A selection of responses to this year’s Janáček Brno Festival will be added here.
The Janíček Brno Festival in the “Cultural Newsletter of the Department of Culture at Brno City Council for the Month of November 2024”
Markéta Vaňková, Mayor of Brno:
“In conclusion, I would like to return to Janáček once again. Allow me to express my appreciation to the organisers of this year’s Janáček Brno Festival which is currently coming to a climax, and to the National Theatre Brno Opera Company for its original and boldly creative production of The Excursions of Mr. Brouček, the premiere of which opened this year’s festival. This is exactly how the connection between Janáček and Brno should resonate, so that it can be heard beyond our borders.”
You can find the whole newsletter HERE.
Simona Šaturová’s soprano and smile lit up Villa Tugendhat
KlasikaPlus, 12 November 2024, Karla Hofmannová
“Tell me, tell me, the singer delivered in a soft and tender cantilena hinting at an intense internal experience…”
“The singer was accompanied on the piano by Marek Kozák with great sensitivity, making his presence felt only gently in their interplay, though he enjoyed the solo performances between individual collections of songs. First came Vítězslav Novák’s Eclogue, Op. 11: No. 4 “In the National Tone”. He began softly, in the fast part his notes rang out and sparkled, while in the slow part he caressed the music with a soft melodic line.”
You can find the whole text HERE.
Brno Contemporary Orchestra brought reflection and inspiration to concert life
Opera+, 12 November 2024, Lenka Dohnalová
“The concert by Brno Contemporary Orchestra brings reflection and inspiration to concert life.”
“A particularly piquant and distinctive element is the grand operatic singing in the Wagnerian peasant style in the German language performed superbly in the strong and resonant tones of Jan Šťáva.”
You can find the whole text HERE.
An evening of Pavel Haas at the Janáček Festival
The magazine Harmonie, 10 November 2024, Jarmila Procházková
“Haas’s artistic expression is absolutely unique. Its musical aspect reveals his interest in jazz and folk song and, in contrast, his mastery of traditional and modern compositional techniques. The combination of these elements and approaches and the sense for their dramatic structuring in Haas’s work creates fascinating stories full of surprise and tension. This was demonstrated with precision by the Navarra String Quartet playing in the following composition: leader Benjamin Marquise Gilmore – violin, Eva Aronian – violin, Sasha Bota – viola, Brian O’Kane – cello. Their performance was characterised by lyricism and dramatic concision, rhythmic fecundity, a convincing grasp of all the expressive contrasts hidden in the score, and a perfect sense of interplay.”
You can find the whole text HERE.
An exclusive experience in Brno. The Bamberger Symphonika with Hrůša and Trifonov
KlasikaPlus, 6 November 2024, Karla Hofmannová
“Conductor Jakub Hrůša applied his unerring ability to calculate the effect of the gradation of the musical flow carefully and refine it down to the finest details.”
“The orchestra played with an inner tension and expression, the piano forced the listeners to hold their breath.”
“The music came to life and blossomed under the pianist’s hands.”
“In this piece, Ilian Gârnet played the role of concertmaster, and his violin was also captivating and carried a clear tone and an intimacy of expression. The pianist’s phrasing was sometimes surprising, but was also revealing and innovative and, above all, deeply musical. The audience embraced his playing with enormous enthusiasm and with the knowledge that it was witnessing something exceptional.”
“Jakub Hrůša gave the piece plasticity and communicability. The concertmaster here was again Bart Vandenbogaerde, the solo players on oboe, clarinet and English horn excelled, but the orchestra’s great asset is above all the perfect interplay of its members. The Bamberger Orchestra is a single organism, functioning flawlessly and responding perfectly to the slightest instruction from its conductor. The ovations were endless…”
You can find the whole text HERE.
REVIEW: Matěj Brouček lost in the context of the age
Radmila Hrdinová, novinky.cz, 6 November 2024
“Excellent musical staging by Marko Ivanović and singing and acting performances by the outstanding Brno choir and numerous soloists headed by Scottish tenor Nicky Spence. He may have conceived Brouček as a drunk in line with the director’s intentions, but he sings him beautifully in perfect Czech, and establishes the character with a number of imaginative acting details.”
You can find the whole text HERE.
A triumph for Jakub Hrůša and Daniil Trifonov with the Bamberger Symphonika
Emil Drápal, Opera+, 5 November 2024
“It is difficult to imagine a better performance of Suk’s Ripening than Hrůša’s. He held the entire colossus firmly in his hands with clear and stimulating gestures, and led it in turns to dynamic peaks and, conversely, to the necessary moments of calm and sections of mysterious, even cosmic, peacefulness. He gave it his all from the first moment; it was clear that he was taking it to the limits. At the end of the piece, the female section of the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno also contributed to the general catharsis.”
“From the first bar, however, Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov confirmed his position to the letter as a leading soloist of global stature. He had absolutely no limits technically and interpreted Dvořák without pathos, with lightness of touch, and at times even playfully.”
“The concert by Jakub Hrůša and the Bamberger Symphonika will undoubtedly go down as one of the highlights of this year’s International Janáček Brno Festival. Soloist Daniil Trifonov also made an unforgettable contribution to this. It will be extremely interesting to compare this great musical experience with the performance by the Staatskapelle Berlin and its conductor Christian Thielemann at the very end of the festival in Brno.”
You can find the whole text HERE.
Mr. Brouček in the year 68
Polyharmonie, 5 November 2024, Zuzana Ledererová
“Conductor Marko Ivanović clearly enjoyed the evening, and the orchestra under his guidance filled the enormous auditorium to the brim with its performance. It goes without saying that the soloists, of which we should give particular mention to Daniel Matoušek, Doubravka Novotná and Jan Šťáva, also contributed to the wonderful atmosphere. Nicky Spence exceeded all expectations as Matěj Brouček with his singing and acting performance, his movement, and his entire figure.”
You can find the whole text HERE.
How Mr. Brouček flew in a beer tank and smoked marihuana
Jan Průša, Deník N, 4 November 2024
“This happens to the sound of Janáček’s readily identifiable music, which does not sound at all bathetic or heavy, but succulent, fresh, modern, and yet friendly and human.
And that is exactly what The Excursions of Mr. Brouček were like at the ceremonial opening at the Janáček Theatre on 1 November.
Just as in 2022, when the festival was opened by the opera From the House of the Dead in an atypical conjunction with the Glagolitic Mass, the company at Janáček Opera decided to open with a less frequently performed piece again this year.
In its own way, it embarked on a similar experiment here when it entrusted the work, which is based on clichés about the Czech character, to the renowned Canadian director Robert Carsen. In co-production with the famous opera houses Teatro Real in Madrid and Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, he has created an extremely effective international production that has ambitions to speak not just to the audience in Brno.
Mr. Brouček, played by the excellent Nicky Spence, entertains, flies in a beer tank, smokes marijuana on the Moon and, first and foremost, cannot in the smallness of his nature see any further than the tip of his nose. The performance is to be reprised as festival “echoes” at the Janáček Theatre beginning at 7 p.m. on 3 and 4 December.
You can find the whole text HERE.
The Excursions of Mr. Brouček in the “sixties”
Petr Veber, KlasikaPlus, 2 November 2024
“An ambitious premiere – setting the bar high with a standard matching that of the best European events – opened the ninth year of the self-confident Janáček Brno festival biennial.”
“British tenor Nicky Spence is irresistible in the role of a drunkard sleeping happily and naively drunk at the end.”
“On the Moon and among the Hussites, there are so many beautiful places in the opera that there is no reason to put it on the back burner.”
You can find the whole text HERE.