Simona Šaturová and Marek Kozák

Leoš Janáček: Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs (selection)
Eugen Suchoň: Songs from the Mountains
Vítězslav Novák: Eclogues, part 4. “In the National Tone”, Op. 11
Béla Bartók: Village Scenes
Leoš Janáček: On the Overgrown Path (selection)
Klement Slavický: Oh, My Heart So Wretched

 

The singing recital of the soprano Simona Šaturová, who is almost a legend in the field of early music interpretation, will present a song recital of Czech, Slovak and Hungarian composers of the 20th century who significantly turned to folklore in their works.

A selection of Moravian folk poetry in songs by Leoš Janáček (1854–1928) will be performed, one of the most remarkable compositions of the composer’s folk period, which still amazes with its unconventionally designed piano accompaniment.

The Slovak composer Eugen Suchoň (1908–1993), who was three generations younger, was also involved in folklore throughout his life. Many of his compositions strongly reflect this interest. It is no different in the case of the arrangements of six Slovak songs, Songs from the Mountains, which were written in 1941.

Suchoň’s teacher Vítězslav Novák (1870–1949) also went through a distinctly folkloristic period, especially in the 1890s, when he fell in love with Moravian folk song. It was then, in 1896, that he wrote his Eclogues for piano, which he dedicated to Johannes Brahms.

Folklore was also fated to the work of the Hungarian composer Béla Bartók (1881–1945), who, like Janáček, was interested in collecting folk songs, their adaptations and the theory of folk music. In 1924 he compiled a series of arrangements of folk songs he had collected in 1915–16 in the Zólyom region and its surroundings, now part of Slovakia. Originally five songs for female voice and piano, Bartók completed them in December 1924 and dedicated them to his second wife Ditta. Later he reworked three of them for female voices and orchestra.

Janáček’s piano cycle On the Overgrown Path also contains an experience of Moravian folklore, albeit in a much more hidden form. Janáček wrote these piano pieces with a strongly autobiographical subtext in 1900–1908 and gave them poetic titles.

The youngest of the composers whose work will be heard at the recital is Klement Slavický (1910–1999). This composer also clung to the folkloric roots of his nation, especially in moments of its threat, whether it was the Nazi or later the Communist atrocities. The song cycle Oh, My Heart So Wretched was created in 1954.

Jiří Zahrádka