The Theme Day CZECH THAT! presents three portraits of the greatest Czech composers: Leoš Janáček, Bohuslav Martinů and - less well-known, but absolutely brilliant - Erwin Schulhoff.
On Sunday 13 October concerts at 14:30 and 18:00 in 30CC/Schouwburg in Leuven.
First the incomparable Pavel Haas Quartet takes the stage with three intense chamber music works brimming with Czech passion. Then the wind players of I SOLISTI join forces with five percussionists and let loose with humor, wit and cheerful melancholy. Gerda Dendooven draws in real time!
Concert at 14:30
Music that is passionate, melodic and modern all at once
In the golden years of the 1920s it was not only bubbling in Berlin and Paris but also in Brno, the hometown of Leoš Janáček. His tempestuous love for Kamila Stösslová put the 65-year-old composer in a continuous creative frenzy in which he strung masterwork after masterwork. The Second String Quartet, the most direct testimony to his late (and unrequited) love, breathes unrest and balances between hope and despair. The same passionate language, melodic and modern at once, also resonates in the Sextets by Schulhoff and Martinů. Although no concrete loves are named here, the continuous entanglement of the six instruments betrays at least as much yearning.
Pavel Haas Quartet + Pavel Nikl viola + Ivan Vokáč cello
Concert at 18:00
Youthful sentiment, dancing pots and a spicy satire
The old but sparkling Janáček looks back in two dynamic and imaginative works – Mladi and the Concertino – on his delightful youth. Schulhoff and Martinů immerse themselves completely in 'l'esprit de Paris' and each come up with a playful ballet. In Martinů's La revue de cuisine the (cooking) pots literally dance and everything is drenched in a generous jazz sauce. Schulhoff relishes in Le bourgeois gentilhomme the spicy satire with which Molière exposed the would-be behavior of an arriviste. To this end he puts five (!) percussionists and a piano on stage. I SOLISTI disappears with thirteen musicians and conductor in the Leuven orchestra pit (a well-kept secret!), so you also get an excellent view of the drawings by Gerda Dendooven.
I SOLISTI + piano + 5 percussionists