czech music 2 | 2004 quarterly magazine Rafael Kubelík Josef Adamík Societas Incognitorum The Czech Music Fund Music Materials Hire Library A wide range of scores and parts of music by Czech composers, both contemporary authors and classical masters. VISIT THE ELEC- TRONIC CATALOGUE ON THE WEB WWW.MUSICBASE.CZ Contact address: Tel.: +420-251 556 642 or 251 550 609 Radlická 99 Fax: +420-251 553 982 150 00 Prague 5 e-mail: [email protected] Czech Republic internet: www.musicbase.cz czech music 2 | 2004 editorial Contents 2004 Dear Readers, and friends of Czech music. The face of this issue is Rafel Kubelik, one of the greatest personalities of Czech music history. We present here three texts Page 2 Adam Michna of Otradovice and the Societas concerning different aspects of his life and work. Incognitorum We also look deeper into our history in VLADIMÍR MAŇAS an interview with Eduard Tomaštík, 2 leader of ensemble Societas Incognitorum. This ensemble revives Page 5 Rafael Kubelík: We Loved Our Giants forgotten gems of past. JINDŘICH BÁLEK We return to the contemporary music scene with reviews of festival Exposition of New Music and with reports about Page 9 Rafael Kubelík: The Soul Cannot Be Mangled three new chamber operas. by Politics In this issue you will find next of a series PETR KADLEC of supplements called Profiles, designed to mark the Year of Czech Music and introduce some of the composers whose Page 11 Rafel Kubelík: Homeland and World Art jubilees fall in this year. We have chosen PETR KADLEC those who in our view had a major influence on the development of Czech music but who are not always so well Page 13 Josef Adamík: Composer in Disguise known in the rest of the world. This time JAROSLAV ŠŤASTNÝ it is Miloslav Kabeláč, usually considered the founder of Czech national music in general and opera in particular. Page 15 17th Exposition of New Music The second figure is Pavel Haas, who has PETR BAKLA died in concentration camp Terezín in 1944. I believe you will find a great deal of Page 18 How to Make Opera Today interesting information in this issue and MATĚJ KRATOCHVÍL I look forward to our meeting at the next issue. Page 20 Reviews MATĚJ KRATOCHVÍL EDITOR Czech Music Czech Music is issued by the Czech Music Information Centre with the support Information Centre, of the ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, Bohuslav Martinů Foundation, Leoš Janáček Besední 3, 118 00 Praha 1, Foundation and the Czech Music Fund Czech Republic, Editor: Matěj Kratochvíl, Translation: Anna Bryson fax: ++420 2 57317424 Graphic design: Ditta Jiřičková, Photos: Karel Šuster (p. 15-18) and archives phone: ++420 2 57312422 DTP: HD EDIT, Print: Tobola e-mail: [email protected] ISSN 1211-0264 http://www.musica.cz The subscription fee is 25 for Europe, $ 30 for overseas countries, or respective equivalents. adam michna of otradovice and the societas incognitorum VLADIMÍR MAŇAS The Third Mass from the Sacra et Lita- using the cello rather than the viola da degrees of intensity in different places, and niaeje Collection is remarkable for its gamba in the basso continuo is concerned, gripped most of the major centres surround- character – continuous variations over this relates to a problem much more com- ing Bohemia (Vienna, Salzburg, Munich and a repeating bass melody. The Societas plex than it might seem at first sight. Partic- Desden) to such an extent that some Austri- Incognitorum ensemble have chosen ularly in the 17th century, there was mas- an or German statesmen corresponded with an approach that is relatively unusual, sive diversity in terminology, size, tuning their subjects in Italian instead of their native but all the more interesting for that. and so forth in stringed instruments. How- language. We can only speculate on exactly Many will be surprised by the changes ever much performers today tend to use how strong Italian fashion was in Bohemia of tempo between the individual pas- the gamba for accompaniment, – and it is itself at the time, but given that the influx of sages, and in the introduction to the often the right choice – it cannot be Italian musicians into Moravia goes back to recording this choice is justified in regarded as the only correct possibility. the 1620s, it seems reasonable to assume some detail as “the word of the per- I use the cello more often because it has a that in Michna’s day Italian culture was pretty former”. Can you say something more more solid, sharp and concrete sound. Also well known (at least in music). Direct proofs about this mode of performance? I have been working with Ondřej Michal for on Italian pronunciation in the Bohemian Michna’s mass is truly excellent music in a long time, his play suits me, and