Thursday, March 8, 2012: Interpreting Blue
Sensitivity, perception, interpretation ... all vital parts of contemporary music
“Even if my teacher explains it, I have my own interpretation,” says 12-year-old violinist Terezka Horáková. She’s just wowed the Lichtenstein Palace audience, performing the award-winning composition Blue: Innocent and Fragile with the Berg Orchestra.
Her violin teacher happens to also be the piece’s composer, Ondřej Štochl. He’s just earned the Berg Orchestra’s 10,000-Czech-crown NuBerg Award 2011 for the piece. We’re chatting with both the performer and the composer during the intermission.
Mr Štochl tells Opus Osm that although Terezka is a small, fragile-looking girl, “she’s very sensitive in the way she perceives things, but at the same time, paradoxically, also very strong inside.” Mr Štochl moves away, but the talented young violinist continues the conversation, sharing her interpretation of the piece: “To me the first part is like two friends who are fighting. They try to solve it, and then they finish the fight and finally communicate together and solve it.”
Terezka Horáková and part of The Berg Orchestra in performance, and composer Ondřej Štochl (tented fingers) in the front row
She doesn’t study contemporary music in her violin lessons, so she advises new listeners, “In the beginning you have to get used to it, but now I prefer it.” In the meantime, she’s continuing traditional violin studies – she’s on Bach now – and Mr Štochl’s piece is the only contemporary composition she plays.
You can get a quick taste of Terezka and the Berg Orchestra performing Blue: Innocent and Fragile March 5 by clicking on the line below, and hear the full composition on the Berg Orchestra’s website. -oo
Berg Orchestra, Blue Mar 5 2012
– Mary Matz, with Czech language interpreting by Marios Christou
Photo Credits: Miroslav Setnička
