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An absolute necessity

Modern music gets a boost from an ambitious new ensemble
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By Frank Kuznik
Staff Writer, The Prague Post
September 24th, 2008 issue

COURTESY PHOTO
Making a Mecca for moderns. Conductor Michel Swierczewski initiates the new Prague Modern orchestra.
Prague Modern


When: Tuesday, Sept. 30, at 7:30
Where: Švandovo divadlo
Tickets: 250 Kč, available at the venue
Prague is one of the richest musical cities in Europe, but for a long time there’s been a conspicuous absence on the local landscape: a first-class modern music ensemble. Czech Philharmonic Managing Director Václav Riedlbauch makes a heroic effort to stage contemporary concerts every year with his “Prague Premieres” series, and the now-defunct Modern Music Marathon struggled valiantly for several seasons at Divadlo Archa. But as Czech composer Petr Kotík demonstrated when he brought his Ostravská Banda ensemble to Prague Spring earlier this year, a dedicated modern music group is in a class by itself.
The most consistent effort at creating such a group has been the Le bel aujourd’hui series running at Švandovo divadlo the past five years, a joint effort of the French Institute and the Prague Philharmonia Orchestra. That is finally bearing fruit this fall with the debut of a new permanent ensemble, Prague Modern, under the guidance of conductor and modern music devotee Michel Swierczewski.
“The core of the ensemble will be the Philharmonia players who collaborated in Le Bel Aujourd’hui,” says Swierczewski, who served as music director for the series. “We’ve selected supplementary players from other orchestras who are keen to play this music, and now have a group of about 22. The long-term goal is to have an ensemble like the London Sinfonietta or the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris.”
That will take a lot of work, but Swierczewski has enthusiastic backers in the Prague Philarhmonia and French Institute, and a good corporate sponsor, Modrá pyramida. He’s also forged an alliance with HAMU, the music academy, to hold a number of concerts there and work with students in the department of composition to have their works performed. “In the long run, we also hope to collaborate with different instrument classes, so that young Czech players can acquire modern techniques of performing,” Swierczewski says.
The inaugural season of 10 concerts kicks off with three in rapid succession, starting next week at Švandovo divadlo with a program of Varese, Murail and Berg conducted by Swierczewski.
“This is typical of what I like to program,” he says. “Two masterworks of the 20th century — Varese’s Octandre and Berg’s Chamber Concerto with Jan Talich on violin and Petr Jiříkovský on piano. Then a third, more recent piece, Ethers, by one of my favorite French composers, Tristan Murail. It’s an early work where you can already hear him putting electronic effects into traditional playing.”
The next concert at Švandovo, Oct. 13, follows the same pattern: major works by Zemlinsky and Schönberg paired with a recent piece, this one by Czech composer Martin Smolka. “The idea is always to put new pieces in perspective with masterworks of the 20th century,” Swierczewski says.
A week later (Oct. 20), Prague Modern moves to the music academy at Lichtenštejnský palác for a heavyweight evening of Boulez and Messiaen. “Those are works they’ve played at Švandovo over the past five years that would be good for students to hear,” Swierczewski explains. “For the players, it’s also a chance to deepen the work they’ve done, to rework those pieces and really put them into their repertoire.”
Swierczewski has been passionate about modern music for his entire 28-year career; in fact, he worked for two years as an assistant to Pierre Boulez. At this point, it’s not so much an interest as a mission to, ironically, restore an old tradition.
“The 20th century is the first period in history when people look back in music,” he says. “Until then, you rarely had old pieces on a program; at most concerts, you had only new, contemporary music. For me, it’s an absolute necessity to come back to this tradition, where people are listening to music of the time.”
In Prague? If this city is musically rich it is also deeply conservative, with the majority of programming focused on the Czech canon and popular warhorses like Mozart and Beethoven. This deters Swierczewski not in the least.
“When we started Le bel aujourd’hui, everybody told me there would be three and a half people in the audience,” he recalls. “But in most cases we’ve had very good audiences, with open people ready to listen to difficult pieces and enjoy themselves.”
Now, Swierczewski and his colleagues feel it’s time to solidify and grow that audience by taking the next logical step, establishing a dedicated group that can develop a standard and reputation. “That’s why having this ensemble is so important,” he says, “because people will identify with it and trust that, whatever the group plays, it’s going to be performed at the highest quality possible.”

Frank Kuznik can be reached at fkuznik@praguepost.com


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