Štěstí - CD

The genre-defying album Happiness by Czech trumpeter and composer Štěpánka Balcarová is a recording of a live performance by a jazz septet and the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra from the multifunctional Prague hall Dox+. The album features six musical adaptations of poems by Polish author Julian Tuwim. The orchestral arrangements of Tuwim's poems, which listeners may know from the album Life and Happiness of Julian Tuwim (Animal Music, 2017), were commissioned by Czech Radio for the concert series New Horizons. Štěpánka Balcarová chose to arrange six poems (Cherries, Living, Happiness, Bird, Everything, Oh Christ…) for the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra and her jazz septet from the original album. The resulting cycle of songs was conducted and premiered with the orchestra by Marko Ivanović. The jazz septet performed in the same lineup as on the 2017 album, led by the main soloist – singer Małgorzata Hutek. "I named the album after the poem Happiness. It is one of the strongest poems by Tuwim for me. The theme of introspection, calming the mind, and a certain kind of contemplation in nature has resonated strongly with me in recent years. And along with that, the ever-present feeling of gratitude expressed by the poet in the last verse. For me, it's typical Tuwim..."