The Czech Nonet
History and Observations
(Revised 10/3/04)

The Czech Nonet

History and Observations

(Revised 10/3/04)

The Birth of the Czech Nonet

 In describing the birth of the Czech Nonet, we must look at the context into which it was born. After the end of WWI, there was a great flourishing of culture in our country. New societies following various schools of contemporary music were being founded: Spolek pro moderní hudbu (The Society for Modern Music) in 1920, Přítomnost, sdružení pro soudobou hudbu (The Presence, A Society for Contemporary Music) in 1924, Klub moravských skladatelů v Brně (The Moravian Composers’ Club in Brno) in 1922, etc. Quantitative growth in the field of chamber music was also evident. In this context, we cannot omit the Czech Quartet, founded at the Prague Conservatoire in 1892. This ensemble of world-class qualities stimulated both new compositons as well as inspiring the foundation of other Czech chamber music ensembles; e.g. the Ondříček Quartet, the Moravian Woodwind Quintet, the Czech Trio, and in 1924 the Czech Nonet. 

 On 14 March 1923, at `The Bohuslav Taraba Chamber Music and Songs Soirée’ in the Prague Mozarteum, the string and wind instruments played in the unusual combination of the Nonet for the first time. Three Meditations for flute, clarinet, English horn, two bassoons and string quartet was performed. Despite the unusual instrumentation for that time, this novelty was enthusiastically accepted and that is how the young musicians (still Prague Conservatoire students), being taken by the discovery of such an unusual and interesting chamber music sound, started to meet regularly. Their most serious obstruction was little choice of compositions, and exploring that limited musical material they found Nonet Op.31 from 1820-1830 by Louis Spohr. It is a composition for flute, oboe, clarinet, bassoon, French horn, violin, viola, violoncello and double base. This led the young ensemble to its final instrumentation. Historians believe this work to be the only one of this instrumentation prior to the formation of the Czech Nonet. In the available literature, there is no mention why the author composed such an unusual composition more than a hundred years prior. We can only suppose it was composed for an ad hoc ensemble. We do not even know if the work was actually performed at the time it was written. The composition remained unique for nearly one hundred years. It is possible the ensemble which first performed the work ceased to exist for unknown reasons. The only possible exception is the Oslow Nonet from 1849, but it was unknown in our country. (The Czech Nonet only learned of the existence of the 1849 Oslow Nonet at the beginning of the third millenium.)

 This is how the Spohr Nonet Op.31 remained untouched until it became the foundation stone of the nine young artists’ repertoire, who first accepted the name of the Czech Nonet (Český nonet – used until 29 September 1949 and thereafter České noneto).

 In short, the Czech Nonet may be characterized as a small orchestra: there are the most important instrument families present, but each one is presented by a single player. Such a combination enables the ensemble to make a rich and colourful, though chamber, sound. However, the numerical superiority of the wind instruments brings about difficulties with the evenness and balance among the individual voices, which is enormously important to take into consideration while performing. That is why it has always been vital that the interpreters, especially the violinist, are of top quality. The founding fathers were well aware of their artistic responsibility. They were to follow and equal their professors, the Czech Quartet members, who in their time reached the highest artistic peak.

The Beginnings – the First Steps (the 1920’s)

 Under the name of Český nonet – an word play on Český kvartet (Czech Quartet), and therefore binding for artistic performances of high standards – the musicians played for the first time in a public concert in the court of the National House in Žižkov on 17 January 1924. They performed the Beethoven Septuor Op. 20, the Foerster Wind Quintet and the Spohr Nonet Op. 31.

 The formation of a new ensemble did not escape the notice of the critics: ’The young artists’ success was a joy. We wish them to confirm their great intentions. Then they will be able to show the results of their work even abroad as a permanent ensemble of such setting is a very rare one.’ (Národní politika, 1 February 1924) 

 The wish came true very soon when the young musicians were invited to Lithuania in order to put the Prague pedagogical method into practice there. At that time, Lithuania was undergoing a national revival. The director of the newly founded Lithuanian State Conservatoire Simkus came for the Czech musicians under the influence of the world popularity of Czech musicianship. The artists became the founders of a new Lithuanian musical life and brought up the first home grown generations of music pedagogues.

 In Lithuania, in addition to their duties at the conservatoire, the artists organized concerts as well. They founded a student orchestra, they themselves gave concerts as a nonet, and played as soloists in other chamber ensembles. However, this great work caused internal problems for the Czech Nonet. Some members had contracts abroad – in Egypt, Switzerland, Norway, Sweden. The ensemble was on the verge of disbanding. Among the three members who came back to Czechoslovakia on 30 July 1928, there was only one person who believed in the further existence of the Czech Nonet: Emil Leichner, the first violinist.   

The 1930’s – Crisis as well as Artistic Success

 It is nearly impossible to trace the crisis years of 1928-1931 in detail due to the lack of materials. One fact is clear - the ensemble faced its end many times but it was always staved off. During this period the musicians often changed and once there were only four permanent players in the Nonet.

 The crisis was finally overcome in 1931 when Emil Leichner, the Nonet revival initiator, managed to bring new members – the Prague Conservatoire professors - to the ensemble including Oldřich Šorejs, Rudolf Černý, Adolf Kubát, Artur Holas, Jan Fürst, Vilém Kostečka and also Emanuel Kaucký who had left in 1926. With Emil Leichner, they created a new essence of a great creative genius. There were a few successful tours abroad. The Viennese audience as well as the critics were thrilled. (Oesterreichische Gewerbezeitung 9.4.1932).

