3 Czech Quartets – Prague Chamber Ballet Preparing A New Premiere
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In less than a month, on 5th October in The Estates Theatre, the Prague Chamber Ballet will premiere a piece called 3 Czech Quartets. The triple bill, which makes part of the Year of Czech Music, presents three different generations of choreographers – Pavel Šmok, Mário Radačovský and Hana Polanská - creating to music by the prominent Czech composers. The ensemble will revive Pavel Šmok’s timeless piece Z mého života (From My Life). As for the other two authors, their works are brand new, made exclusively for the PCB. The gala atmosphere of the night will be emphasised by Zemlinské kvarteto’s live music performance. The night will open with Slovanský kvartet (Slavonic Quartet), one of Antonín Dvořák‘s most peculiar and clean-cut chamber compositions. It is full of the composer’s peaceful mood, joy at his achievements and gaining artistic confidence. Expressive melody, rare perfection of compositional work and sublime sound range the piece among the most beautiful quartets of the world’s music. Mario Radačovský’s choreography has the same character, the central theme being a woman. A woman who is loved, abandoned or lonely. A woman searching, loving and being herself. “The piece consists of four micro-stories from everyday life,” says the author. “I try to reveal the deepest emotions of a woman’s soul, be it the joy of life, love, sorrow or rage. In my choreography, there will be feelings the audience can identify with.”
The youngest of the choreographic trio is Hana Polanská Turečková, outstanding choreographer and established creative personality. Her choreography Černé zrcadlo (Black Mirror) to the music by Vladimír Sommer, is inspired by Vladimír Houdek’s painting of the same name. “My new work can be described as a stage collage of dance and painting, attempting to find the definition of relationship between body language and visual expression. It is strongly inspired by modernism,” says the choreographer. As the musical score is existentialist itself, it supports the idea of the abstract expression of the secret of life and the world.
The quartet From My Life, composed by Bedřich Smetana, is one of the top compositions of the world’s chamber music. Its content is clear from the title: it is a moving confession of a composer, recapitulation of his life, joys and sorrows, hopes and frustrations; it is a confession of Smetana’s belief in his noble life vocation and a bitter resignation in fighting the malicious disease (the quartet was created two years after Smetana had turned deaf). The tragic pathos of the artist‘s unequal struggle with incurable illness has become the central theme of Pavel Šmok’s successful and ageless choreography. With time, the piece and its message have not lost their authenticity. Another re-run of the performance will take place on 26th October. More about the company on www.prazskykomornibalet.cz