
Roth číta Janáčka
reading with and about music
2/3/2023 / štvrtok / Artforum / 19:00
Robert ROTH, reading from L. Janacek's letters (selected by A. Šuba), Jozef LUPTÁK, Andrej ŠUBA, introduction
Eva ŠUŠKOVÁ, spev
Boris LENKO, accordion
Konvergencie JANACEK festival starts with a reading event in Artforum bookstore. Robert Roth will read selected parts from letters, in which Janacek, similarly as in his music, reflects the story of is life. (Slovak language only)
„...naslouchám komáru i mušce, truchlé melodii sovy...“
Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928)
Život, dielo a lásky moravského majstra, ktorý mal rád Slovensko, v spomienkach a korešpondencii. Slová o hudbe a hudba v slovách, lebo Leoš Janáček bol nielen majstrom v narábaní s tónmi, ale aj majstrom slova. Sprievodné podujatie, ktoré je súčasťou medzinárodného festivalu komornej hudby Konvergencie venovaného Janáčkovej komornej tvorbe, pripravil Andrej Šuba. Číta Robert Roth.
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duration: 60 minutes

Janáček / Merta
4/3/2023 / Saturday / gallery Umelka / 19:00
Vladimír MERTA (CZ), voice, guitar
Leoša Janáčka a Vladimíra Mertu spája láska k ľudovým piesňam. Výnimočný český folkový hudobník ich nahral už na svoju prvú LP Ballades de Prague, ktorá vyšla vo Francúzsku. Spoločne s Janou Lewitovou neskôr spracoval niekoľko piesní známych aj z tvorby moravského majstra. Spievajúci básnik Vladimír Merta zahrá na Konvergenciách „Janáčkove piesne" vo vlastných úpravách a prepojí ich s autorskou tvorbou a slovom. Sólový koncert odohrá v legendárnej „Umelke", mieste stretnutí umelcov a slobodomyseľných ľudí počas Nežnej revolúcie i dnes. Na chvíľu sa k nemu pripoja aj Július Fujak, Boris Lenko a Jozef Lupták.
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Trvanie koncertu: 75 minút bez prestávky

Janáček a komorná tvorba
prednáška
9/3/2023 / Thursday / České centrum / 17:00
doc. PhDr. Jiří Zahrádka, Ph.D.
Chcete vedieť, aký bol Leoš Janáček? Aké mal lásky a túžby? Alebo ako vznikli Capriccio, Pohádka a ďalšie komorné diela? Príďte vo štvrtok 9. marca o 17.00 do Českého centra na prednášku docenta Masarykovej univerzity v Brne Jiřího Zahrádku, ktorý je taktiež aj kurátorom janáčkovských zbierok Oddelenia dejín hudby Moravského zemského muzea a v súčasnosti najväčším odborníkom na život a dielo Leoša Janáčka.
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Miesto konania:
České centrum
Prepoštská 6, 814 99 Bratislava
Pozrieť na Google Maps

On an Overgrown Path
9/3/2023 / Thursday / Moyzes Hall / 19:00
Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928)
March of the Bluebirds“ JW VII/9
Fairy Tale JW VII/5
Presto JW VII/6
On an Overgrown Path (Book I) JW VIII/17
(arr. for string quartet J. Burghauser)
Capriccio “Defiance“ for Piano Left Hand and Wind Ensemble JW VII/12 JW VII/12
Peter BIELY, Daniel RUMLER, violin
Martin RUMAN, viola
Jozef LUPTÁK, cello
Nora SKUTA, piano
BRNO CONTEMPORARY ORCHESTRA (CZ)
Pavel ŠNAJDR, conductor
Mirek BEINHAUER (CZ), piano
„I fell in love with Bratislava,one may read in the correspondence of Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928) in the 1920s, admiring “the beautiful old town and the exquisite Danube”. From March 2 to March 12, the fascinating world of chamber music by this Moravian master will be explored in Bratislava, with performances by highly reputed Czech and Slovak musicians at Konvergencie, the international festival of chamber music. The first festival day opens with the whimsical March of the Bluebirds“ March of the Bluebirds Fairy Tale for piccolo and piano and the Fairy Tale for cello, based on motifs from the Tale of Tsar Berendey. On an Overgrown Path, originally a piano cycle On an Overgrown Path will be heard in Jarmil Burghauser’s arrangement for string quartet, and the concert will climax with the Capriccio subtitled “Defiance”. The untraditional line-up of the work was originally inspired by the pianist Otakar Hollmann, who lost a hand in World War I. The virtuoso burlesque with magnificent lyrical passages will be presented by the Czech specialist in 20th and 21st century music Mirek Beinhauer, together with members of the Brno Contemporary Orchestra, conducted by Pavel Šnajdr.
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Concert duration: 90 minutes with one intermission
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For the whole program
and updates follow our websites: www.konvergencie.sk and www.facebook.com/konvergencie.

