Filharmonie Brno will quite literally mix new and classical, traditional and underground cave-like venues, when it hosts the New Music Exposition festival next week, from 13-19 October.
This exhibition of new music, which will be held for the 36th time, begins with the “Never Heard, Never Heard Again New Music” project, contemporary versions of the famous music of Czech great Bedřich Smetana. However, in keeping with the theme suggesting the celebration of the creativity of contemporary domestic composers, the festival will progress to showcase innovative works as part of the dialogue between artist and audience, music and space.
Says Marie Kučerová, the festival director for Filharmonie Brno: “The program reflects the Year of Czech Music. That’s why domestic creators were involved in it to an unprecedented extent. Many projects were created directly on our request.”
The festival lineup is impressive and expansive: there will be three world premieres, two Czech premieres, 18 composers of contemporary music, and new Czech creations tailored to the space of the renovated Žlutý kopec reservoirs, some of which date back 150 years.
The opening concert this Sunday will commemorate the 200th anniversary of Smetana’s birth. That may be a long time ago, but the new angle is that concert-goers can take in three different interpretations of Smetana’s famous work, Má Vlast — from the traditional to the purely contemporary — during three different performances, at 10:30 am, 3 pm, and 8 pm. If you think Má Vlast is emotional when you are lined up for the start of the Prague Marathon – and it is most definitely is – then different live interpretations will be even more powerful!
The performance in the Žlutý Kopec reservoir will be on 17 October. The first performance sold out, so another was added. The unique space, with its unusual acoustics and atmosphere, will resonate with site-specific compositions, including the world premieres of works by Radim Hanousek, Ian Mikyska, František Chaloupka, Michal Wróblewski, and Kristýna Švihálková.
“I appreciate being part of the event,” explained Hanousek, who is both composer and saxophonist. “I have been following the festival for many years because its program is consistently exceptional, experiential, and inspiring to me.”
The final concert, an hours-long musical journey of the project Fresco, will be performed on 19 October. It will take visitors around Besední dům, mixing architecture and the music of German composer Karlheinz Stockhausen.
This festival has always emphasized that music is not just a passive experience, but a living interaction between artist and listener.
“Each year of the exposition is a materialization of ideas that exceed normal expectations,” said Daniel Matej, the festival dramaturge. “We show that music does not have to be just heard, but also experienced and discovered in the unique spaces of Brno.”
For ticket information, and more about the upcoming Filharmonie Brno program, click here.
