June 05, 2009
How was the Prague Spring 2009?
To refresh your memory we would like to offer you a brief, naturally rather incomplete overview of some of the festival events in recent days with the use of comments or quotes from newspapers.
Even before this year’s festival started, the conductor Neeme Järvi caused the festival organizers some headaches, when due to illness he had to cancel his participation in the opening concerts.
Thanks to a healthy portion of good luck, things turned out well in the end, when according to Petr Veber in the newspaper Hospodářské noviny: “The Polish conductor Antoni Wit opened Prague Spring with a romantically passionate rendition of Smetana’s Má vlast. He emphasized the contrasts in the score, and his concert at the Municipal House was a reminder that every musical masterpiece offers several possible approaches and interpretations without suffering thereby. Under the conditions that he had available, he achieved the maximum.” In agreement with that evaluation was Jindřich Bálek in the newspaper Lidové noviny: “The sixty-five-year-old music director of the Warsaw Philharmonic Antoni Wit acquitted his role unhesitatingly, energetically and was clearly successful.” Věra Drápelová of the newspaper Mladá fronta DNES likewise found his Má vlast to be “energetic and direct. To the performance’s credit, it was unhurried and balanced. One had the feeling of really hearing a series of naturally colored romantic scenes from history and nature, whether of an elevated or dramatic character.” Still, that critic did not view the opening concert as a “special event,” but she admitted that “taking into consideration the complicated circumstances, it can be regarded as having been a success.”
Reflecting the satisfaction of the organizers themselves is the fact that the Polish Maestro left Prague with an invitation to the 2012 festival, when he is to bring along with him the Warsaw National Philharmonic.
Starring singers at the Prague Spring
Without exception, all of the stars who appeared met our expectations, and their performances were experiences that we will long remember. “Six wonderful arias on the programme, a standing ovation and even three full-fledged encores – that was the balance from the recital of the Peruvian tenor Juan Diego Flórez, who fulfilled expectations and became on Friday a real first-class star guest of Prague Spring,” – this is how Petr Veber summed up his feelings from the famous singer’s Prague Spring debut in the very first sentence of his review in the newspaper Hospodářské noviny. Dita Kopáčová Hradecká also wrote an entirely positive review of Flórez’s recital in the newspaper Lidové noviny with the headline: “Prague Spring audience encounters perfection.” Vladimír Říha of the newspaper Právo also underscored the role of the accompanying Prague Philharmonia with the conductor Christopher Franklin, which “shined when playing a few orchestral numbers.”
According to the headline of the ČTK wire report, the recital of the singer Martina Janková ended with a “loud standing ovation.” At her first Prague Spring guest appearance the artist, a permanent resident of Switzerland, convinced all present that her successes at leading foreign opera houses with such famed conductors as John Elliott Gardiner, Nikolaus Harnoncourt, René Jacobs and Franz Welser-Möst are deserved. “Her tender but sure soprano voice reacted to every emotive nuance of the text. To this she added tasteful mimesis and appropriate gestures. Ms. Janková also has unmistakable acting talent, thanks to which she was able to present melodies as sometimes playful, sometimes sorrowful, and sometimes in a humorous, nearly comic vein, but all the while sensitively keeping to a chamber music presentation” – wrote Lucie Borovičková in E15. Also apt was the brief summation that Petr Veber wrote in his review in the newspaper Hospodářské noviny: “The Czechs have now received Janková as one of their own.” Věra Drápelová commented in the newspaper Mladá fronta DNES that contributing to the overall high quality of the concert was the Swiss vocal accompanist Gérard Wyss as well as the violinist Adéla Štajnochrová and the cellist Petr Nouzovský. She ended her review with an unambiguous assertion: “This was another of the outstanding vocal recitals at this year’s Prague Spring.”
Next season the Czech public will hear this singer in Mozart’s opera Idomeneo at the National Theatre, and especially for Prague Spring 2011 Martina Janková is preparing a new project in cooperation with Václav Luks’s ensemble Collegium 1704.
According to Petr Veber in the newspaper Hospodářské noviny, by inviting Susan Graham, Prague Spring also “provided an experience for all who are willing to let themselves be swayed by the musical poetry contained in art songs.” Again in this review of the popular American singer, the reviewer did not neglect to mention the performance of the accompanying pianist, Malcolm Martineau, who “conjured up magical details in gentle sound, was poetic and attentive.”
A real treat was the evening of the Italian ensemble Il Giardino Armonico, graced by the angelic voice of a Prague favorite, Bernarda Fink – this time in early baroque repertoire in which the Prague public had not yet heard her perform live. According to Petr Veber, “over the past two decades, thanks to her tender, supple voice the singer has become not only a specialist in early music, but also a supremely universal artist and a star as well. At the Rudolfinum she sang in a beautifully hushed, calm and modest manner especially in the sacred cantata Il Pianto di Maria by Giovanni Battista Ferrandini and the scene Pianto della Madonna by Monteverdi.”
