems byJakub Deml, Jaroslav Seifert, and of texts byher husband. The violin interludes have beenmoving away from folk motifs and the musichas been shifting somewhere in the directionof free improvisation with slight suggestionsof minimalism. So what about Ágnes Kutas’smusical models in general? “I listen toabsolutely everything. I love Laurie Anderson,and even named my daughter Laura-Andreaafter her. I like the Portuguese singer DulcePonte and also Nerve Net by Brian Eno. I putthat on when I need calming down,” she says,and admits that she is a little tempted by theidea of trying out some similar music herself. Readers will have to wait a little longer forthe release of the album, which will appar-ently be called Láska mě mučí [Love TorturesMe]. “There are several different possibilities

in play”, Jaroslav Kořán says about the fateof the album. He may offer it to a recordcompany, or he may try to publish it himself.“We intend to have it out by December what-ever happens, even if hust on computer andwith a xeroxed jacket… At the moment themost important thing for it is that it shouldsimply exist, just like the other titles fromPagoda (Note: Kořán’s label), that I’m gradu-ally finishing off.”You can at least find Ágnes Kutas’s music onan album by her colleague, Kateryna Kol-cová, from a Něžné knoflíky [Tender Buttons]performance, Blízko je den… [The Day isNear], released by Supraphon at the end ofJune. Meanwhile Ágnes can concentrate onher next steps. “Now I want to try somefaster pieces. But I’m not sure yet how to goabout it – I don’t know whether to take folkmusic again.” Playing with percussion issomething she enjoys, but she might like toadd something else to it. “I would like it to beeven fresher. People usually react to thefresher songs.”

czech music 2 | 2003 | review | 15

růžena dostálová – aleš březina: řecké pašije. osud jedné opery(korespondence nikose kazantzakise s bohuslavem martinů) [the greek passion. the fate of oneopera (the correspondence of nikoskazantzakis with bohuslav martinů)]Prague, SET OUT Press 2003

This new book is designed for alladmirers of Bohuslav Martinů or thewriter Nikos Kazantzakis. BohuslavMartinů’s last opera, The Greek Pas-sion is a work that was long and diffi-cult in the making. One proof of theobstacles is the fact that today two ver-sions of the opera are being staged inparallel. As a basis for his last opera,Martinů chose Nikos Kazantzakis’snovel Christ Recrucified. The presentbook illuminates the complex birth ofthe opera, and also the development ofthe professional and personal relation-ship between Martinů and NikosKazantzakis, by offering their completemutual correspondence from the years1954-1959. A total of 69 letters are pre-sented in Czech translation, togetherwith facsimile reproductions. Apartfrom the correspondence, publishedhere in Czech for the first time, thebook contains photographs, both ver-sions of the libretto in Czech and Eng-lish, two articles by the historian Růže-na Dostálová and an article by AlešBřezina on the two scores the GreekPassion.

EVA VELICKÁ

16 | reviews | czech music 3 | 2003

radůza: při mě stůj [stand byme]

Indies

It’s impossible not to ask the obvious question withthis singer. Her previous album (Andělové z nebe[Angels from Heaven], viz Czech Music 6/2001)was highly played, and her concert performanceshave only increased her reputation. So now will thesecond CD be better than the first? It has thesame producer (Zuzana Navarová), and the sameguest musicians (guitarist Omar Khaouaj, doublebass player František Raba). Spot the differ-ences… and luckily there are some. With two moreyears behind her Radůza has evidently gainedexperience and self-confidence, and so gives lessspace to her “overseer producer” and guests. Whileon the previous recording she regularly alternatedbetween accordion and band, now in most casesthe accordion dominates. In the two pieces whereguitar and bass are added, one cannot help gettingthe impression of listening to a rehash of Navarováor Nerez. She herself plays the guitar in two songs,especially well with a bow in Polož mě [Put MeDown]. The risk of acoustic “monochrome” as aresult of limited variety of instrument is balancedby melodic open-mindedness and the distinctivecharacters of the individual songs. Accompanyingherself, she can be freer in her phrasing. Betweenthe fast and jaunty Jedem [Let’s Go] and the lulla-by quiet Ať není mi líto [Let me not be sorry] thereis plenty of room for various shades of emotionand disguises of style. In terms of melodic invention, several tracks, forexample Žlutý gladioly [Yellow Gladioli], Až kočkazapřede [When the Cat Purrs] have hit potentialand could certainly succeed with a broader public.One of the main reasons why this won’t happen,however, is the rawness of the solo accordion(even Nohavica only became a star when he sur-rounded himself with other musicians). An atmos-phere of forgotten urban pub ballads is Radůza’shallmark, however, and one of the things that liftsher above the ballad-singing average. She is alsoremarkable for the song texts, which combine theattributes of cabaret from the beginning of the lastcentury, the realities of contemporary Dejvice andthe resonance of folk poetry. When she venturesinto more lyric areas the texts are perhaps moreinterchangeable but she still manages to breathelife into most of them and not to slide into kitsch.What is more, she has a voice of quite uniquecolour, which is also highly versatile in terms ofexpressive range. There’s no alternative. I have to say that the newalbum is better than the one before. It will be inter-esting to watch where its author goes now.

