Rozhlasový podzim - Český rozhlas

15| 10| Pá 19.00| Sál Martinů | Pražské premiéry
15| 10| Fri 7.00 pm| Martinů Hall | Prague premieres
Bernardas Brazdžionis, who emigrated to the USA after WW II. In this poem, which inspired the creation of
the composition, there is room for fantasy, dreaming of Beauty, and the perpetual conflict with reality... This
seems to be the theme of most of my work. “Illusion“ reflects the never ending human attempt to achieve
something unattainable, see the invisible, and hear the inaudible... The composition consists of one movement.
It is a dialogue of man with the surrounding world, and this dialogue dramaturgically determines the
conflict in the work. I did not think about any particular techniques, I wanted each instrument to “speak” with
its typical voice.
In the structure of this composition an experienced listener will hear hidden series of unrepeated tones and
their modifications, clusters, and harmonies permeating the whole piece, supported by the sound of an open
guitar string. However... This is only the composer’s “cuisine“... It is the result and the emotional level of the
music that is important to the listener – the things that bring or do not bring excitement, are worth thinking
about and being experienced with the musicians or worth being thrown away... The composition is dedicated
to the initiators of its creation – the guitarist Reinbert Evers, conductor Donatas Katkus, and the Lithuanian Saint
Christopher Chamber Orchestra.
Anatolijus Šenderovas
www.mic.lt/en/persons/info/senderovas
Arvo Pärt (born on 1935) is a composer of international stature whose music is characterized by strong
compositional logic and sacral atmosphere. As the boldest innovator of 1960s Estonian music, he brought
into play all the most important modernist techniques of composition in his earlier works. In 1980s, Pärt
achieved worldwide renown by his meditative tintinnabuli style. Arvo Pärt‘s music has a remarkable influence
on Estonian contemporary music. Arvo Pärt studied music theory at the Tallinn Music High School
in 1954–1957 and continued with studies of composition at the Tallinn Conservatoire in 1957–1963 as
a student of Heino Eller. From 1958 to 1967, he worked as a sound director at Estonian Radio, thereafter he
became a freelance composer. In 1980, Pärt and his family emigrated from Soviet Estonia for political reasons
to Vienna and one year later, travelled on a DAAD scholarship (German Academic Exchange Service) to Berlin.
After the restoration of Estonian Republic in 1991, Pärt’s ties with his homeland were restored. Arvo Pärt’s
first works written for the piano – 2 sonatinas (1958–1959), Partita (1959) and others – represent neoclassicist
style. In his 1960s work, sonorism became dominating. Pärt‘s first orchestral work was Nekrolog (1960) for
symphony orchestra – the first dodecaphonic work in Estonian and Soviet music. Written in ground of sonoristic
and serial methods, his Symphony No. 1 (Polyphonic, 1963) and orchestral work Perpetuum mobile
(1963) dedicated to Luigi Nono stand out as vivid examples of Pärt‘s „architectonic“ form shaping. From
1965, after the performance of the Perpetuum mobile at the Warsaw Autumn Festival, Pärt‘s music became
known internationally. Pärt‘s Collage on BACH (1964) for oboe and orchestra, the cello concerto Pro et contra
(1966), Symphony No. 2 (1966) and Credo (1968) for piano, mixed choir and orchestra, on the Jesus‘ Sermon
on the Mount, are based on the collage technique contrasting dramatic sound patterns with luminous tonal
harmonic citations or stylisations. After the three-year break and studying old manuscripts of sacral music,
Pärt completed his Symphony No. 3 – the landmark of his new style inspired by medieval vocal music. From
1976, the peaceful and euphonic tintinnabuli style (tintinnabuli – „bell“ in Latin), inspired by Gregorian chant
and Netherlands‘ vocal polyphony, became the basis of Pärt’s music. The new style interweaves a „melodic
voice“ moving stepwise and the triadic tintinnabuli voice. Its special features are meditative time flow and
“breathing” phrases. The first work in the tintinnabuli style was the piano piece For Aliina from 1976. Following
in 1977 Tabula rasa – a concerto for two violins, a piano and strings, Cantus in memory of Benjamin Britten for
strings and bell and Fratres having a large number of different instrumentations, are popular up to now. From
1980s, Pärt has written many works for choir and/or vocal soloist(s) with or without accompaniment, based
on religious texts, including Passio (1982), De profundis (1980), Te Deum (1985/1992), Magnificat (1989),
Miserere (1989/1992), Berliner Messe (1990/2002), Litany (1994/1996), Kanon pokajanen (1996), Como cier-
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