At the opportunity of releasing his new album by the French Arion Music label, Kryštof Mařatka, Czech composer permanently living in Paris, presented the world premiere of his piece Fables pastorales. The concert took place on 16 April in Salle Cortot, Paris, under the auspices of Czech Republic’s ambassador to France Petr Drulák, and, as a reminder … Read more
An attractive musical programme was presented on 9 April in Studio Hrdinů (Trade Fair Palace, Prague) by the BERG orchestra. The concert named Archeology of the 20th century introduced John Cage’s renowned Radio Music, a Czech premiere of Graffiti, a piece by an internationally acclaimed Korean composer Unsuk Chin, Archeologia del telefono. Concertante for 13 instruments by Salvatore … Read more
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 1 April, Oper Frankfurt introduced their new production of Leoš Janáček’s last opera From the House of the Dead. It was created by Italian conductor Tito Ceccherini and German-French director David Hermann, who had for the last time worked with Janáček’s music only two years ago, directing The Makropulos Affair in the renowned Deutsche Oper Berlin. … Read more
On 28 and 29 March in St Anna’s Church, České Budějovice, the South Czech Philharmonic presented the world premiere of Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra by the Budějovice-born composer and guitarist Lukáš Sommer (*1984). The solo part was performed by a leading Czech oboist Vilém Veverka. The four-movement concerto was a perfect choice for the Easter time – optimistic, … Read more
„How to talk about the terrors and inhumanity of the Nazi period to kids? And how to speak about those whose names have never made it to historical literature?” These are the questions Landestheater Linz was trying to answer in their new production of Hans Krása’s children’s opera Brundibár premiered on 31 March. Conductor Martin Braun and … Read more
After 45 years, Leoš Janáček’s Cunning Little Vixen returned to the stage of Theater Hagen, North Rhine-Westphalia. The premiere on 24 March has already received a very positive critical response. The praise has concerned mainly the direction by Mascha Pörzgen, who perfectly balanced both levels of the story – a beast fable and an allegorical drama – and the performance of … Read more
Conductor Will Humburg concluded his three-year-long Janáček cycle at Staatstheater Darmstadt with a new production of The Makropulos Affair. The theatre’s general music director is already an expert when it comes to the Moravian composer; apart from Jenůfa and The Cunning Little Vixen in Darmstadt, he had also conducted Katya Kabanova a couple of years ago in Bonn. The directress Eva-Maria Höckmayer tried to depict especially the … 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
For the first time in its history, the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden, London, presented From the House of the Dead, the last opera by composer Leoš Janáček. Created in co-production with Brussels’ La Monnaie theatre and Opéra National de Lyon, the performance is remarkable for the involvement of several Czech and Slovak singers; apart … Read more
