As a herald of this year’s Ostrava Days festival, a special concert took place on 25th April in the completely sold out Bohemian National Hall of the Czech Center New York. Together with The Orchestra of the S.E.M. Ensemble, the festival’s director Petr Kotík presented a unique program consisting of works by composers of AACM (Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians) – Muhal Richard Abrams, George Lewis and Roscoe Mitchell – and those associated with the New York avant-garde tradition – Christian Wolff, Jackson Mac Low, Kotík himself and Petr Bakla.
The piece by the last mentioned of composers was one of the evening’s world premieres. A joint commission by Czech Center New York and the 2017 Ostrava Days festival (where it shall receive its European premiere in August), the chamber Major Thirds is dealing with this particular interval which is the exclusive tonal component of the piece, being repeated multiple times in different speed or texture alterations. It was performed by the New York-based Momenta Quartet together with the pianist Joseph Kubera. From the works by Kotík, the audience had a chance to hear Music for 3 from 1964, written in the memory of composer Jan Rychlík.
25 April, Bohemian National Hall, New York
Effects New York – Ostrava
Petr Bakla: Major Thirds (world premiere)
Momenta Quartet, Joseph Kubera