Strings of Autumn Festival

Strings of Autumn

JAZZ and CLASSIC, TRADITION and EXPERIMENT

 

The 14th Annual of the International Music Festival

Prague, 22/9 – 20/11/ 2009

 

ABOUT THE FESTIVAL

The programming of the Strings of Autumn Festival is notable for its openness, its emphasis on interpretational quality, and its distinctive approach to genres as they are usually perceived. Thus the mosaic of festival concerts creates a space that is laid out broadly, which makes room for such offerings as jazz, ‘classical’ music in both modern and ‘authentic’ interpretations, ‘world music’, crossover projects, and each year one staged production. Working from a broad perspective, the Strings of Autumn Festival endeavours to facilitate access by the Czech public to the immense diversity of the musical world without regard to the well-worn grooves of traditional genres.

Thus the festival’s offerings are determined not according to genre categories but by its own groupings, which can be expressed briefly by the axis inspiration—crossover—luminaries. In a spirit of harmony among these groupings, the festival initiates unique productions and presents the works performed in unexpected contexts, but at the same time upholds traditional values in the best sense of that expression.

 

22 September, 2009, 7:30 PM

Estates Theatre

IVA BITTOVÁ, violin and voice

The Prague Philharmonia, cond. Jakub Hrůša

plus guests

 

Premiere, Opening Concert, Inspiration Series

 

A profile concert of the violinist, singer, and composer Iva Bittová. Compositions mapping the milestones of her career to date will be heard in new orchestral arrangements performed for the first time, and guests who have accompanied her on her musical journey will also appear. The program includes several new items prepared only for this festive occasion.

Further information: http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=30

29 and 30 September, 2009, 7:30 PM

CinemaARTminusin the Trade Fair Palace

Heiner Goebbels: Black on White

Musical Theatre for an Eighteen-Member Orchestra

The Berg Orchestra, conducted by Peter Vrábel

with SKUTR (Martin Kukučka and Lukáš Trpišovský)

Czech Premier with the composer in attendance, Inspiration Series

An original Czech staging of this key work by one of the most important representatives of contemporary theatre. In Black on White the musicians will also take the role of actors – bowling with their dampers or playing dice on the cover of a harpsichord, throwing balloons on a piece of metal, speaking, reciting, singing, moving about, and boiling water for tea. Moments of anxiety alternate with moments of eloquent silence, and time is stretched out to a state of meditation.

Further information: http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=31

8 October, 2009, 7:30 PM

Czech Museum of Music

ECHOES OF HOME

 

Erica Stucky, Noldi Alder, Christian Zehnder

World Premiere, Crossover Series

The series of live displays of vocal art in the Czech Museum of Music will continue with the world premiere of a project inspired by Stefan Schwietert’s film Echoes of Home (Heimatklänge). After Russian Orthodox chant and Sardinian vocal polyphony, the audience will hear Swiss musicians combining traditional Alpine singing – yodelling – with experimental forms of musical expression.

Further information: http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=32

 

15 October, 2009, 7:30 PM

La Fabrika

ONDŘEJ PIVEC – Hammond jazz organs

 

SPOTLIGHT.Strings of Autumn presents rising stars.

 

‘....music that adheres to one of the historical jazz models – soul jazz played on organ – but ravishes the listener with its power and an elementary strength rarely heard on Czech recordings, in a perfect professional performance.’

from a review of the album Overseason by Lubomír Dorůžka for Mladá fronta Dnes

 

Further information: http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=35

 

 

21 October 2009, 7:30 PM

Prague Crossroads (St Anne’s Church)

GIL SHAHAM, unaccompanied violin

Johann Sebastian Bach: works for unaccompanied violin

Luminaries Series

One of the greatest violin virtuosos of the present time, Gil Shaham plays on a Stradivarius instrument called Countess Polignac from 1699. He will set it to sounding in a purely Bach recital in the magical setting of the St Anne’s Church. The program of this solo recital includes among other works the Partita No. 2 in D minor, BWV 1004 and the Sonata No. 2 in A minor, BWV 1003.

 

Further information: http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=34

 

 

31 October, 2009, 7:30 PM

Dvořák Hall in the Rudolfinum

CASSANDRA WILSON, voice

Czech Debut, Luminaries Series

The queen of jazz singing, Cassandra Wilson is outstanding for her dark, velvety contralto with its captivating colouring. In this, her very first appearance in the Czech Republic she will perform jazz standards from the album Loverly, which in February this year won a Grammy award as the best jazz vocal album.

 

Further information: http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=33

 

 

4 November, 2009, 7:30 PM

Dvořák Hall in the Rudolfinum

LIBOR NOVÁČEK, piano

MICHAEL YORK, recitation

 

Richard Strauss: Enoch Arden, melodrama for reciter and piano, Op. 38 (1897)

Leoš Janáček: Po zarostlém chodníčku (On an Overgrown Path)

Czech Premier, Inspiration Series

The Czech premiere of the melodrama Enoch Arden by Richard Strauss to words by the English poet Alfred, Lord Tennyson in a superb performance by the British actor Michael York. The piano part will be taken by the young Libor Nováček, who will complement the Strauss melodrama with a set of piano pieces by Leoš Janáček called Po zarostlém chodníčku (On an Overgrown Path).

 

Further information: http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=36

 

 

10 November, 2009, 7:30 PM

Dvořák Hall in the Rudolfinum

415 versus 442!

Music by Selma, Geminiani, Telemann, Jiránek, J. C. Bach, Haydn, and Dvořák

 

Milan Turković, Sergio Azzolini, Barbara Maria Willi, The Prague Philharmonia plus others

Special Concert Project, Luminaries Series

A concert as a live confrontation between two styles of performing early music – ‘historically informed’ or ‘authentic’ performance on the one hand, and ‘modern’ performance on the other. The guide and unifier of these two artistic camps, composed of first-class European instrumentalists, will be the conductor and Viennese professor Milan Turković.

 

Further information: http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=38

 

15 November, 2009, 7:30 PM

Estates Theatre

 

ASTILLERO TANGO

Czech Debut, Crossover Series

Red Hot Tango Nuevo: raw, direct, and ravishing Argentinian tango straight from Buenos Aires, the epicentre of this cultural phenomenon.

 

Further information:http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=37

 

 

20 November, 2009, 7:30 PM

Dvořák Hall in the Rudolfinum

LUDOVICO EINAUDI, piano

 

Czech Debut, Closing Concert, Crossover Series

 

A master of captivating music and dreamy atmospheres, the Italian composer and pianist Ludovico Einaudi is often compared with the minimalists Philip Glass and Michael Nyman. He holds a place in classical ‘hit parades’ and fills houses from Milan’s La Scala to London’s Royal Albert Hall. At last the quiet power of his music will be heard also in Prague.

 

Further information: http://www.strunypodzimu.cz/component.php?cocode=section&seid=39