we’re so Lands are absent, but equally there is no terms of structure and inventiveness, and so used to each other that we know exactly clear evidence of use of the hard pronuncia- I was all the more surprised to find it had what to expect from each other during pro- tion in Michna’s Latin. I have several times never been recorded before. All I know is ductions. As far as the instrumental muta- heard the ridiculous argument that since that some Czech ensembles have played it, bility of the general bass is concerned – Michna was a Czech composer, why not sing but since I never heard any of their perfor- leaving aside the period sources - in today’s him in “our Latin”. and I would like to put mances, I couldn’t draw on any specific practice I have essentially encountered two things in proportion here by pointing out that experience for my own approach. It is simply opposite views. Some people claim that the there is no Czech pronunciation of Latin, but my own interpretation, and I stand by it. instruments participating in the accompani- only the German pronunication, which we The choice of instrumental voices is also ment should play from the beginning to adopted for historical reasons and which dif- specific. The virginals, used in some places then end (if the composer does not state it fers strongly from the original ancient Latin instead of a positive organ, rather change explicitly) while others think it better to pronunciation. Frankly the whole dispute is the character of the pieces, and so fulfils the treat the continuo more colourfully, depend- more about personal taste, and no one will aim of presenting the variety and colour pos- ing on a given mood or emotion. My view is ever win it by making tedious theoretical his- sibilities of the Baroque basso. Instead of the that there is no single practice to be fol- torical arguments. For me Italian, just like normally used viola da gamba, however, a lowed in this aspect either. On the one Italian “soft” Latin is an ideal speech for cello shares in the playing of the continuo, hand you cannot invent a complicated singing bel canto in the true and original and in some passages we hear only the the- accompaniment scheme at any price, but sense of the term. - but here we are getting orba and the positive is silent – all of this on the other there are places that are all to another issue that would deserve a sepa- contributes to that effective mutability of but invitations to transform the colour of rate article. If I have to choose between hard colour. But these are still debatable steps, the continuo and so very much enliven the and soft pronunciation of Latin, I always and deserve some commentary from the piece but also testify to the interpretative choose Italian, because it is unquestionably ensemble leader. inventiveness of the cappelmeister. more singable. In some of his printed prefaces Heinrich Schütz says that ultimately it always Why did you choose Italian pronuncia- Given the relatively small circle of per- depends on the capacities and possibilities tion for your performance of Michna? formers of early music in this country it of the cappelmeister. I don’t offer the exam- There is no doubt that at the beginning of is inevitable that the instrumentalists ple as an alibi for my instrumentation, but to the 17th century Italian culture became in particular are involved in many pro- point out the huge variability that existed in hugely fashionable in Europe. It affected jects at the same time, and so con- early music and was integral to it. As far as almost all branches of art with different trasts in the interpretative approach, or 2 | interview | czech music 2 | 2004 perhaps more the sound quality of the individual ensembles are not necessar- ily so great. Nonetheless, every ensem- ble tries to give itself a special profile, to be different. What is the overall per- formance concept at Societas Incogni- torum, if something of the kind can be defined at all? It’s true that the basic core of skilled per- formers of early music is very small in this country. The reasons for this state of affairs, which have to do with the training system, are not things I want to talk about here. On the other hand it is usual in the world for the same musicians to be hired for projects under different “trade names” without the result being uniformity of sound or interpre- tation. The essential factor here is the per- sonality of the cappelmeister; who gives a piece of music clear contours, projects his or her personality into it and stands by it. To have your own distinctive view, “to stick your neck out“ – in my view these are the only things that prevent uniformity creeping in, and give music meaning altogether.