Rozhlasový podzim - Český rozhlas

13| 10| St 19.30| Rudolfinum – Dvořákova síň
13| 10| Wed 7.30 pm| Rudolfinum – Dvořák Hall
already included in Cosmas’ Chronicle. This relatively brief work with a dramatic pace is – in accordance
with its extramusical subject – divided into several distinctly contrasting parts, which could be described
as follows: Tameless Šárka’s wild appearance – Ctirad’s ride through the forest – Love scene – The dance of
Ctirad’s group with its members’ gradually falling asleep (the lovely dissonant tone of the bassoon here
allegedly describes the armour-bearer’s snoring) – Šárka calling her companions (the signal of the French
horn); a meditative clarinet solo follows (does Šárka eventually hesitate to carry out her intention?) – The
final devastating rage.
In the 1960s and 70s the Polish Composers’ School became famous. Its leading representative is Witold
Lutosławski (1913–1994). In his beginnings his work was inspired by B. Bartók’s music, but he gradually
developed his own characteristic style based on the dominance of colour and on some kind of soundand-colour
“patches”. In this creative period he frequently used an instrumental stylization that gave the
musicians a certain degree of freedom, especially in the rhythmic rendition of their parts. Lutosławski’s
masterpieces include Concerto for Cello and Orchestra, which was premièred by Mstislav Rostropovich in
1970. This work, exposed in one direction, is full of contrasting moods. For the opening night, the composer
wrote a detailed description of the progress of the piece to the soloist, emphasising the continuous
dialogue between the soloist and the orchestra. According to Lutosławski, there is a certain kind of tense
“animosity”, particularly between the solo part (which begins the work with an extensive cadence) and
the trumpet section.
The emergence of Wojciech Kilar’s (1932) symphonic picture Krzesany in the mid-1970s meant a significant
turning point in the development of European music. Before that the development of the musical
language seemed to be continuously leading – though with fluctuations – towards greater and greater
complexity and sophistication. The abrupt turn towards simple expression – which is also noticeable in
the work of Kilar’s contemporaries, such as Gorecki, Pärt and others – disrupted this idea, which is still
frequently cited nowadays. Since he wrote Krzesany, Kilar has created a lot of other works. One of the
newer ones is his Concert for Piano and Orchestra from 1997. Here, the composer is influenced by the language
of musical minimalism: The first movement is based on sustained consonances with little change
in melody. In the slightly contrasting second movement we can hear a choral melody structure. An abrupt
change comes in the final part, in which the orchestra – which has almost not played at all so far – joins
in and the stream of music starts moving forward like an engine. In the final part, the choral melody from
the second movement is incorporated in the frantically running music.
Taras Bulba, the rhapsody for orchestra by Leoš Janáček (1854–1928), belongs among the
composer’s most typical works. As a Russophile, Janáček was often inspired by Russian literature.
This work is based on the novel of the same name, describing the Russian Cossacks’ fight against
the Poles. Janáček chose three episodes from the book and named the three parts of the piece after
them. The first part tells the story of Taras’s son, Andrii, who has left the Cossacks for the love of
a Polish girl and gets punished by Taras Bulba himself, who says: “I gave you life, I will also kill you!”
The second part depicts the death of the second son, Ostap, who gets captured and tortured in public
by the Poles. When he cannot bear the torture any more and cries for help, calling his father:
“Father! Where are you? Do you hear?” (clarinet screaming), Taras Bulba shouts from the crowd:
“I hear!“ (the beat of the timpani). In the last part, Taras is burned to death and the piece ends with
a wonderful apotheosis of human courage. In spite of the gloomy theme, the music is full of beautiful
musical landscapes, typical of Janáček. The final part of the composition belongs among some of the
most magnificent examples of any composer’s expression.
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