Mezzo-soprano Michaela Kapustová performed a musical treasure recently at The Atrium

Trying to remember the name or composer of a piece of music can be one of the best ways people drive themselves towards heated arguments or even temporary insanity.

Well, here’s some help.

Antonín Dvořák’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me” is a beloved and popular song you probably know because it’s often featured as part of concert programs or as an encore.

You can see mezzo-soprano Michaela Kapustová, accompanied by pianist Daniel Wiesner, perform the main theme in this video. She’s an award-winning graduate of the Brno and the Prague conservatories and has completed several master classes. In addition to concerts, Mrs Kapustová appears with the National Theatre and other opera companies.

So watch this video, and you’ll always be able to recognize Dvořák’s “Songs My Mother Taught Me:”

As is clear from Mrs Kapustová’s singing, “Songs My Mother Taught Me” is a romantic, somewhat melancholic and nostalgic piece. “I recommend this song,” Mrs Kapustová tells Opus Osm, “because it’s very melodic and makes everybody feel the love and the pain.”

Dvořák composed it in 1880 for voice and piano as one of four songs in his Cigánské Melodie (Gypsy Songs) cycle (Opus 55/4), to poems written in German by Adolf Heyduk. The words to this song are:

Songs my mother taught me in the days long vanished;
Seldom from her eyelids were the teardrops banished.
Now I teach my children each melodious measure.
Oft the tears are flowing, oft they flow from my memory’s treasure.

Mrs Kapustová continues, “In the world of music, Cigánské Melodie is very preferred and often interpreted by many soloists.” Although “Songs My Mother Taught Me” has been recorded by everyone from Joan Sutherland to Glenn Miller to Yo-Yo Ma, the Czech mezzo-soprano says of the four songs her own personal favorite is the last one, “Dejte Klec Jestřábu” (Give the Hawk a Fine Cage).

Mrs Kapustová is currently planning roles in Ponchieli’s La Gioconda in Pilsen and in Rigoletto in Česky Krumlov.

And apart from those, just in case you see her in concert performing “Songs My Mother Taught Me,” you’ll be able to fully relax and just enjoy the music with no maddening frustration, because now it will be part of your own memory’s treasure. — oo

– Mary Matz

Juggling on the Berlin Wall, Nov 16, 1989. Is an even-handed approach to politics and culture possible?

Czech national aspirations, which also involved ideological considerations, played an important role in the creative lives of the Czech Republic’s “famous four” – Dvořák, Smetana, Janáček, and Martinů. Dvořák and Smetana saw themselves distinctly as cultural representatives of the Czech national revival. And not only that! The year 1848 saw the young Smetana on the barricades in Prague in a brave yet hopeless attempt to resist the approaching Hapsburg army, and I doubt he was wielding a conductor’s baton.

Growing up in less revolutionary times, Dvořák lacked the experience of such battles, but nevertheless devoted himself to the national revival in a more peaceful way. However, we should not forget that Smetana and Dvořák were not only committed to developing Czech national music, but also drew great inspiration from music of distinctly non-Czech provenance – Smetana was greatly influenced by Liszt and Wagner; Dvořák, by Brahms as well as Tchaikovsky. And it was sometimes for this that both came in for niggardly criticism on the part of more ideologically-oriented gents that obviously saw themselves as the real saviours of the Czech nation. Luckily, the qualities of both not only broke through the hackneyed cultural shroud of Austro-Hungarian conservatism, but also served to counter-balance more bigoted elements among the revivalists.

Ideology also played a role in connection with both Janáček and Martinů. Communist musicologist Prof Zdeněk Nejedlý (later culture minister in the post-war communist government), an ardent fan of Smetana, described Janáček’s works as amateurish. Nejedlý took a distinctly dogmatic approach to Janáček, whose music failed in his eyes (or rather ears) to carry on the romantic tradition.

This naturally applied two-fold in the case of Martinů, who brought completely new elements into Czech music. This included dissonance, which traditionalist musicologists saw as a crime against Czech culture. Further, Martinů’s refusal to return to post-war Czechoslovakia from the USA was taken by some communist ideologists as a sign that the composer was an anti-communist, and therefore one whose works should not be played. However, he had really nothing to fear as he had not taken an active part in any anti-communist or anti-Czechoslovak campaigns. If he had, the Czechoslovak communist government would hardly have approved his reburial in his native Polička in 1979.