 Also Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia were impatiently awaiting the arrival of the Czech Nonet. In autumn 1932, the press was happy to announce the arrival of old friends. However, only two of those who had stayed in Klaipeda came - Emil Leichner and Emanuel Kaucký. A wave of disappointment arose. The critiques showed the great popularity the former professors of the Lithuanian conservatoire had enjoyed. (Wiener Allgemeine Zeitung, 29 October 1932).

 After the return home, a first night concert was given in the Smetana Hall in the Municipal House, Prague. The Josef Bohuslav Foerster Nonet Op. 147, the Alois Hába heptatonic Nonet Op. 41, the J Kačinskas Nonet dedicated to the Czech Nonet, the second movement of the J. Mandic Nonet (the work still being composed) and the M. Ponc Largo melodico Nonet were on the program. The concert was organized by The Society for Modern Music. The attendance was poor. The program was evaluated rather indefinitely and unsteadily but the ensemble itself was a great surprise for Prague. In the Lidové listy (25 November 1932) there is a certain hesitation on the possibility of a permanent existence of such an unusual chamber ensemble. ’One cannot help hesitating on the fact a nonet ensemble is quite too large for chamber music and what is more it is rather disproportionate due to the wind instrument predominance.’ The critic who finished by ’we would like to hear it play as a classical music interpreter’ proved himself of absolute incomprehension of the Czech Nonet’s work and importance. His obvious displeasure towards the modern program might have influenced his attitude to the ensemble as well.

 The Czech Nonet had to fight with incomprehension very often. The critics had a lack of understanding for its unusual composition of instruments and the fact of being dependent on modern repertoire, though composers and audience were thrilled by the existence of such an ensemble. The Czech Nonet takes the most credit for presenting modern compositions to the widest public. The Czech Nonet brought about a completely new compositional branch as well as a new performance style which corresponded to the most modern understanding of chamber interpretation. It also presented new pieces where there was no model for interpretation. Its premieres have always been full of such inventions as well. Maybe that is one of the reasons for the long tradition and the world-wide popularity of the Czech Nonet.

 A close connection between the term modernity and the Czech Nonet was revealed in the critical reaction in Italy in April 1933. Along with the Louis Spohr Nonet Op.31 and the Ludwig van Beethoven Septuor, the Josef Bohuslav Foerster Nonet (the first composition ever specifically composed for the Czech Nonet) was performed in the concert. The audience was leaving the concert hall and there was a general displeasure in the press: “As if Rome like other towns couldn’t bear music of any tradition and country or school!” (Il Tavere, 15 April 1933). In December 1933, the Czech Nonet visited Italy for the second time. Fourteen towns had the opportunity to hear the Czech chamber ensemble who gave up to two concerts per day. Such hardship lasted some three long weeks but it did not show upon the quality of the performances. The critiques were full of praise. The concert agents used the artists at their maximum. Nobody cared for their comfort or personal interests. During these three weeks the artists had only three days off, two in Rome and one in Messina.

 In 1934, the Czech Nonet studied some new pieces. The Prokofiev Quintet for oboe, clarinet, violin, viola and double base was the most important and significant composition. The piece was first performed in Náchod on 14 April 1934 (the ensemble often premiered new works outside of Prague). This brave piece of music, one of the first Prokofiev compositions presented in our country, faced terrible incomprehension. The artists were not discouraged at all. The new works were presented on the radio and the popularity increased steadily. But, the ensemble itself was facing the problem of continued existence all the time. The Czech Nonet was more of a hobby than a job for its members. The musicians, most bound by various duties in orchestras and at the conservatoire, found it hard to find time for rehearsals, etc. There was the same problem with the tours – finding the time. During their absence the members had to pay the standbys in the orchestras so the salary from the tours was usually shortened a lot. The orchestra managers were not happy to see the moonlighting either. Such a terrible state led to the temporary end of the ensemble. On 1 November 1936, when the professors left the Prague Conservatoire, the five-year-long stable membership of the Czech Nonet was briefly ended.

 New members came to fill the vacant posts; they mostly came from the Czechoslovakian Radio (Jaroslav Blažek, František Hertl, Karel Hanžl, and Antonín Hotový). The work was a little easier, especially when the other members joined the Czechoslovakian Radio (e.g. Josef Hobík). A rather calm and creative period started. This thirteen-year-long era with almost no personnel changes was led under the motto: ’Nine artists, nine friends, nine hearts, one soul.’

 The year 1937 brought about great success at the 15th Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music. The festival took place in Paris on 21 - 27 June 1937. The fact the ensemble performed without a conductor was a real sensation. The difficult Reiner Concert for Nonet was performed with an excellent technique. The Commedie de Champs-Elyssées witnessed a great triumph of the Czech modern art on 21 June 1937. The Czech Nonet played the Řidký and Hába Nonet for Parisian Radio. After such a virtuoso performance the ensemble got an honorable mention. Paris found out again that Prague was an important centre of contemporary music.

