FORFEST 2006: The Czech Republic

Composer USA

Most everyone who is interested in contemporary compositional creation knows that the international festival of contemporary arts with a spiritual orientation, Forfest, has taken place annually since 1990 in the picturesque historical town of Kromeriz. However, few know that this festival has actually existed since 1980 as an underground movement, meetings of musicians and visual artists called “Sedanky” (English equivalent: get-together, session). Artists would bring their families to make it look like a family gathering (during the communist period only family meetings were allowed) and they would play new music, bold discussions on visual arts subjects, listen to poetry and prose by “nonofficial” writers, and philosophize. They discussed questions that are ever relevant:

We can also ask: Are we in an age of crisis in art, faith and personal values, or are we at the beginning of a new epoch, the so called age of the Aquarius, which promises an unprecedented blossoming of the spirit?

As in previous years we attempted to answer these questions in the XVII annual Forfest which took place June 17-25, 2006. As always, musical events outweighed the visual arts and literary projects. There was a plan to have a multimedia performance in various locations of Kromeriz, but due to lack of finances the American performer Lewis Gesner was unable to carry out his production. The theatrical component of the festival was also not as full as in previous years.

Traditionally there have been three events in a given day, including afternoon and evening events, sometimes even in the late evening and at midnight. The reduction, however, did not affect the overall quality of the festival. The organizers were capable of making the most of a modest budget in terms of quality.

But there is a question about the future of the festival: it is possible to continue under these financial constraints? Will Forfest have to reduce its events to three or four, because other less artistically demanding projects receive money from grants? Forfest has long since received a reputation as a prestigious contemporary music festival, therefore these is no reason to be concerned that the finances received will not be used effectively and to their highest potential. However, this situation is common everywhere: the battle between omnipotent economic experts and those who feel that it is not aesthetically viable to place such extreme economic restraints on art.

Composers responded to the preceding questions in artistically non-controversial ways, such as in the two compositions by Arvo Part, Kanon pokajanen and Magnflcat, Paths, Stream and other compositions by Daniel Kessner, Vinice Salomounova (Salomonis’ Vineyard) by Jan Vrkoc, De profundis by Vladan Koci, Ticha hudba (Silent Music) by Peter Graham, Hommage a Edith Stein by Giamila Berré or Missa mussitata II by Jan Grossmann.

As though by spiritual revelation, compositions resonated, such as Ste/la matutina by Alois Pinos, Uzdraveni chvilku po posledni chvilce (Cure one moment after the last moment) by Frantisek Emmert, Lunula by Roberto Vetrano, or the amazing composition by the Austrian composer Peter Ablinger, Weiss for flute, clarinet, violin, cello and piano under the interpretation of the Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble of Vienna. Ablinger’s composition astounded the audience with its overall affiance, its use of the most refined timbres and its perfect use of pauses and stillness. There were moments when I was sorry that modern technology is unable to record the “held breaths” of the audience.

Musically spellbinding, expressively contemplative and also with convincing expression of intellectual and humanistic ideas include various compositions such as two compositions by Jiri Teml Trio eufonico and Epigramy, Sbliieni II (Approximation II) and V4vdni IV (Invocation IV) by Milan Slavicky, the melodrama Diptyeh by Petr Pokorny, symphonic aquarelle Jedind nadéje (The Only Hope) by Ctirad Kohoutek, Dinosaurus by A. Nordheim or Trio giocoso by Ivan Kurz.

And I could name many other compositions whose titles would overflow the constraints of this review by composers such as Henryk H. Jablonski, William Toutant, Domenico Tagliente, Grazyna Bacewicz, Arnost Parsch, Marco Della Sciucea, Z. Bargielski, G. F. Haase, Katerina Ruziekova, Franeesco Paradiso, Vittorio Testa, Frank Zabel, M. Marek, Pavel Zemek, percussionist and composer Tomas Ondrusek, Juraj Benes, Vladimir Godar, or compositions under the interpretation of the Brno choir Vox Iuvenalis by Vytautas Miskinis, Richard Toensing or Petr Eben.

The festival was also crowned by some outstanding performances. Among the soloists, we must make a special mention of Daniel and Dolly Kessner from the USA (flute/alto flute/bass flute and piano/harpsichord), organist and composer Giamila Berré and saxophonist Vittorio Cerasa from Italy, accordionist Julie Hirzbergerova from Germany, pianist Elena Letnanova and cellist Jozef Luptak from the Slovak Republic, and Polish organist Waelaw Golonka (now at the Prague Academy). Czech artists included violinist Zdenka Vaculovicova, harpsichordist Ilona Trtkova, and the aforementioned percussionist Tomas Ondrusek.

The most exceptional ensemble interpreters were Trio Eufonico and Ensemble Moens from Prague, Ars Incognita under the direction of Emil Skotak, the mixed choir Vox Iuvenalis with conductor Jan Ocetek from Brno, and the already mentioned Pierrot Lunaire Ensemble from Vienna.

Composer styles, methods and techniques exemplified in this year’s festival were not as varied as in previous years. There were many compositions pronouncedly timbre influenced, and some were based on dodecaphony, serialized or aleatoric. Some of the compositions were based on pure, non-organized or centralized enriched atonality. Others showed that the composer did not adhere to one primary compositional technique. Is this all postmodernism?

Contemporary composer and music theorist, the emeritus Professor of the Janacek Academy of Music in Brno and the Music Academy of Prag, Ctirad Kohoutek, gave a lecture at the festival. It was interesting and enlightening as a reflection of Bmo music life, Bmo as a center of compositional and interpretive pioneer experiments during l960s-80s in then-Czechoslovakia. Along with his lecture there was heard Jedina nadeje (The Only Hope), his most interesting work, a musical painting from a recording by the orchestra Panteon.

Also fascinating was the afternoon with the composer and music theorist from Bmo and Professor at the Janacek Music Academy in Bmo, Alois Pinos. During an art show he had an opportunity to share memories from the sixties of team compositions, and along with his speech the composition Divertissement by Alois Pinos, Arnost Parsch, Rudolf Ruzicka and Milos Stedron was played, as well as a piece based on technical collage and assembly, Andy avantgardy dokoran aneb vec Cage (Annals of the Avant-garde wide open or Cause Cage), by a trio of composers Alois Pinos, Ivo Medek and Milos Stedron. Their never-ending flow of musical jokes and word games left the listeners with tears of laughter.

The festival was rounded out with four art exhibitions. One of the artists was the notable Slovakian painter, Eva Trizuljakova, who systematically dedicates her art to various biblical themes and regularly publishes her thoughts on post-modern society.

The art shows of the married couple Marie and Josef Docekal, otherwise known for their restoration work, also took place along with Vaclav Vaculovic who again showed water color paintings, many-layered abstract paintings, large scale paintings, and also small fine graphics and other art objects.

Jan Grossman
(the author is the Czech composer and associate professor at the Zilina University in the Slovak Republic and at the Ostrava University in the Czech Republic)