Dagmar Pecková also met expectations with a heartfelt performance, underscoring the charm of Martinů’s youthful cycle Nipponari. With the attentive collaboration of Jiří Bělohlávek and the Prague Philharmonia, she also performed a selection of charming songs by the French composer Joseph Canteloube, little known in this country. According to Vladimír Říha, the humor and folklore coloring of the songs gave her even “more opportunities to show the strengths of her singing.”
The most eagerly anticipated orchestral concert was that one by the Dresden Philharmonic, but already from the enthusiasm of the
audience’s standing ovation and from your informed commentary during the
interval and immediately after the concert, this was obviously one of the
festival’s highlights. The concert was fascinating because of the flawless,
moving and compelling performance of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto by the
ageless, still lovely Anna-Sophie Mutter as well as the orchestra’s cultivated tone
and the compelling musical conception of the great conductor Kurt Masur, who led
Dvořák’s New World Symphony from memory.
Incidentally, at the afternoon press conference before the concert at the
Hotel Mandarin Oriental, Masur repeated his favorite characterization of Prague
Spring as “the most important cultural link between the East and the West in
the era of the iron curtain.”
A holiday of orchestral sound
Jindřich Bálek of the newspaper Lidové noviny described the pair of concerts of the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra of Hamburg with the conductor Christoph von Dohnányi as “a holiday of orchestral sound with exceptional soloists.” Věra Drápelová also mentions the two “very polished” concerts: “The fine details of Dohnányi’s collaboration with the orchestra, of which he has been the music director since 2004, is a demonstration of ideal accord, when a conductor needs only to hint, and the orchestra gives shape to his ideas.”
Regarding the soloist on the first evening, she wrote that “he demonstrated the art of song interpretation. Thomas Hampson knows how to build a drama on a small scale, to narrate a text but without ceasing to sing musically, and when we add to that his body language, the effect is guaranteed.”
Regarding the German violinist Frank Peter Zimmermann’s playing of the concerto by Bohuslav Martinů, she emphasized his “crystal, dazzling” tone, also mentioned by Bálek, who called it a “sonic miracle.” Of course, Bálek also attributed the same characteristic to the performance of the orchestra itself, and “its glowingly pure sound, in which every detail is heard, but every sound has its meaning and proportion. It was perhaps the most cultivated sound that any radio orchestra has ever offered here, and more than one philharmonic orchestra could learn from it.”
The Parisian Orchestre des Champs-Elysées offered a non-traditional view of the interpretation of romantic music on period instruments, and it provided a surefooted accompaniment to another star soloist, Steven Isserlis, in Schumann’s Cello Concerto.
Drawing the most attention at the concert of the Luxemburg Philharmonic Orchestra was Nikolai Lugansky’s virtuoso performance of Rachmaninoff’s Concerto No. 3, regarded as one of the most difficult works in the worldwide piano repertoire.
This was also the case at the concert of the Janáček Chamber Orchestra from Ostrava, where according to Vladimír Říha in the newspaper Právo, we “also experienced a pleasant surprise – the performance by the Armenian pianist Sergei Babayan of Alfreda Schnittke’s Piano Concerto was the sensation of the evening, and it was duly appreciated by the public.”
Ivan Moravec probably disappointed his many fans, when he had to withdraw from his festival performance with the Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra of South Bohemia because of a hand injury. He was replaced at the last minute by Petr Jiříkovský.
A touch of authenticity characterized the concert of the kammerorchesterbasel, which is following in the footsteps of Paul Sacher’s once famed ensemble. The ensemble performed music including works composed for its predecessor by Martinů and Stravinsky. The Prague Spring guest appearance of this Swiss ensemble also graced the festival with a new face – the youngest member of the conducting family dynasty, the thirty-seven-year-old Kristjan Järvi, who started his professional career as an assistant to Esa Pekka Salonen with the Los Angeles Philharmonic.
While the only performance this year by the Prague Symphony Orchestra, returning from a tour of England, is yet to come, the Czech Philharmonic has already given its first festival concert. Conducting on that occasion was the orchestra’s former music director Zdeněk Mácal. According to Petr Veber, the concert “brought to mind the good things about their collaboration – commitment to preparation, well-played music and original programming.” This was the case with an ideal performance of one of Bohuslav Martinů’s most important works – the Double Concerto for Two String Orchestras, Piano and Timpani, as well as Beethoven’s 7th Symphony, “played without exaggerated pathos, preceded by a noteworthy “overture” – the 15-minute work Fantasia on an Ostinato by the American contemporary composer John Corigliano, dedicated to Mácal during the years he spent in the USA… The inclusion of this piece was a real highlight of the concert.” The other reviewers basically agreed with Veber’s evaluation.
Presenting himself at this year’s festival in several roles was a
representative of the youngest generation of conductors, Jakub
Hrůša. He prepared a persuasive production for the new premiere of Rusalka at the National Theatre, and under his sensitive
leadership, he introduced his “former” orchestra the Bohuslav Martinů Philharmonic from Zlín with the soloists Bohuslav Matoušek and Régis Pasquier in
Martinů’s Duo concertante for two violins. With his present orchestra, the Prague Philharmonia, he willingly filled in for the Shanghai
Symphony Orchestra, which had cancelled its appearance.