 In January 1938, the ensemble went on another tour to Italy, giving six concerts. They had a grand success in Florence. The audience, who were known for their not very positive attitude towards contemporary music, demanded an encore! The following performances of the concert season were more or less based on the premieres. The repertoire was enriched by the Children’s Songs and the Nonet in Do by Emil František Burian, the Divertimento by Iša Krejčí, the Nonettino by J. Francl, The Solstices, Op. 33 by J. Vojáček, the Nonet by S. Osterc and others. The Czech Nonet thoroughly studied all novelties. Neither this fact slipped the critique: ’All compositions which bring both interpretative and technical problems were performed with a high standard. The Czech Nonet played with the well-known interest for each work and its style.’ (The Národní politika, 23.4. 1938)

 On 16 June 1938, the 16th Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music commenced in London. On their way to this festival, the Czech Nonet presented works by Iša Krejčí, Alois Hába and Otakar Zich for Parisian and Brussels radios. In London, they performed the Kačinkas Nonet, the Bentzen Racconto and the accompanying music to The Songs by Vučkovič and Krejčí. Especially the work by Iša Krejčí was a great success.

 Leaving for London took place in a politically very difficult time. In February 1938, Hitler announced in his speech in public, the Sudeten German problem will only be solved by joining the German inhabited areas of Czechoslovakia to the Reich. In May 1938, in the border areas there were political disturbances connected with the redeployment of German troops near the border, which on 20 May made the then Czechoslovakian government declare a state of partial mobilization.

 The Czech artists enjoyed a great popularity showed not only by the musical public. It was a proof of sympathy as an offset against the political prudence of the British government. Vítězslava Kaprálová, a composer and conductor, also took part in the festival and she conducted her own Military Symphonietta.

 The season was finished by this festival for the Czech Nonet. Its members went on holidays after which they met under much more severe conditions. The tour to London was the last tour abroad before the outburst of WWII.

The 1940’s – the WWII and the Post-War Period

 On 23 September 1939, a general mobilization was declared and Germans captured the Czech border area. Hard years of fighting against the German occupant fascism started. The Czech Nonet chose new methods of work, too. As proof one may consider the concert in Moravian Ostrava on 23 January 1939, where ’The Year 1938 Nonet’, an Otakar Jeremiáš composition from December 1938, was first performed. The composition was influenced by the fatal events of that year. The composer himself asked to have the work first performed in Moravian Ostrava. The work, dedicated to the Czech Nonet, had a subheading of ’The Czech Chorale’. By its existence and theme, it bound the Nonet members during the time of German occupation. As it had been characterised in the programme concert before: ’The original Saint-Wenceslas Chorale and the Hussite chant are used as motifs in this composition in which both the passivity and activity of the past sad days is expressed. The work ends in hope of a better future – and that is the message for which it has been created.’

 The next premiere of the year was the Chodská Suite by Zich. Again, by its name it is a symbolic piece for that time. Both compositions belong to the most often presented pieces during the occupation. The programmes with the quotation from the Hussite chorale used in the first one, ’tenť Pán velí se nebáti záhubcův tělesných’ (whom the Lord says not to fear the mortal perditors) appealed as a manifesto mostly in the Hitler’s Reich countries, where the Czech Nonet regularly traveled to meet their embattled fellow-countrymen. Dozens upon dozens of concerts in the country and Prague meant tireless performance of new pieces. That summed up in 42 premieres during the war, where three quarters were original compositions for the Nonet. The ensemble took part in dozens of radio productions, too. The Czech Nonet put up more than honestly with the conditions the hard times of occupation and WWII had brought.

After the end of the WWII, the Czech Nonet entered the cultural life by Hertl’s arrangement of the Czech Dances by Bedřich Smetana. However, after the success at the first Prague Spring, one can see the hard work conditions, the poor economic situation of the ensemble and survival worries of its members: ’One will have to see to the fact members of this as well as other outstanding chamber ensembles will be relieved of the necessity to find one’s living by playing in orchestras and other activities. Only under such conditions we can expect them to concentrate on chamber music.’ (Štěpán Lucký, České výkonné hudební umění a festival in Rytmus 9 - 10, 1946, p. 22 - 24, quotation from p. 23)

Only after the Czech Nonet’s 20 years of existence did the public start to be interested in its harsh work conditions. Until a real change in these difficulties came, another five years went by. The Czech Nonet kept on representing the Czech music with honour.

 Concerts in Austria, Switzerland, France, the UK, Poland, Hungary and Italy followed. The newspaper critiques were full of praise. One success followed another.

Tours abroad, many concerts at home, 27 premieres: that‘s the list form the years between 1946 and 1951. The public as well as the critics were most pleased. In 1949, the tiredness started to appear slowly. The extreme workload and disunity reflected in mutual relationships among the members and ended up in the departure of the artistic leader and double-base player František Hertl and the flutist Karel Hanžl. They were replaced by Miroslav Novotný and Hynek Kašlík. Between 1949 and 1951 the Czech Nonet premiered only one piece per year.

’He who knows the symphonic orchestra of our broadcasting corporation and its programme, who knows about its concerts in public, he knows it is not easy to be up to such work. It is rather no fun spending five or six hours in a room not ventilated properly, where the artificial light and special accoustics tire both the eyes and ears out. Well, the Nonet members do their nonet duty on top of all this, dedicating all their free time. Why do these people do it? In ensembles where contemporary music is done, they get a salary which is hardly enough to pay the electricity bill, ironing the tailcoat and washing the shirt, but not to buy sheet music..., in the concerts there is always the risk it does not pay out, while organizing the tours abroad they themselves have to arrange everything with the authorities and the salary is maybe high enough to cover the travel and accommodation expenses and minimum food. And whether they wish to go on a longer tour, the broadcasting corporation gives them holiday without any problem, but they are obliged to find a standby who they have to pay themselves. Not only they work in their nonet nearly for nothing and in their free time but in fact they have to pay for their own work to an institution who has the most money out of all ’music producers’ (Karel Reiner, Kulturní politika, 1 November 1946,  No. 7).

