Czech Music articles from January 1 2009

Czech Music archives from January 1 2009

Dear readers.(Editorial)(Brief article)
January 1, 2009... This issue is rather untypical--it comes with a CD that is entirely devoted to Czech popular music. Yet the "pop" on the CD is not at all the commercial globalised mainstream kind, but consists of original works of a high standard, as well as...

Michal Rataj: building a visual world without pictures.(Interview)
January 1, 2009... Michal Rataj moves with the same ease in the field of composing "classical" music (although entirely contemporary in idiom), and the world of electronic technologies and the kind of concepts of music that go far beyond the writing of black dots...

Twenty years of the contemporary in Czech popular music.(theme)
January 1, 2009... It is now nearly twenty years since the chinking of keys on Wenceslas Square sounded the death of a whole era in Czech history. In line with developments in the surrounding East European countries, the chain of events set off by the...

How will the financial crisis affect the arts in the Czech Republic?(analysis)
January 1, 2009... All the indications are that the cultural sphere and the "creative industries" altogether will be facing lean times in the coming years, especially as concerns funding. It is therefore high time for us to be asking how the crisis will impact on...

Ladislav Mose Blum an audio document of chant in a Prague synagogue.(document)
January 1, 2009... Jewish culture found itself in a strange position in post-war Czechoslovakia. While in the 1950s the communist authorities made it very clear that they were scarcely less antisemitic than the Nazis, in subsequent decades they did not express...

Twines and tangles: this text is a response to the review of J. Tyrrell's monograph on Janacek from the pen of Milos Stedron, which was printed in CMQ 2/2008. Michael Beckerman is a professor at New York University and the author of the monograph Janacek as Theorist (Pendragon Press, 1994). (Ed. note).(polemic)(Critical essay)
January 1, 2009... After several breathless pages of unvarnished praise in his recent review of John Tyrrell's roughly 2000 page Janacek: Years of a Life, Milos Stedron pauses to state his primary objection to the 3.6 kg biography: One aspect which I do not...

Radio days: the beginnings of radio broadcasting in inter-war Czechoslovakia.(history)
January 1, 2009... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] If we want to look at musical production from the 20th century to the present, then it is clear that one of the factors that strongly influenced musical life and cannot be overlooked is the rise of radio and radio...

Heinrich Ignaz Franz Biber Missa Salisburgensis, Plaudite tympana.(Sound recording review)
January 1, 2009... Tibicines, artistic directori Igino Conforzi, La Stagione Armonica, conductor Sergio Balestracci. Production: Gian Andrea Lodovici. Text: Eng., Ger., Fr. Recorded: Dec. 2003 in the Church of Santa Maria Assunta, Villa Lagarina--province of...

Leos Janacek Lachian Dances, The Cunning Little Vixen (suite in the arrangement of Frantisek Jilek), Taras Bulba.(Sound recording review)
January 1, 2009... Brno Philharmonic, Jakub Hrusa. Production: Matous Vlcinsky. Text: Cz., Eng., Ger., Fr. Recorded: Mar.-Apr. at Studio Stadion, Brno. Released: 2008. TT: 63:11. DDD. 1 CD Supraphon SU 3923-2. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] In the Janacek...

Bohuslav Martinu.(Sound recording review)
January 1, 2009... Chamber Music with Viola Three Madrigals (Duo no. 1) for Violin and Viola H 313, Duo no. 2 for Violin and Viola H 331, Sonata for Viola and Piano H 355, Chamber Music no. 1 for Clarinet, Violin, Viola, Cello, Harp and Piano H 376 Alexander...

Brahms.(Sound recording review)
January 1, 2009... Libor Novacek--piano. Production: Landor Productions Ltd. Text: Eng., Ger., Fr. Recorded: Jan. 2008, Potton Hall, Suffolk. Released: 2008. TT: 75:48. DDD. 1 CD Landor Records LAN285. [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Last year in England the...

Antonin Dvorak: Symphonies 7, 8 & 9, American Suite.(Sound recording review)
January 1, 2009... Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, Libor Pesek. Production: Andrew Keener. Text: Eng., Ger., Fr. Recorded: 1987, Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool. Released: 2008. TT: 75:12, 67:12. DDD. 2 CD Virgin Classics/ EMI 50999 5 22039 2 3. ...

Terezin/Theresienstadt: Weber, Svenk, Strauss, Roman, Taube, Ullmann, Krasa, Haas, Schulhoff.(Sound recording review)
January 1, 2009... Anne Sofie von Otter--mezzosoprano, Christian Gerhaher--baritone, Daniel Hope--violin, Bengt Forsberg--piano, Gerold Huber--piano, Bebe Rasenfors--accordion, double bass, guitar, Ib Hausmann--clarinet, Philip Dukes--viola, Josephine...

Darius Milhaud: Le Boeuf sur le toit.(Sound recording review)
January 1, 2009... Darius Milhaud Le Boeuf sur le toit Benjamin Britten Suite for Violin and Piano Bohuslav Martinu Sonata no. 3 for violin and piano Jana Vonaskova-Novakova--violin, Petr Novak--piano. Production: Pavel Vlcek. Text:...

The Smetana Trio: Tchaikovsky, Dvorak.(Sound recording review)
January 1, 2009... Smetana Trio: Jitka Cechova--piano, Jana Vonaskova-Novakova--violin, Jan Palenicek--cello. Production: Matous Vlcinsky. Text: Cz., Eng., Ger., Fr. Recorded: Apr-May 2008, Bohemia Music Studio, Prague. Released: 2008. TT: 73:12. DDD. 1 CD...