Kreutzer sonata
10/3/2023 / Friday / Moyzes Hall / 19:00
Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928)
Youth JW VII/10
(arr. for string quartet K. Mařatka)
Romance No. 4 Dumka for violin and piano JW VII/3
Dumka for violin and piano JW VII/4
String Quartet No. 1„Kreutzer Sonata“ JW VII/8
ZEMLINSKY QUARTET (CZ)
František Souček, 1st. violin
Petr Střížek, 2nd violin
Petr Holman, viola
Vladimír Fortin, cello
Peter BIELY, violin
Daniel RUMLER, violin
Nora SKUTA, piano
Since its foundation in 1994, the Zemlinsky Quartet has adhered to the tradition of the Czech quartet school in its concerts and recordings and its successes at home and abroad. At Convergences Festival these Czech musicians will present both of Leoš Janáček’s string quartets. “We must be advocates for subjugated womanhood,the composer said about his stimulating work, inspired by the famous novel by Tolstoy, to the musicians of the Czech Quartet, who gave the piece its premiere in 1924. In the same year as the the Quartet, which took its cues from Tolstoy’s “Kreutzer Sonata”, the composer, then 70 years old, produced his autobiographically attuned wind sextet Youth Played at the second festival concert in an arrangement for string quartet by Kryštof Mařatka (2015), these will be complemented by Janáček’s compositions for violin and piano, performed by the violinists Peter Biely, Daniel Rumler and the pianist Nora Skuta.
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Concert duration: 75 minutes with one intermission
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For the whole program
and updates follow our websites: www.konvergencie.sk and www.facebook.com/konvergencie.

A Leaf Blown-Away
11/3/2023 / Saturday / Moyzes Hall / 19:00
Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928)
On an Overgrown Path (Book II) JW VIII/17 (selection)
In the mists JW VIII/22
Piano Sonata “1 October 1905, From the Street” JW VIII/19
Concertino JW VII/11
Jan JIRASKÝ (CZ), piano
Branislav DUGOVIČ, clarinet
Róbert KIS (HU), lesný roh
Peter KAJAN, fagot
Peter BIELY, Daniel RUMLER, violin
Martin RUMAN, viola
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Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928)
6 Folk Songs JW V/9
Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs JW V/2
Detva Songs JW V/11 (výber)
Adriana KUČEROVÁ, soprano
Róbert PECHANEC, piano
Sobotný festivalový večer jarnej edície medzinárodného festivalu komornej hudby Konvergencie ponúkne dvojicu exkluzívnych recitálov z diel Leoša Janáčka.
The first of these, in the Moyzes Hall, features the prominent Czech pianist Jan Jiraský, who has recorded the Moravian master’s complete piano works twice: on a modern instrument, and on the composer’s own piano. In his rendering we will hear three of Janáček’s pivotal, autobiographically modulated piano opuses: a selection from the reminiscent cycle On an Overgrown Path II; the impressionistic composition in the Mists; and the dramatic Sonata “1. X. 1905” – his response to the violent death of František Pavlík, who was killed at a demonstration calling for the establishment of a Czech University in Brno.
Traditional folk culture was one of Janáček’s essential sources of inspiration. He was also a collector of folk songs, and this interest of his brought him into contact with Slovak folk music. A selection from Janáček’s song collections will be performed by the soprano Adriana Kučerová, in collaboration with the pianist Robert Pechanec. Rounding off the programme, Jan Jiraský, joined by highly regarded Slovak musicians, will perform the chamber Concertino (1925).
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Concert duration: 90 minutes with one intermission
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For the whole program and updates follow our websites: www.konvergencie.sk and www.facebook.com/konvergencie.

51 strings
12/3/2023 / Sunday / Moyzes Hall / 10:30
concert for kids and parents
Ivana ŠVESTKOVÁ (CZ), harp
Barbora TOLAROVÁ (CZ), violin
words: Kristýna DRÁŠILOVÁ and Rebecca GROSSCHMIDTOVÁ
In cooperation with Brno Philharmonic
Ako vzniká hudba? Naozaj ju len počujeme? Alebo ju nebodaj môžeme aj cítiť? Z Brna do Bratislavy vám nesieme presne 51 strún. Zvládnu toto dve hudobníčky? A koľko rúk budeme k tomu potrebovať? Je harfa skutočne len nástroj pre princezné? Na koncerte si všetko vyskúšame a užijú si ho nielen deti, ale aj dospelí. Bez nich by to ani nešlo! Všetci totiž ovplyvnia, ako bude náš koncert znieť. Môžete sa tešiť na skladby nielen od Leoša Janáčka.
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Trvanie koncertu: 50 minút bez prestávky