This is a rough description of the work situation the Czech Nonet had to go through. The early 1950’s crisis can be characterised as a big fatigue which was growing and kept striking the ensemble terribly.

The 1950’s

 In 1950, the Czech Nonet was administered by the Ministry of Information, on a trial basis. After that the abolishment of communal form of clustering (The Abolishment of Communal Form of Clustering Law from 19 January 1951) and the decision of Ministry of Education and Education of the Public, the Czech Nonet was attached to The Czech Philharmonic Orchestra as its chamber ensemble. At the same time, the Nonet was given their own rehearsal hall, the lounge in Rudolfinum.

 A new door was open for the Czech Nonet. During the following years, some other personnel changes came. Josef Šimandl, Rudolf Lojda, Oldřich Uher, Václav Žilka, Jaroslav Řezáč, Václav Vodička and Arnošt Charvát were among the newcomers.

 The following period may be characterized as a time without existence problems. The Nonet gave many concerts abroad. In 1954 they visited Moscow, Petersburg, Minsk, Kiev, Vienna, Graz and Linz. In 1955 and 1956 they mostly performed at home. In 1957 they visited many Italian towns, Poland, Germany, and the Salzburg and Budapest festivals. And they did not forget about the Czech towns where they performed the Václav Dobiáš Nonet ’On the Native Country’.

 It is also very interesting, in 1957 the Czech Nonet gave concerts in South Africa.

Rudolf Lojda who took part in this tour wrote:  

’The South African concert life, most of all the music, hardly existed before WWII. The European and world artists had left this country completely out. After the war thanks to the fast and everyday connection with Europe and most of all thanks to some music enthusiasts and excellent organizers, the South African concert life was greatly developed.

 A few societies handle the chamber concert organization. Musica viva is the most important one. We were honored to be their guests. This organization has got some hundreds members who can hear a number of outstanding artists per year, all for a rather low subscription of a few sterling.   

 The opening concert of our tour took place in the large Johannesburg City Hall on 4 June. The hall was of poor acoustics and not a very pleasant one, taking 1800 people. On program there was the Beethoven Septet, the Children’s Suite by J Jaroch and the J Novák Baletti á 9 came after the interval. The full hall as well as the critique of all Johannesburg magazines on the following day accepted the very first concert very warmly. And it was the same at the following two concerts in Johannesburg, on 6 and 22 June. This time in a university hall (for about 1200 people) of good acoustics and a pleasant atmosphere. At the first concert of these two, we played the Beethoven Piano Quintet with the South African pianist A Hallis, the Nonet Fairy Tales by K Šrom and the Czech Nonet foundation work – the Spohr Nonet. Among the encores, there was the world-premiere of the Bohuslav Martinů Polka, transposed –with the author’s agreement – from a piano original by J Novák. At the final Johannesburg concert, there was the Mozart Divertimento with a Johannesburg Radio Orchestra violinist playing the second violin, the Prokofiev Quintet, the Iša Krejčí Divertimento and the Dvořák Serenade. All such composed programs turned out to be absolutely correct and provided a full scale performance of the Czech reproductive art, as well as presenting the contemporary Czech compositions in the correct proportions.

 However, the Czech Nonet’s most important part of everyday work during the first three weeks was the one in the Johannesburg Radio. We recorded most compositions of our present repertoire. The vast majority was by the contemporary Czech authors. In the radio, we played in programmes of three types: most of all at the public concerts in the radio studio, at presence of the audience invited by the radio corporation (about 150), mostly broadcast live or straight after the concert, then recording on the cassettes and finally recording the permanent recordings for the South African Radio which may be broadcast more times. At the public concert we presented the Palester, Kalabis and Dobiáš ’On My Home Country’ Nonets on 7 June, the Vranický Oboe Quintet, the Šrom Fairy Tales and the Hába Nonet No.3 on 15 June; the Mozart Divertimento, the F Škvor Nonet, the Iša Krejčí Divertimento and the E Kornauth Nonet. On the cassettes for one broadcasting there were: Mysliveček, Beethoven, Spohr, Smetana, Zich, Řídký, Šrom, Novák, Jaroch, Hurník, Flosman, Berkovec. And the Prokofiev Quintet, the Smetana Czech Dances, the nonets by Hába, Novák, Řídký and the Children’s Suite by J Jaroch were to stay in the South African Radio for good. The radio work was extremely difficult – not only for the enormous extent of the composers presented (26 authors), which is unusual for chamber ensembles, but even for orchestral tours. This meant a new programme every day, necessarily having been prepared when still at home. The work was even more difficult since the recording time allowance was rather limited, given by local habits. For example, to record a difficult radio programme - Spohr, Jaroch, Zich, Flosman, where at home we have a four-hour recording frequency for each one, we had about 3 hours altogether. On the other hand, we have to point out the great understanding of both the technicians and the director which crossed the frontiers of official work and became a very friendly mutual cooperation. We were taken by the high technical quality of our recordings. Despite the great exertion, two facts speak out for the musical standard of the recordings. Most of all, just after the first recordings as well as at the end of the tour a recording company wanted to buy some radio recordings directly in order to make records. And the second one. Mr Gideon Fagan, the South African Radio Music Broadcasting Director, said on the eve of our farewell the Czech Nonet recordings were the best recordings the South African Radio owned. Putting into consideration how well-known artists and ensembles travel to South Africa after the WWII and record for their Radio too, this was a very precious approval.

