Friday, May 18, 2012: Just for Fun
Just for Fun: If Symphonies Had New Titles The other day we were browsing the stacks of The Municipal Library of Prague – our favorite literary worthy cause – and we noticed that book titles today are really interesting. Much more interesting than many symphony titles. Don’t you think the general public might be more curious about classical music if a concert piece had a title like the novel called…
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Thursday, May 17, 2012: Gala X
Gala X: Junior Dancers Meet Professionals in Zuska’s Retrospective The “Gala with Youth” dance performance May 10 and 12 at The Theatre of the Estates brought together today’s experienced National Theatre dancers with tomorrow’s potential stars, all performing a handful of pieces by masterful choreographer Petr Zuska. It was part of Mr Zuska’s retrospective Petr Zuska Gala X marking his tenth anniversary as artistic director and choreographer for the National…
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Wednesday, May 16, 2012: Around the Table
Around the Table: An Informal Chat with the Audience “This was very interesting. I enjoyed the ‘wing,’” says Lenka. She’s an audience member speaking about the Marianum concert performed by The Berg Orchestra at the St Salvator church May 9. The concert presented two world premiere compositions by Slavomír Hořínka and a Stabat Mater by Arvo Pärt, under a massive paper sculpture shaped like a kind of wing, by artist…
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Tuesday, May 15, 2012: Medical Musicians
Medical Musicians: Med Students Perform in the Concert (not Just the Operating) Theatre It’s fair to assume that doctors have sensitive hands (many become surgeons, certainly). And excellent ears (they’re the ones with the stethoscopes, after all). But you might not assume that some doctors – or more precisely, medical students – are also very accomplished musicians. Medical students of the Second Medical Faculty of Charles University in Prague-Motol will…
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Monday, May 14, 2012: Making Classical Convenient
Making Classical Convenient A typical concert-going experience goes something like this: You go home after work, maybe change your clothes, grab some dinner, head to the concert hall for the concert that starts around 7 or 8 pm — then, by the time the concert is over, it’s already dark out and you’re ready to call it quits for the evening. Does this sound all too familiar? Well, why not…
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Friday, May 11, 2012: Music at Museum Night
Music at Museum Night At the ninth annual Prague Museum Night Saturday, June 9, you can visit 70 museums and institutions for free. And many of them offer free concerts or exhibitions related to classical music (see listings, below). The event is only for that one night, from 7 pm to 1 am. But free shuttle buses, starting from Jan Palach Square on the river, will make it easier for…
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Thursday, May 10, 2012:Dance in their Dreams?
Do ballet dancers dance in their dreams? No, says Petr Zuska. A Thursday afternoon chat about dance, over a glass of white wine on the New Stage, reunited two friends: Marek Eben, the master conductor of interviews, and the man who rules the moves at the National Theatre Ballet, artistic director Petr Zuska. The public conversation May 3 marked Mr. Zuska’s 10th year in the director’s position. The milestone will…
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Wednesday, May 9, 2012: Baroque Music Rediscovered
Baroque Music Rediscovered It is being billed as early music, but that is somewhat imprecise. So if you’re thinking cavemen beating hides and grunting, nothing could be further from the truth, even though this technically does lie within the definition. Ensemble Inégal will in fact perform an Early Music work by the most important Czech Baroque composer, Jan Dismas Zelenka, at Emauzy Abbey on May 19th as part of the…
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Tuesday, May 8, 2012: Wind Up?
Wind-Up? Wind-Up! The words “wind up” bring up many possible meanings in English: “After traveling the entire world, how did you wind up in Prague?” Or, “We’re out of time so we have to wind up this interview.” Or, “Don’t give Pete too much sugar before bedtime – it winds him up.” Or even, “My older brother loves to tease my younger sister – he really knows how to wind…
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Monday, May 7, 2012: ‘Wrap Music’
‘Wrap Music’ through a Church Attic You’re trying to run up a steep, narrow wooden staircase with no handrails. The stairs twist and turn, doubling back on themselves as you clamber up, higher and higher. At some 40 metres above the ground you reach the top. You walk a narrow wooden plank over dusty, plaster dunes which help form the vaulted ceiling below. You reach up and put your hand…
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Friday, May 4, 2012: Back and Forward
Looking Back, Striving Forward: Historic Concert May 15 You can witness a unique concert Tues, May 15 as part of the annual Prague Spring International Festival 2012. Sitting in the audience at the Church of St Simon and St Jude, you will be able to look both back in history and forward to the future. That’s because this concert offers the world premiere of Vit Zouhar’s Days, the 2012 Terezín…
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Thursday, May 3, 2012: Save Time & Money
‘No Time, No Money’? Here’s a Solution Occasionally we ask folks why they don’t go to classical music concerts, ballet, or opera. For a lot of them, the reason is simple: “No time, no money.” However. Having lived a long life, we’ve observed that there is always time and money … for the things you really want. Everything else comes in second, and then “no time, no money” becomes the…
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Wednesday, May 2, 2012: Play This Ten Times
Play This Ten Times! What would you do if your boss handed you this paper with the instructions, “Play this 10 times”? It was all in a day’s work for award-winning percussionist Anton Zhdanovich, 20. He played percussion with The Berg Orchestra at their recent world premiere of The Book of the Earth by Czech composer František Chaloupka. That requires not only playing a vibraphone, drums, and other more usual…
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Tuesday, May 1, 2012: Black Tuxedo, Black Piano
Not the Usual Man in Black Tuxedo, Seated at Black Steinway When you go to a piano concert by Adam Skoumal, you find that there’s just so much to like — in addition to his brilliant playing. We went to his concert smack in the middle of the humid, 5-day holiday weekend, on Sat, Apr 28 (holiday-makers could stretch the traditional May 1 observance across a long weekend). The Rudolfinum…
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Monday, April 30, 2012: Darkness and Light
Darkness and Light The Spanish Hall in Prague Castle is one of the most opulent places in the Czech Republic, and likely the world. When Obama and Medvedev came to the Czech Republic to sign an historic missile treaty, this is the room they did it in. Now and again it is opened to the public for performances, and it does not disappoint. Such was the case on Apr 25…
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Friday, April 27, 2012: With Tongue in Cheek
Bolshoi Ballet, Dancing with Tongue in Cheek* * With your tongue in your cheek: English idiom, to say something as a joke but with a serious face The Bright Stream (Světlý Pramen), at the cinema on Sunday, is a satirical ballet sure to provoke a stream of laughter. But what happened to its creators is no laughing matter. The ballet about Moscow ballet dancers visiting a rural Russian collective during…
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