With that ensemble’s truly enthusiastic assistance, the Chinese-American
pianist Mei-Ting Sun thrilled the festival’s Prague and foreign
guests with his first Prague Spring appearance, giving a virtuoso performance of
Tchaikovsky’s popular 1st Piano Concerto, demonstrating not only perfectly
balanced finger technique, but also an equal dose of full-blooded
musicianship.
Early music
Fans of early music were also supremely satisfied with this year’s festival. Robert Hugo with the vocal-instrumental ensemble Capella Regia attracted those listeners to the former refectory of the Jesuit monastery at Malostranské náměstí, a venue new to most of the musical public, there bringing back to life the music of the neighborhood’s Jesuits including works composed for the neighboring Church of St. Nicholas.
At the Church of Our Lady before Týn, Václav Luks gave a splendid Händel programme with the composer’s oratorio Ressurection. According to the newspaper Hospodářské noviny, Luks “is clearly becoming a key figure in the interpretation of early music in this country… In his hands, baroque music comes to three-dimensional life, and his ensemble Collegium 1704, supplemented by some important players from abroad, realizes its conception of playing on period instruments with great musical charm.” The author of the review, Peter Veber, also highlighted the performances of some of the other performers – “outstanding were the young Argentine bass-baritone Lisandro Abadie, unquestionably the vocal star of the concert, but also the other soloists led by Simona Houda-Šaturová. Kateřina Kněžíková, one of the most promising voices of the coming generation, even sang as a stand-in, as she did recently at the Theatre of the Estates in Händel’s Rinaldo… In combination with the chamber choir and the young solo singers, this is an ensemble the Czech musical scene can take pride in.”
Besides giving his own evening recital, the charismatic virtuoso on the historic viola da gamba, Jordi Savall, also presented an entirely original project with members of the Nederlands Blasers Ensemble, and like at his earlier appearances at Prague Spring, again this year he brought a surprise. According to Věra Drápelová: “the stage of Dvořák Hall at the Rudolfinum was transformed into an interior like a tale from One Thousand and One Nights. Also accompanying the atmosphere of this weekend’s concert, titled Dance of the Wind, were colored candles and projections of Oriental motifs. Sitting alongside Savall, who played the rebab, were his friends with other Oriental instruments, including the percussionist Pedro Estevan. There began a voyage from one Mediterranean port to another, traveled by people of Medieval times seeking their fortunes in new lands. Thus the music of that age blends European and Oriental influences… Also appearing were two jugglers doing tricks with cones, balls and musical instruments… In short, it was a sort of musical fantasy, maybe a bit bizarre and crazy, but still masterful and entertaining. Instead of encores after the concert were toasts and music making in the foyer.”
Bringing a combination of old and new music was the Saxon Vocal Ensemble from Dresden with a selection of Bach motets and sacred works by Petr Eben and a fine organ recital by Jaroslav Tůma at the Týn Church with works by that church’s former organist and choirmaster Josef Seger, also in combination with works by Eben and as an encore a piece by the American minimalist Philip Glass: Mad Rush.
Chamber music
The violinist Ivan Ženatý and the singer Lucie Ceralová with the inspiring accompaniment of the pianist Stanislav Bogunia gave some well-deserved attention to Josef Bohuslav Foerster, whose music sadly is very seldom played. This happens to be a jubilee year for Foerster.
The Czech Nonet dedicated its entire performance to 20th-century music, presenting a programme including works by Martinů, his Parisian teacher Albert Roussel, Martinů’s only Czech pupil Jan Novák and Geraldina Mucha, who has family ties to Martinů.
Received with gratitude was a complete performance over two evenings of the quartet works of the late Viktor Kalabis in enthusiastic interpretations by the members of the Kocian Quartet and the Zemlinsky Quartet.
As part of celebrations of the 100th anniversary of the existence of the Prague cinema Lucerna, there was a screening of the classic silent film Erotikon by the director Gustav Machatý with a live performance of newly composed music by Jan Klusák, who turns sixty-five this year.
The young members of Konvergence, a cooperative of composers and performers, framed their own works with two classics of new music from the 1970s and 1980s, George Crumb (the string quartet Black Angels) and Kaijia Saariaho (Lichtbogen).
Supplementing the mosaic of contemporary music was the positively charged energy of Dave Holland’ jazz quintet.
Festival in theatres
In the theatrical series, drawing the greatest attention were a new production of Rusalka, an evening of ballet with the Bubeníček brothers and their friends and a revived production of Verdi’s Otello at the State Opera with the Turkish tenor Efe Kislali and Christina Vasileva in the role of Desdemona.
Finally, in spite of having the most sober possible attitude towards the enthusiastic response to the performance of the film Lord of the Rings Symphony at the completely sold-out great hall of the Congress Centre, the presentation of that multimedia project as part of the festival can also be rated as a success, especially for having drawn large numbers of the youngest concertgoers.
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