Music from Czech Republic and America

The Concert on October 12 at the Baton Rouge Gallery featuring the Louisiana Sinfonietta was full or variety. Composers from Czech Republic and America were put together in a very especial program, as part of the first Mini Festival of Art and Music done here in Baton Rouge, created by the Louisiana Sinfonietta. Three guests artists where invited: Vaclav Vaculovic, famous Czech artist; his wife Zdenka Vaculovicova, great violinist and teacher; and Theofilos Sotiriades, international Greek saxophone soloist.

The concert started with Notturno for String Orchestra, Op. 40 by the Czech composer Anton Dvorak. This was my first occasion listening to this piece and I think it is a masterpiece. Dvorak showed me once more why he is the greatest and most famous Czech composer in the world. The attention to the detail is amazing, the conducting of the musical phrases is done with extreme care, and the texture throughout the composition is very rich in color, even though the orchestra is only strings. One thing is wonderful about Dvorak, it is his talent to create his own orchestration style in a totally tonal language. I could recognize the same atmosphere of the second movement of the New World Symphony in this piece, even though the two of them have no relationship whatsoever.

Brittle Relations, next in the program, evoked a very spiritual and mystic ambiance in the concert. In a very slow tempo, the music unfolded slowly in order to create a very unified whole throughout. The soloist of this piece, Zdenka Vaculovicova, showed us a very professional performance, full of expression, feelings and colors. Being this my second time of listening to this piece I valued a lot more its musical content. Profound music takes time to develop in our mind because of its deep content. All I have to say I enjoyed a lot more the piece this time, and I could understand a lot better its unity and its colorful palette of sounds.

Grail: after the painting of Vaclav Vaculovic by the American composer Theodore Wiprud evoked also a very spiritual meaning to me. It is also my second time as listener of this wonderful work, and also during the first time I had a difficult time grasping the general content of the piece. Now my understanding of the piece is better also because I had direct contact with the art of Mr. Vaculovic at the Baton Rouge Gallery, understanding both art and music in a better way.

Vaclav Vaculovic is a very powerful contemporary artist. His language is full of an abstractionism produced by the combination of the mystical and the earthly. One can see in his paintings the combination of the early tradition of ancient generations and the great technique of a modern master. Theodore Widprud captured the essence of Vaculovic’s art in a very eloquent way. The piece alternated the influences of Vaculovic’s art during the whole composition, creating a very fluent and solid piece of music.

The first part of the concert closed with Four Little Pieces for String Orchestra by the Pulitzer Award winner Karel Husa. The piece was originally conceived as a tool for youth orchestras to get in touch with different techniques from the twentieth-century such as bitonality and twelve-tone.

The first movement is a set of variations. The movement’s lay out is done in a pretty standard way of the presentation of the theme and the subsequent variations of it done in different techniques such as ornamentation, thematic transformation. The second movement, Notturno, reminds me of the calm environment of Chopin’s Nocturnes for piano. Throughout this movement the composers works with thin and clear sonorities bringing a peaceful atmosphere full of crystal colors. Furiant follows the Notturno, creating an immediate contrast between the peaceful slow part and the scherzo-like character of this movement. Lots of strength and character are showed in this third part, which finishes in very powerful way. Finally, the Coda serves more the purpose of closing the suite rather than standing by itself. The mainly purpose of this fourth movement is only conclusive in order to finish the piece.

After the intermission the concert continued with Landscape III for soprano saxophone and string orchestra by Dinos Constantinides and Theofilos Sotiriades was the soloist of the work. The Sinfonietta gave a really good performance of the work, and the soloist captured the essence of the music also. It was a great feeling to see and listen the musical result of the whole, and it was also really enjoyable because of the warm environment of the Gallery. In my opinion the Baton Rouge Gallery was involved very closely in this piece, since the colorful harmonies of the music made a unique whole with the art.

Last but not least, the Czech composer Leos Janácek closed the program with his work Idyll for String Orchestra. The piece, full of Romantic and Czech-folk influences was the right end for a wonderful night of the music and art. The work proved to be very sober in its balance and form, and it showed Janácek’s supreme composer qualities.

Alejandro Argüello
Concert Reports Fall 2006
Dr. Dinos Constantinides