Intimate letters
12/3/2023 / Sunday / Moyzes Hall / 19:00
Leoš Janáček (1854 – 1928)
Children's Rhymes JW V/16 (original version for 1-3 voices, clarinet and piano)
Violin sonata JW VII/7
String Quartet No. 2 „Intimate Letters““. JW VII/13
Suite for strings JW VI/2
ZEMLINSKY QUARTET (CZ)
František Souček, 1st. violin
Petr Střížek, 2nd violin
Petr Holman, viola
Vladimír Fortin, cello
Milan PAĽA, violin
Katarína PAĽOVÁ, piano
Helga VARGA BACH, soprano
Ronald ŠEBESTA, clarinet
Ivan ŠILLER, piano
CONVERGENCE PLAYERS
Leoš Janáček was inspired to compose the cycle Children's Rhymes, “musical aphorisms full of childish fantasy and playfulness” (M. Štědroň), by the paintings of Josef Hála, Josef Lada and Ondřej Sekora. We will hear the composer’s version of this work for soprano, clarinet and piano (1925) in the closing concert of the Janáček edition of Convergences Festival. The Violin Sonata had its first beginnings in 1914, but the work received its definitive form only eight years later, after several revisions. In this dramatic composition, to be presented at Convergences by Milan Paľa and Katarína Paľová, one can feel the anxiety of the period of the commencement of World War I, when the composer hoped for the early fall of the Habsburg monarchy. “I have infinite joy in that quartet which was compounded of our histories,” Leoš Janáček wrote in 1928, only a few months before his death, to the 38-years-younger Kamila Stösslová. One may encounter the old master’s young love in the heroines of his operas, and in several instrumental works besides. String Quartet No. 2 “Intimate Letters”, is an autobiographical confession. Kamila is, by the composer’s own testimony, behind every note, living, loving. In the final piece of the concert, Suite for String Orchestra, Slovak performers join with the members of the Zemlinsky Quartet.
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Concert duration: 100 minutes with one intermission
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For the whole program
and updates follow our websites: www.konvergencie.sk and www.facebook.com/konvergencie.

Janacek in Brno
2 - 12/3/2023 / Atrium FiF UK / free entry
An exhibition offering a coherent set of photographs documenting the life of one of the most important 20th century composers in his home town, Brno.
From the 1870s onwards, Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) began to win regional fame and then world fame. Understandably, as a result he caught the attention of professional photographers and photographic studios, as well as amateur camera enthusiasts. A rich photo documentation came into being during the composer’s life, and thanks to the work of curators of the Janáček Archive in the Moravian Museum over several generations, this has been gathered into collections, with the photographs in the composer’s own effects forming the core. The exhibition presents photographs associated with the city of Brno, besides portraits specifically composed in Brno studios.
Janáček came to Brno at the age of eleven and remained faithful to it until death. It is not at all strange, then, that a photo collection should exist which preserves that bond. Here one finds photos from 1881 of the affianced Janáček couple in the Rafael studio, and a number of group photos where we see the composer in the company of Brno artists, friends and pupils. Among the individuals photographed with Janáček, there is the conductor of the Prague premiere of Jenůfa, Karel Kovařovic (1862–1920), in front of the Hotel Slavia, when the Prague National Theatre Orchestra paid a visit to Brno in June 1917. Of the amateur photos taken by Janáček’s pupils František Rybka (1895–1970) and Mirko Hanák (1891–1972), probably those that give the most direct impressions of the master were taken in the garden beside the house in Smetana Street in the company of four-legged friends, the pup Čert and bitch Čipera, in 1910, 1926 and 1927. It is still an open question whether photographs exist of Janáček at certain notable events, including the Czechoslovak Exhibition of Contemporary Culture in 1928, which the composer to all appearances visited three times (10., 25., 29. 6. 1928), and the laying of the foundation stone in the Law Faculty of Masaryk University on 9. 6. 1928, where Janáček’s Chorus Composed for the Occasion of the Laying of the Foundation Stone was performed. A great many photos of diverse kinds were preserved from this occasion, and even a film. Janáček himself recalls this occasion: “… I was standing five steps away from the president. “High” society was round me; I was concealed by palm and laurel trees and able to follow everything…” Alas, he hid himself so completely behind the palm that one cannot see him on any surviving photo or on the film. And this despite the fact that on that day allegedly “someone was photographing me like a lunatic”. But even without those shots, the exhibition offers a coherent set of photographs documenting the life of one of the most important 20th century composers in his home town, Brno.

Janacek in cafés
2 - 12/3/2023
„náš pán si potrpěl na dobré jídlo“
tvrdila Marie Stejskalová, ktorá bola domácou v rodine Janáčkovcov vyše 40 rokov. Ochutnajte obľúbené recepty majstra vo vybraných kaviarňach!
Ochutnajte hudbu Leoša Janáčka
Jarná edícia festivalu Konvergencie sa začína už tento štvrtok 2. marca tradičným čítaním o hudbe v podaní Roberta Rotha. Počas niekoľkých marcových dní budú znieť v Bratislave komorné diela Leoša Janáčka, ktorého hudbu miloval celý svet. Mimoriadny folkový koncert, štyri komorné večery v Moyzesovej sieni, výstava, prednáška, detský koncert, majstrovská trieda aj obľúbené Janáčkove dezerty – Konvergencie prinesú život a komorné dielo Leoša Janáčka v mnohých podobách.