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New season, fresh voices

Contemporary music festival showcases Scandinavian composers this year

By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
March 21st, 2007 issue

The first week of spring may be occasion for sun worshippers to head outdoors. But fans of contemporary music will be spending a good portion of the next 10 days indoors, as the Czech Philharmonic stages Prague Premieres, its annual new-music festival.

Now in its fourth year, the festival showcases classical work by contemporary composers, this year in two parallel programs. The main series of orchestral works will be performed in Dvořák Hall, while chamber works for smaller ensembles will be staged in more intimate spaces throughout the Rudolfinum, primarily Suk Hall.
Prague Premieres

When: March 24–April 1
Where: Rudolfinum
Tickets: 50–100 Kč, available at the venue
For a complete schedule, check www.praguepremieres.eu

The festival started as a cozy gathering of new-music fans — a small but dedicated group — and Czech composers, most of whom were in the audience when their pieces were performed, and took the stage afterward to enthusiastic applause. There’s still that sense of community about the festival, but it’s grown considerably in scope and size. This year it features the work of 32 Czech composers and 31 international composers, all of whom hail from the northern climes: Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.
The program has incredible variety and breadth, with only two requirements for each selection: It has to have been composed within the past five years, and, in keeping with the festival’s title, never performed in Prague before.
What this means for the audience is a great series of musical adventures. The quality is first-rate, as the program and performers are assembled mostly by Václav Riedlbauch, the managing director of the Czech Philharmonic and a smart musicologist who culls the cream of European composing talent and books a roster of outstanding orchestras, including the Czech Philharmonic. Otherwise, it’s a journey to new musical horizons, with moments ranging from baffling to sublime. What’s guaranteed is an opportunity to stretch your thinking and be exposed to music in forms and sounds you’ve likely never heard before.
There’s something to recommend almost every night, but these are certainly among the highlights of the festival:
Kaija Saariaho is a Finnish composer receiving serious international attention, partly on the strength of her opera L’Amour de loin, which premiered at the Salzburg Festival in 2000 under the direction of Peter Sellars and earned her a prestigious Grawemeyer Award. The North Bohemian Philharmonic from Teplice will be performing her impressive 2002 orchestral work Orion Sunday, March 25. (A piece by noted expat Czech composer Peter Kotík, Asymmetric Landing, is also on that night’s program.)
The Nederlands Blazers Ensemble will be in town Wednesday, March 28, to play a suite of music composed specifically for it by Finnish composer Juhani Nuorvala. Finnen is a musical smorgasbord, incorporating elements of Finnish folk music and medieval sacred songs, and in this performance featuring two interesting soloists: folk singer Sanna Kurki-Suonio and musician Eija Kankaanranta, who specializes in playing the kantele, a Finnish version of the zither.
The Czech Philharmonic steps up Friday, March 30, for a world premiere by Atli Heimer Sveinsson, an Icelandic composer. Sinfónía númer 4 was written last year in the Czech Republic, while the composer was soaking up inspiration in south Bohemia.
One of the most unlikely cross-cultural programs of the festival will be performed by a chamber group in the Rudolfinum Gallery Friday, March 30. It opens with Gagaku variations, a piece for string quartet and accordion by the award-winning Norwegian composer Maja Solveig Kjelstrup Ratkje, who explored the ancient Japanese form of gagaku music while on tour there (she plays electronic instruments, most notably the theremin). The program closes with Chamber Concerto, a work for three jazz musicians and four classical players by Anders Koppel, a Danish composer who is equally at home in the rock and jazz genres.
Most of these recommendations come from Josef Marek, a Czech composer (he has a piece in the March 25 program) who helped Riedlbauch organize the festival. Asked if there isn’t a certain amount of risk involved in attending these concerts, Marek broke into a wide grin and said, “Yes. Exactly!” That’s the spirit of musical adventure, and, as spring breezes waft through the city, Prague Premieres offers a perfect musical accompaniment to starting fresh and anew.

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


Other articles in Night & Day (21/03/2007):

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