 From severe and too civilized Johannesburg we flew to the beautiful Capetown. On the following day, there was a concert in a famous nearby African university town of Stellenbosch, a public concert in Cape Town followed and the last concert of the tour took place in Port Elisabeth.

 All Czech Nonet concerts were very successful. One could quote the hillarious critiques from the newspapers of all towns visited, and in both official languages, English and Africaans. But it happens some artists pick the positive critiques only and are silent about the negative ones, for the favour of their popularity. Although this cannot be the case, let us see to the fact that both the tour principal organizer of Musica Viva and his deputies and the local organizers expressed their wishes spontaneously, even in a form of a concrete proposal, that the Czech Nonet could come back to tour in South Africa within the time limit of two or three years. This is the most precious approval of Czech art, both performing and composing. Furthermore, it was reached after successful tours of our leading chamber ensembles. And being won by an ensemble of an unusual composition, rather unknown to the audience, with a repertoire focusing on contemporary Czech music.

 Should we see the list of compositions and the percentage of Czech contemporary composers, performed in South Africa by the Czech Nonet, we can easily say no other chamber ensemble had successfully performed so much contemporary Czech music abroad at once. The warm atmosphere at the concerts as well as the very positive critiques were gratifying. For a performing artist it is always an unusual experience when the audience gets the musical joke of a contemporary composition at once and shows it on spot and loudly, as in the case of the Šorm Fairy Tales, the Iša Krejčí Divertimento or the Jaroch Children’s Suite. Or if a critic, both verbally and in a newspaper article asks for an encore of a movement from a contemporary work at a following concert (from the J Novák Nonet in Cape Town). The warm acceptance of the work by Dobiáš, Hába, Folprecht, Řídký etc. by the audience, by critics as well as the organizers, was gratifying as well. It was clear the healthy realistic Czech contemporary music was clear even to a distant South African listener, eventhough they had acquired it in the concert of the Czech Nonet to such extent for the first time.

 Also the end of the 1950’s is in the name of numerous tours. Here are some newpaper articles illustrating the Czech Nonet’s tours abroad in that period.

Czech Nonet turns Moscow on

Moscow: On Wednesday the Czech Nonet gave their only Moscow concert. In front of the discriminating audience, the leading musicologists, critics and executive artists present, they performed the Prokofiev Quintet in G minor, the B Martinů Nonet and the Beethoven Sextet in E flat major. The audience accepted the performance with a great enthusiasm. Our artists took four encores – one of the Smetana Czech Dances, the J Jaroch ’Tag Game’ and the Jan N Vitásek Menuet. By the Moscow concert the Czech Nonet wound up their succesful USSR tour. They gave two concerts in Leningrad and other ones in Kiev, Mukatchevo and Uzhghorod. (Lidová demokracie, Prague, 24 December 1959)

Austrian approval

Salzburg (sm) – In Austrian Salzburg, there is one of the greatest festivals taking place at present. From Czechoslovakia, the Czech Nonet took part. The first concert was awaited with a great interest and expectations as there was a B Martinů world premiere composition on, dedicated to the ensemble by the composer himself. The concert was broadcast by 17 radio stations and the Austrian press approved the ensemble greatly as well. (Siena, Bratislava, 14 August 1959)

CS Nonet to Poland

The Czechoslovakian Nonet, a chamber ensemble of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra went on a tour to Poland. They are going to perform a world premiere of the ’Dance Preludes’ by Wilold Lutoslawski, a Polish composer. (Nova Slobodan, Estrada, 29 October 1959) 

After the Lodz and Lublin concerts

the Czech Nonet gave a concert in the Czechoslovakian Culture Centre in Warsaw yesterday. The compositions by JB Foerster, A Hába, A Vranický, B Martinů and B Smetana were greatly accepted by the audience. The W Lutoslawski composition premiered in Poland by the Czech Nonet was taken especially well. . (Večerník, Bratislava, 3 November 1959)

Czech Nonet celebrates

Last week the Czech Nonet returned from their very successful tour to Hungary and after many concerts at home they are going on tours to Poland and the USSR. In February, they are going to play in West Germany and the Netherlands, in April to Greece, Bulgaria and Romania so that they are finishing this season in South and North Americas and in the next season they are following the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra to Australia and New Zealand. In summer1961, they are playing again in South Africa, where they left the best impressions two years ago. We have been informed about this by the first violinist Emil Leichner, who together with the viola player Vilém Kostečka was at the cradle of this world-unique chamber ensemble 35 years ago. At their jubilee concert on 15 October in Rudolphinum, the Czech Nonet is going to commemorate its rich and famous history which has mostly been a devoted service to contemporary music. On program, there is the Spohr Nonet on the centenary anniversary of the composer’s demise, the Foerster Nonet (on the centenary anniversary of the author’s birth as well as the very first work dedicated to the Czech Nonet) and the last piece of the nearly 150 compositions written for this chamber ensemble and at the same time the last work by Bohuslav Martinů, his Nonet form this year, having been performed before Prague just in Salzburg and Budapest.(ol) (Svobodné slovo, Praha, 14 October 1959)