And the same happened in England with Shostakovich, whose 7th Symphony, the “Leningrad,” was not played in England for many years, as English ideologists claimed it promoted Stalinist aggression. Things soon changed, though, in both cases, and by the mid-1970s both Martinů and Shostakovich had been fully rehabilitated by the respective “music authorities.” Renewed concerts of their music in the respective countries attracted large and enthusiastic crowds. The crowds, however, were not there for ideological reasons, but simply because they wanted to hear the music they loved so much played live, something that had been denied them by ideological misfits for many years.

Sir Charles Mackerras, who was a great fan of Janáček, claimed that Nejedlý had sought to destroy Janáček’s music as he had Martinů’s. And yet, in 2004, the same Sir Charles tried to explain to journalists at the Janáček Festival in Brno why Janáček was not so popular in Czech society today. Janáček was apparently “near to the ideology of communist music” and his music had been very “popular with the communists,” Sir Charles told a Czech Radio interviewer.

And so nobody in the Czech Republic could possibly like it today, could they?

So we complete the vicious circle of ideological claptrap afflicting the music scene. Who or whose music will be next? You can just see the modern-day buffoons pulling the petals off the daisy: “Love him, love him not!” I, however, have the funny feeling that especially Czech music deserves a slightly different approach.

– František Havran

Think “Dvořák,” and “Korea” probably does not spring to mind in the same moment.

But there are several surprising connections between the Czech Republic and Korea, Korean and Czech music, and the increasing number of enthusiastic students and visitors hopping halfway across the globe to learn about both musical cultures.

Director Choi Young Chul, co-founder of the International Antonín Dvořák Composition Competition, held in Prague, and founder of Seouloratorio Choir and Orchestra and Dvořák Academy, Korea, explains more.

Opus Osm: Director Choi, please tell us a few words about the training which Korean students have in Czech classical music. Is it a new topic for them? Do all students learn a bit about Czech music? And are more Czech students learning about Korean music?

Director Choi: Korean students are exposed to Czech national music early on. However, the study of traditional Czech music is limited to dances or a few folk songs by Czech composers. Recently, a small number of schools have begun teaching classes on Czech songs and language.

I don’t believe that Czech students have any real opportunity to come into contact with Korean music. Dvořák Academy and I are forming plans to gradually expand Czech students’ understanding of traditional Korean music through hands-on experience with traditional instruments and folk songs.

Sun-Mi Kim in an excerpt from Dvořák’s Te Deum

Opus Osm: What kinds of opportunities for exchanges between Korean and Czech musicians exist today? What would you like to see in the future?

Director Choi: It is still limited, but there is exchange going on in terms of choirs and symphonies, as well as opera and individual performers. Though there are still no clear support policies, exchange is occurring between a few businesses and individuals. In the near future, I expect that more active exchange will occur, following industrially supported wide-scale cultural exchange and governmental support programs.

Opus Osm: Is there a special relationship (historical or contemporary) between Koreans and Czechs?

Director Choi: Official diplomatic relations between Korea and the Czech Republic were only established 20 years ago. However, the direct participation of Czechoslovakian troops in the Korean independence movement over 90 years ago could be said to have been the start of a friendly relationship between the two nations.

Since the establishment of official relations, diplomatic and economic exchange has occurred actively, while cultural and educational exchange has been gradually gaining momentum as well.

For the past few years now, the Korea-Czech friendship foundation and the Czech-Korea friendship foundation have been standing at the forefront of advancing friendly relations between our two nations.

* Watch soprano Sun-Mi Kim, baritone Toshimi Mori, the Seouloratorio Choir, Vox Pragae Choir, and the Karlovy Vary Orchestra under the direction of Young-Chul Choi in a short excerpt Aug 2 from Dvořák’s Te Deum. Click on “Too” in the top menu bar.

Opus Osm: Would you kindly give a few ideas of how Czech (and international) readers can find Korean classical music and learn about Korean musicians — your recommendations?

Director Choi: It requires both the effort of civilians in addition to governmental support. Performance exchanges, exhibitions, seminars, workshops, and translated materials can be of assistance.

Ultimately, the establishment of a Korean Cultural Foundation in the Czech Republic should be considered to support such activities. The establishment of a Korean Music Department at a Czech musical institution would also be a great possibility to consider.

In addition, multi-faceted efforts are needed so that the Czech readers are provided with an opportunity to come into contact with traditional Korean music. If such goals are presented to the Korean Cultural Administration or some international exchange foundation (Korea Foundation) I believe they will actively cooperate. oo

The Author of This Article Comments: Music connections between Korea and the Czech Republic are something I had never thought of before. What are your experiences? Do you see some additional connections between the two cultures? Please post your comments here.