Presentation of 21st-century Czech music (II): Jan Kučera and Petr Wajsar
Single ticket price: CZK 400 | CZK 300 (senior citizens 65+)
Student/child up to age 15: CZK 100
Family ticket (2 adults + children under 18): CZK 100 per person
Donor’s ticket in support of the PKF’s artistic activities: 2 000 CZK
Jan Kučera, Petr Wajsar – guests
Jan Fišer – violin
Lucia Fulka Kopsová – violin
Tomáš Krejbich – viola
Lukáš Pospíšil – cello
Jindřich Pavliš – clarinet
Program Notes
“The Birth is a part of the incidental music for the Spitfire Company and its performance 13th Month. This expressive theater dance was accompanied live by the string ensemble, the Epoque Quartet, forming an integral part of the performance. The music flows in a minimalist pulsating rhythm, above which a simple and long melodic line is heard here and there. I composed it in a single day; it was the last day of 2011. The Birth exists in several versions, from quartet to symphonic one.
I wrote the Sundial on the occasion of the Epoque Quartet concert at the 2018 Prague Spring Festival. Originally, I had a completely different musical concept, I wanted to create a very abstract composition that worked with various noises, squeaks, flageolets and other onomatopoeic elements. After consulting the Epoque Quartet I reconsidered this idea and I think I did the right thing. The final form of the composition came into being very spontaneously during one afternoon. The invention of the sundial dates back to 7000 years ago, today it is rather a rarity, but I perceive it as a beautiful symbiosis of the technical and poetic worlds. After the rapid figurations in the 11/8 time signature, the music forms a motionless surface, in which I use quarter tones as a stylization of a very slowly, almost imperceptibly moving shadow. Let yourself be drawn into the image of a sweltering landscape and hot air.” Jan Kučera
