Veliké stmívání - CD

Composer, conductor, and violinist Ondřej Kukal is one of the most significant and versatile Czech musical personalities of the middle generation. For his new CD, he selected the following pieces. The Wind Quintet op. 47 "One-Movement" is a turbulent quarter-hour work that transforms and accelerates its pulse after a roughly five-minute slow introduction. The music literally savors the colorful harmonies of the wind instruments, which is reflected in the sophisticated use of imitation and counterpoint. It is a piece that demands top professional performers. We can hear swirling figurations and runs. The Wind Quintet, with its constant changes in metric impulse, vaguely resembles Janáček's string quartets, yet Kukal's music speaks to the listener in a less acute language. Saxofonianna for string quartet and saxophone initially evokes gypsy jazz, later joined by the saxophone with its segmentally concise utterances. Pseudo-folkloric allusions also appear in the stylization of the string parts, which contain hints of improvised passages that are, in fact, precisely notated. The rhythm is often syncopated, pushing the perception of the piece far beyond the boundaries of presumed improvisation. Tubopiccolarium presents a completely different aesthetic. The introductory passage in the strings sounds almost...