The 1960’s

Czech Nonet Successful in Italy

 Firenze (by our exclusive correspondent): Already for the sixth time the Czech Nonet, a Czech Philharmonic Orchestra chamber ensemble, is giving guest performances in Italy. It has become one of the most popular ensembles in this country. During their present tour in Italy which is going to be extended by a stop in Austria, the Czech Nonet performed in the Pergola Theatre in Firenze for the first time. This famous metropolis of Italian art prepared great ovations for the Czech artists. One of the most successful pieces of the program, a work by a contemporary composer Jiří Jaroch, even had to be repeated after the concert. Jaroch’s Children’s Suite was a great success. Apart from this one, the Czech Nonet performed the works by B Martinů, W Lutoslawski and L Spohr. The concert was broadcast by the Italian Radio. (Lidová demokracie, the country, 26 November 1960)    

The Czech Nonet, a Czech Philharmonic Orchestra chamber ensemble, gave their first concert at their tour in the Netherlands. At the Leyden concert the Czech instrumentalists got a standing ovation. (Rudé právo, the country, 16.2.1961)

The musicians wrote on the South American and Spanish tours:

60,000 kms with Czech Music through Latin America

One of the Baroque palaces in Valdštejnská Street, the Lesser Town, is the seat of those who export Czech music. They send our artists all over the world and they invite the foreign ones. Long weeks and months they correspond, make arrangements and finally sign the contracts in order to – mostly in the last minute – send our artists abroad with the passport in the hand. Only few people know the first and last instance for our touring concert artists is the Music and Theatre Agency. And if there are any troubles, it is this Baroque building where they take the blame. However, the artists keep the laurels for themselves…

And that is how HUDAG, all our artists’ manager, after a long negotiation with a Spanish agency Daniel, sent the Czech Nonet, a Czech Philharmonic Orchestra chamber ensemble, to Latin America. The Nonetists have traveled all over the world for 37 years but they have not gone for such a long journey yet. Their longest tour so far, to South Africa, was half the distance in comparison with the tour they set for in the beginning of May. 60,000 kms within nine weeks and 31 concerts in 8 states. Sober facts, but how many experiences, how much suffering, fighting off as well as the joyful emotion over the final applause. Which country accepted the artists best? Where is the most sophisticated audience? What was enjoyed most? Dvořák, Prokofiev, Spohr or the most popular chamber work, the Beethoven Septet in E flat Major? It is hard to answer all this in brief. There were countries they did not give us the visa but in those we could enter, we learnt again and again there are no borders, no iron curtains for music and people applaud, according to their temperament, the Czech music as well as their interprets with enthusiasm. Alike before, in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina, Peru, Columbia, Cuba, Mexico, and the Dutch Antilles we showed our contemporary authors, here – except for B Martinů – nearly unknown. It is a whole range of names: V. Dobiáš, Zd. Folprecht, Al. Hába, J. Jaroch, I. Krejčí, J. Novák and K. Šrom. From place to place, the organizers were against the Czech Modernism, in other places they were welcome it, and they were eager to learn about the Dvořák’s and Smetana’s students.

 The Nonetists saw many towns but the most beautiful one welcomed us right at the beginning. All those who say Rio de Janeiro is the queen of cities are right. You may doubt it while walking down the streets in the city centre looking at the hillsides being covered with the wooden huts of the poor or if you see the grotesque, old-fashioned trams, galloping through the streets. You will be surely taken by the panorama if you walk up the 700 m high mountain of Corcovado, where the huge Jesus Christ statue overlooks the beauty of the town as well as the huts of poverty.

From here you can have the unforgettable view on a number of bays, wooded hills, beaches, and the huge lake right in the middle of the town. Rio is the queen of cities mostly for its positions and the natural scenery.

Uruguay is a little, not very rich country, but the Czech music, thanks to the local conductor Protasi, can be heard rather often here. We were welcome by the local press so warm-heartedly and given so much attention as hardly anywhere. The critics titled their critiques rather enthusiastically: The Czech Nonet Triumph – The Outstanding Mastery – A Memorable Concert. There is an unexpected interest for our concerts in Peru. Being the richest country in the ancient times, Peru nowadays belongs to the poorest countries in South America. The Rocky Mountains, the sand shores where the verdure is rather scarce. Sad was the view from the plane onto the vast country, as well as the later one, on children begging and mothers breast-feeding in the streets. The more we were surprised by the rich concert life and interest in chamber music.

How much excitement outside the concert halls we experienced on the Mexican pyramids and at the God Quetzalcoatles’s excavations in Teotihuacán! We reached the top of the Sun Pyramid which the Toltecs earthed against the aggressive Aztecs. However, the Aztecs uncovered it and organized the ritual murders there. They extracted the heart from the victims alive and then these were offered to gods. The stone Toltec art witnesses saw the fall of the Aztec realm; they were earthed again, this time by the Cortez conquistadors whose descendants are at present unearthing them step by step and so increasing the tourism. Accompanied by little, twelve-year-old Indian ’archeologists’ who dig off their own bat clandestinely or who skillfully make the forgeries which a foreigner can hardly distinguish from the Teotihuacán little heads, sculptures or vase decorations which have been earthed for up to a thousand years, we experience another excitement. For a little money we can obtain a Montezuma artist’s product or a forgery by which we support a little and skillful Indian from a nearby village of San Juan. We hope we have the originals. We enjoy them and our ’scholarly’ advisor – the embassy chauffeur – supports our opinion.