MATĚJ KRATOCHVÍL

poslední věci anděla[last things of anangel]

Michal Kořán

NM Code

Kořán’s latest album is a choice of the music for astage play by Miloš Karásek, Perón (The search forIdentity) and was recorded by the Richter Band in itscurrent line-up (Pavel Richter, Michal Kořán, BharataRajnošek). One piece has Ondřej Smeykal guestingon the slide PVC didjeridoo.Composer of the music Kořán is the only one whoperforms in all the pieces. Many of the items make dojust with his sampler, keyboards and noises and keepto lazily flowing lower registers. Striking characteris-tics of the album include a certain soft focus of theindividual tracks, and the only sporadic use of strings.Where strings are used at all, they are processed, andprovide regular respiration rather than a rhythmicpulse. One example is Vězni vlastní nehybnosti[Prisoners of Their Own Immobility] with its sereneentrances in the form of a romanticising flute sample(a distant ball in the opera), always immediately cov-ered up by a bubbling surface of electronic hums.The creeping Kornel and Vincent is the only track tocontain an extract of theatre dialogue. It is dampedand integrated in the overall mix in a way that allowsus to make out most of the text and enjoy its linguis-tic charm while giving us space to imagine what isindistinct, and even to imagine the whole text of theperformance. Our only clues, of course, will be thistrack, the fragment of Kornel’s monologue on thecover and the cover design. Wherever all the performers pick up their instrumentstogether, the meditative mood of the album acquiresanother dimension – playfulness. The introductoryNeúprosné světlo poznání (part 1) [The MercilessLight of Knowledge (Part 1)] starts with a number ofquiet beats only to have the echo ultimately take overas main bearer of the rhythm. In his guitar motifRichter takes equal measures from Robert Fripp andDavid Gilmour, probably making the whole piece themost acoustically powerful of any on the album. Thesecond and third parts of The Merciless Light areshorter and more economical with sound. The surprise for me was Sebevrah [Suicide]. HereRichter uses the guitar, bass and electric percussion,and manages to extract from the combination a darkbass track with almost no sign of repetition. The mid-dle register is almost forgotten and in the upper reg-isters the trumpet and piano toss around scraps oforthodox jazz moods apparently independently, I lastheard something at least close to the resultingatmosphere on post-jazz recordings from the Scandi-navian stable of Rune Grammofon. Kořán employsthe same approach in another track Znaky v jízdnímřádu [Signs on the Timetable], Rajnošek’s trumpetplaying a number of brief melodic little motifs that areechoes and layered on a flat bass background. Mini-mal means, maximal effect, and a sense of unbound-ed space. The wind duet from Rajnošek (saxophone)and Richter (clarinet) in the concluding Láska přijdepo kolejích [Love will Come Down the Tracks] is a lit-tle new age and doesn’t achieve the same effects,but that is my only criticism. There is no point in looking at all the pieces here –the album keeps up a unified mood, the differentatmospheres of the tracks follow on from each othercoherently and nothing sticks out as inappropriate.There’s also no point in trying to classify the album interms of style. Let’s just say that it’s one of those raredisks that fill you with a kind of graceful enjoyablesadness. I definitely recommend headphones.

