MusicOlomouc for the third time
The international festival of contemporary music MusicOlomouc is focused on compositions from the last twenty years that stood the test of time and entered the concert repertoire of ensembles and soloists specialized in contemporary music. In this third year (26 April – 4 May 2011), thirty-two such compositions will be performed. They will become an interesting confrontation between various contemporary styles and genres as well as between Czech, Slovak, and American composers. There will be two premieres – a piano concerto by an Olomouc native composer and “jazz” pianist of international acclaim, Emil Viklický and a chamber piece by a young Olomouc composer and “classical” pianist, Marek Keprt. Besides, there will be performed an old composition, Music for Prague 1968, by the Czech American Karel Husa. There are several reasons to make this exception: Karel Husa (b. 1921) will be ninety in the summer, he is a highly regarded world composer but none of his composition has been performed in Olomouc so far. Music for Prague 1968, a protest in music against the invasion of Soviet and other Warsaw Pact troops in Czechoslovakia on 21 August 1968, became one of the most renowned compositions of the second half of the 20th century. Due to its theme as well as its musical qualities, it has had more than 10,000 verifiable performances. Its Czech premiere was in May 1990 at the Prague Spring Festival, when the Czech Philharmonic was conducted by Zdeněk Mácal. Olomouc concert-goers deserve hearing this composition!
The concert of the Moravian Philharmonic will be conducted by its chief conductor Petr Vronský, and performing will be two remarkable young soloists, the pianist Jonas Vitaud from France and the oboist Vilém Veverka. In two chamber concerts held in the chapel of the Arts Center of Palacký University and in the Priessnitz spa house in Jeseník, the American violinist Karen Bentley Pollick will perform experimental compositions combining the violin, electronic instruments and videoprojection, which were written in the past few years, often with her incentive. A no less avant-garde music will be heard from the outstanding string quartet FAMA Q from Prague, specialized in contemporary music. This time it will be a selection from Czech and Slovak music by composers of the third generation. Traditionally, also regional composers (active in Olomouc, Ostrava and Pilsen) of national status will participate in the programme. In the last festival night, students ane educators of the Conservatoire of the Protestant Academy in Olomouc will introduce themselves. And finally, this year too, there will be two afternoon informal discussions, this time on the theme of the untraditional use of string instruments in contemporary music.
The vital organizing role was assumed by the time-tested team of educators, doctoral students, and students of the Department of Musicology at the Philosophical Faculty, Palacký University in Olomouc. This year they were joined in a major way by Czech Radio 3 – Vltava, the Protective Union of Authors, in the programme named Partnership and Kooperativa Insurance Copany.
Holding an international festival of contemporary music in the present days of financial insecurity and with no optimistic outlook is difficult and many people may regard it as a quixotic enterprise. But who else but an academic institution should develop culture in the nation, widen the horizons, and keep common sense?
On behalf of the festival team, the dramaturgist and chairman of the festival committee is wishing you pleasant listening and interesting meetings with contemporary music.
Jan Vičar,
Programme director and chairman of the festival comittee