Cuba was the country in Latin America we got to know most thoroughly. Twenty-five days we spent in Havana and we always went to the provinces just for a short time. Havana is a town which not only gave the name to the most famous Spanish dance of habanera and also it mirrors the former luxurious life of this extended Florida. The revolution has changed a lot here, which we felt at the concerts, too. The audience was people of all social classes. Many came more out of their fondness of Czechoslovaks than out of the interest in chamber music itself. For many, it was their first concert in their lives. Up to that time we had never had so many colored listeners as on Cuba. Even that was revolutionary a lot. The Cubans have little of educated audience nowadays. That is why they are bringing up the new ones and with great enthusiasm they take care of the artistic instructors in the field of music, theatre and dance. This two-year-long-course college has about 4000 students.

The long tour through the American continent was not only a trip to the exotic countries for the nine Czech artists. It was a constant fight with the tropical dampness, the unbearable heat, thirst, unusual food, the bureaucratic apparatus of the consulates refusing to give the entry visa, or even with the troublesome mosquitoes being a nuisance for the sweating artists on the stage. The nonetists’ main target was a successful representation of the Czech art. At the presence of the Berlin Octet touring the same cities as we were, except for Cuba, the critics had a chance to compare. It was not easy, after a sleepless sixteen-hour long journey on a train, and in a car with the conditioning out of order, to sit at the music stands and play well. (Václav Žilka, Svět v obrazech, Praha, 12 August 1961)

The Nonet in Spain 

At the very beginning the Czech Nonet performed in the Federal Republic of Germany, the Netherlands, and Italy, from Sicily were headed for Barcelona via Nica. One cannot help constant comparing. Is the Italian audience different from the Spanish one? We soon found out they differ a great deal. In Palermo the women smoked at the concerts, they talked and only some of them applauded. The more we were surprised they came to our dressing room during the interval and they were speaking in superlatives about our concert. We asked shyly, why they had applauded so little. They shrugged their shoulders: Why should one make the effort? The thing is we enjoyed it, isn’t it? Though we had one pleasant experience in Italy: the further from the stage and the closer to the galleries, the more concentrated and warm-hearted audience. The chamber music concert attendance in Italy is not as high as in the FRG, Austria or the Netherlands.

And Spain? In the past years a whole range of our artists went on tour there and the organizers are asking for them again and again. The Spanish do not have such a long music tradition as the Italians do, at least the concert and opera tradition. However, the theatres are sold-out at our concerts; the audience is very tentative, sophisticated, grateful and educated.

Our Spanish agent is far away from those ones the Nonet has co-operated until now. In other countries everything is always organized and agreed on long time in advance, we know the train departures and the hotels beforehand; we do not travel uselessly from one place to another. In Spain we have to look after ourselves a lot, sometimes we do not know the concert plan even for the following couple of days. We often have to call or travel to Madrid in person, to see the agent, not even an unsigned contract is an exception. We spend most time on the train – even 36 hours of journey without a sleeping berth and then straight to a concert. A concert tour is neither a trip, nor a holiday, but very hard work. The tiredness is only outweighed by the artistic performance, a success with the audience and a praise of the critique: by the way, in Oviedo, the critics do not sign their articles with a name, a cipher or initials, their pseudonym is hidden by one of the great opera characters, e.g. Florestan, Fidelio and Tamino. In our country such fashion would be rather unusual (Dalibor), although many times appropriate: e.g. Mumbler, not speaking about one of the characters from Smetana’s Bartered Bride (Kecal, the matchmaker, in Czech the natterer).

None of us spoke Spanish and the biggest troubles we had were in restaurants. In case we had stuck to the two favorite recipes, beefsteak and schnitzel (bifstec y escalope), we made no mistake. But one cannot live on a beefsteak and schnitzel and so from time to time we tried to improvise. The exotic sounding tortilla showed to be a common pancake, and even worse it was with a specialty called calamared en su tinta. By the name as well as the taste it reminded us of the inkpots in the own ink (kalamář being an inkpot in Czech) but it was a strange entanglement of tails in a fine liquid: when we saw a flat cuttlefish on the market later on, and realized from which animal this meal had originated we did not want to try again. Also our first violinist was enjoying his noodle soups for a long time, but one day he put his glasses on and found out the pasta had some tiny little black eyes: those were long thin little snakes. Since then our first violinist has always had his lunch with glasses on. We enjoyed Pamplona, the birthplace of the violinist and composer Pablo Sarasate. There is a splendid Gothic cathedral but the front Neo-Classicist facade, having been built in the place of the original, burnt down one, does not correspond with the amazing interior. In mute admiration one walks through the main nave and looks at the spectacular, great art of the Gothic stonemasons: we have been missing the clear and simple style for long.

The province of Navarra, dominated by the fortress of Pamplona with triple ramparts, well-preserved until today, belongs to the Basque country. Their villages are mini-settlements, no bigger than ten or twenty houses. The fertile valley just before Pamplona, on the way from San Sebastian, is dotted with such ones.