PETR FERENC

maraca:longe

NM Code

The Zlín band Maraca has until now been a rathersecret affair. Of course, there are more and morebands mixing what are (for Central Europeans) insome way exotic influences with jazz, rock, or elec-tronic. Since the results aren’t always coherent orimpressive the adjectives “ethnic”, “exotic” and soon are beginning to arouse the reviewer’s automat-ic suspicion, just like the use of instruments likethe didgeridoo or various oriental drums. But thisjust makes it all the more delightful to be pleasant-ly surprised. The texts for the album Longe arechosen from the works of the Portuguese poetFernando Pessoa and are sung in the original withthe exception of two sung in English. Melancholyand dreamy texts are quite frequent in Portuguesemusic, and one cannot but remember the Por-tuguese group Madredeus, whose influence isoccasionally pervasive on Longe. The music ofnon-European cultures is definitely a major influ-ence on Maraca (the band’s previous eponymousalbum included treatment of themes by the Nubiancomposer Hamza El Din), but this does not lead tosome meaningless mishmash and is not even themost important aspect of the music (as you mightthink from the publicity materials). Above all whatyou can hear are “echoes of Arabic songs” and theArab connections with Portuguese music are inany case fairly obvious. Considerable use is madeof the oud lute, but although the didgeridoo turnsup here as well, it is so integrated into the layeredmusic that it is easy to miss. A relatively large range of instruments (includingcello, clarinet, saxophone, violin, viola, French horn,)offers potential for interesting arrangements andfortunately the band take full advantage of it. Fewof the pieces take the form of a simple song. Goodexamples include I am the Escaped One with its“Gollumish” distorted voice and the instrumentalBerima. Intervalo and Nuvens are simpler in struc-ture, both with a debt to Spanish folk music, whileMeu triste coracão has associations with the songsof the medieval trouveres. The sampler is usedsoberly, only occasionally producing an interestingnoise in the background. In places the scales tipmore towards jazz, thanks to the rhythm and someof the solos. The singer Gabriela Plíšková keepsmainly to a “Portuguese” dreamy style, but is capa-ble of considerable verve. It would be misleading to call this pop. Pop may bean element in it, but the inventiveness of composi-tion and arrangement has shifted the whole thingone stage further.

MATĚJ KRATOCHVÍL

Gabriela Plíšková

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11. 9. Thursday 19.30 RudolfinumSUK Fantastic Scherzo DVOŘÁK Violin Concerto in A MinorMARTINŮ Symphony No. 4RUSSIAN PHILHARMONIA, VEDERNIKOV, JASHVILIPrice of tickets: 950, 600, 450, 300, 150 CZK

12. 9. Friday 19.30 RudolfinumRIMSKY-KORSAKOV SadkoTCHAIKOVSKY Concert Fantasy for PianoMUSSORGSKY "Without Sunlight",

cycle for baritone PROKOFIEV Love for three OrangesRUSSIAN PHILHARMONIAVEDERNIKOV, LIDSKY, SHTONDAPrice of tickets: 950, 600, 450, 300, 150 CZK

14. 9. Sunday 19.30 RudolfinumJANÁČEK The Cunning Little Vixen,

suite from operaPADEREWSKI Piano Concerto in A MinorBERLIOZ Fantastic SymphonyNATIONAL POLISH RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRACHMURA, PALECZNYPrice of tickets: 700, 450, 350, 250, 100 CZK

15. 9. Monday 19.30 RudolfinumMOZART Symphony in A Major K 201MOZART Piano Concerto in A Major K 414LISZT MalédictionDVOŘÁK Serenade in E MajorFESTIVAL STRINGS LUCERNE, LINDHOLM, KUPIECPrice of tickets: 950, 600, 450, 300, 150 CZK

16. 9. Tuesday 19:30 RudolfinumELGAR Serenade for StringsMOZART Violin Concerto in A Major K 219TCHAIKOVSKY Elegy for StringsHAYDN Symphony No. 57EUROPEAN UNION CHAMBER ORCHESTRAWOLLONG, MATOUŠEKPrice of tickets: 700, 450, 350, 250, 100 CZK

17. 9. Wednesday 19.30 RudolfinumLIEDER RECITALGLINKA, RACHMANINOFFRUBINSTEIN, TCHAIKOVSKYTCHAIKOVSKY Serenade for StringsMOSCOW CHAMBER ORCHESTRAORBELIAN, GORCHAKOVAPrice of tickets: 700, 450, 350, 250, 100 CZK

18. 9. Thursday 19.30 RudolfinumBERLIOZRoyal Hunt and Storm (Les Troyens) La belle voyageuse, Chant de bonheur (Lélio)La captive, Zaïde, Rakoczy March, Te DeumCZECH PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRASLOVAK PHILHARMONIC CHOIRKÜHN’S CHILDREN’S CHOIRNELSON, DUTTON, FLECHTERPrice of tickets: 800, 500, 400, 300, 150 CZK

19. 9. Friday 19.30 RudolfinumBEETHOVENTwelve Contredances, excerptsSymphony No. 8Triple ConcertoPRAGUE CHAMBER ORCHESTRALAJČÍK, KAPLAN, CARR, WEISSPrice of tickets: 800, 500, 400, 300, 150 CZK

20. 9. Saturday 19:30 Karlovy VarySCHUBERT Die schöne MüllerinFLECHTER, ŠAROUNPrice of tickets: 500, 300, 200, 100, 70 CZK

21. 9. Sunday 19.30 RudolfinumSCHUBERT String Quartet in C MinorBARTHOLDY Violin Concerto in D MinorTCHAIKOVSKY Souvenir de FlorenceSÜDWESTDEUTSCHES KAMMERORCHESTER TEWINKEL, GLUZMANPrice of tickets: 700, 450, 350, 250, 100 CZK

22. 9. Monday 19.30 State Opera PragueARIAS AND DUETS FROM OPERAS BYBERLIOZ, BIZET, GIORDANO GOUNODMASSENET, PUCCINI ROSSINI, VERDIORCHESTRA OF THE STATE OPERA PRAGUEHANUS, ELLIS, COGNETPrice of tickets: 800, 500, 400, 300, 150 CZK

23. 9. Tuesday 19.30 RudolfinumLIEDER RECITALBENEDICT, BORDOGNI, DAVIDGOUNOD, MASSENET, RODRIGO VERDIRODRIGO Concierto de AranjuezPRAGUE CHAMBER ORCHESTRA, VIDAL, BRABECPrice of tickets: 800, 500, 400, 300, 150 CZK

24. 9. Wednesday 19.30 RudolfinumBIZET Symphony in C MajorRAVEL Piano Concerto for the Left HandSTRAUSS BurlesqueRAVEL Rapsodie espagnolePRAGUE RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRABARRIOS, STEUERMANPrice of tickets: 800, 500, 400, 300, 150 CZK

25. 9. Thursday 19.30 RudolfinumDVOŘÁK The Golden Spinning WheelJANÁČEK The Fiddler's ChildMARTINŮ Symphony No. 6 "Fantaisiessymphoniques"BBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, VOLKOVPrice of tickets: 1200, 750, 550, 400, 200 CZK

26. 9. Friday 19.30 RudolfinumBRITTEN Sinfonia da RequiemBRUCH Scottish Fantasy BERLIOZ Romeo and Juliet, suiteBBC SCOTTISH SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAVOLKOV, SHAHAMPrice of tickets: 1200, 750, 550, 400, 200 CZK

27.9. Saturday 15.30,19.30 Rudolfinum"HUNDRED GIPSY VIOLINS"OFFENBACH, ROSSINI, BRAHMSLISZT, J. STRAUSS, TRADITIONALBUDAPEST GIPSY SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAPrice of tickets: 1200, 750, 550, 400, 200 CZK

28. 9. Sunday 19.30 RudolfinumJANÁČEK Ballad of Blaník DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto in B MinorBARTHOLDY Die erste Walpurgisnacht, cantata CZECH PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRACZECH PHILHAMONIC CHOIR BRNORIZZI, PERGAMENSCHIKOWMCKELLAR-FERGUSON, DALEYPrice of tickets: 950, 600, 450, 300, 150 CZK

29. 9. Monday 19.30 RudolfinumRACHMANINOFF Piano Concerto No. 1SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 7 "Leningrad"ST. PETERSBURG SYMPHONY ORCHESTRADMITRIJEV, RUDYPrice of tickets: 1200, 750, 550, 400, 200 CZK

30. 9. Tuesday 19.30 RudolfinumRIMSKY-KORSAKOV Capriccio EspagnolDVOŘÁK Piano Concerto in G Minor TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5PRAGUE RADIO SYMPHONY ORCHESTRAVÁLEK, BOYDEPrice of tickets: 950, 600, 450, 300, 150 CZK

1. 10. Wednesday 19.30 RudolfinumDEBUSSY NocturnesWAGNER Three operatic ariasSAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No. 5 in F MajorRAVEL BoleroPRAGUE SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA, PRAGUE SINGERSBENZI, CALEY, ROGÉPrice of tickets: 800, 500, 400, 300, 150 CZK

Programme subject to change

11. 9. – 1. 10. 2003

G E N E R A L S P O N S O R

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