What else? In fashion, as one would say, the black color is the leading one. Even with the men. Most women wear a decent light blue-green make-up, though it does not look very eccentric. From the cars, Renault Dauphine and Seat – the Spanish license of Fiat are most frequent. A Spanish street is trying hard to catch up with Europe – except for the striptease. It does not exist in Spain at all – not even in a night club, cinema, magazines. A Spanish lady who sits down on a bench in a park, makes up for the short skirt length by covering with a folded coat. We have hardly met such an obsessed sense of morality in the whole world! In Pamplone, we found out there are very strict rules even for the dancing youth: at the dance there must be a certain distance between the couple, and that is why especially the slow-Argentinean-tango lovers are rather disappointed. On the other hand, our twist worshippers would come into their own here. The film offers mostly American production and the TV, spread into every single café or inn, has fewer admirers by far than in our country. It is a sad view on the numerous blind, selling lottery tickets and calling their ’Para oíí, para oíí.’ out. Catching their breath, they try to catch other people’s attention by knocking on the paving with their long white sticks. Nobody but the blind can sell the national lottery tickets. It is their privilege but those who are obliged to apply are far too many.

I’d rather go back to our Nonet. The first Spanish tour was a successful ending of the last season before entering the jubilee one – the fortieth. The oldest Czech chamber ensemble is going to be forty! With man, it is no age, but with a body of nine artists who have gone through days of flourishment as well as crises, moments joyful and harsh too, it is an admirable age. (Václav Žilka, Lidová demokracie, Praha, 7 June 1963)

A yellowed photograph in Bilbao

A theatre backstage in a large North-Spanish port of Bilbao. Not a very large room, but at the same time one of the most interesting museums of the world concert art we have ever seen. Hundreds of photos of violinists, pianists, cellists, singers, guitarists as well as chamber ensembles and conductors who have given 1296 concerts in the 67-year long history of the "Sociedad Filarmonica de Bilbao", a music society of this town. People both in the auditorium and in the backstage are in a festive mood. The CZECH NONET, a unique ensemble from a faraway country, has arrived. Squeezed in a rather small room, the nonetists are preparing their instruments, warming up, looking at the photographs on the walls. Thousands of things are going through their minds. The memories of a just finished tour to Italy. The first concerts in Spain – in San Sebastian and in Pamplona.

Suddenly, our eyes rest on one of the yellowed photographs. It has got one of the lowest serial numbers of this ’museum’. The faces ring a bell with us. We are going closer, trying to read the writing… Yes, no doubt! These are the famous Czech Quartet members! Karel Hoffmann, Josef Suk, Jiří Herold and still Hanuš Wihan. That quartet who founded the fame of the Czech modern concert art in the world. And they –forty years ago – set the example and gave rise to the idea of founding a similar ensemble, of 4 string and 5 wind instruments – the Czech Nonet.

The year of dedication on the yellowed photograph shows April 1914. The immediate students and followers of the Czech Quartet are tunings their instruments nearly fifty years later in order to vindicate the fame of their up-to-this-day respectfully remembered teachers. Will they manage? Will they vindicate the good tradition of the other Czech artists having given concerts here before them decades, or a short time ago, such as the commencing conductor of PSMU Pavel Šoupal, the Ševčík-Lhotský Quartet, the Novák Quartet, the Capital City of Prague Quartet FOK, the Prague Trio etc?

The welcoming applause is polite, but cold. The first tones of the immortal Beethoven Septuor are being played. We can feel the expectations and critical attention right down the fingertips touching the instruments. We can feel the rising tension, we can hear a more and more excited reaction of the audience in the short intervals between the movements. The last phrase, the final E flat major chord. A second, the never-ending second of the well-known tension, full of expectations for the reaction. And straight afterwards the liberating relief, as the audience roar with applause. Again and again we have to take a bow. 

With the more interest, after the interval, we are presenting two compositions by contemporary Czech authors – Alois Hába and Jan Novák who represent the creative Czechoslovakia of present years. There is a never-ending applause after the second half, too. We are obliged to take many encores. We take the success somehow for granted now. However, we are a little surprised when the old, generous president of the Music Society congratulates us and is surprised to say, for a long time he has not experienced such a great success with the local cold and conservative audience. And we get the invitation for the next concert next season.

The air smells of spring. We can hear a boat hoot from a nearby port. Next difficult, tiring tours are before us, next struggle with suspicion and conservatism. The memory of the yellowed photograph in Bilbao is going to support us in every hard moment. (Rudolf Lojda, Rudé právo, Praha, 11 June 1963)

This is what the press wrote about our Spanish tour:

The Czech Nonet succeeds in Italy and Spain

After a successful six-week tour to Italy and Spain, the Czech Nonet, our oldest chamber orchestra who is going to celebrate its 40th anniversary this year, returned to Prague. The ensemble has given concerts for the seventh time in Italy since the end of WW2, whereas their tour to Spain was the first journey to this country. The outstanding success reached with both the audience and the critics in both countries is even more important as the ensemble had presented most of all contemporary Czech chamber music. The audience could meet, apart from the classic chamber works, the compositions by Alois Hába, Jan Novák, Iša Krejčí, Jiří Pauer and Bohuslav Martinů. (Czechoslovak Press Agency) (Mladá fronta, Praha, 11 April 1963)

In 1963, the ensemble underwent a fundamental personnel change as the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra director Jiří Pauer advertised the posts of all members of the Czech Nonet. Three months before this competition the Czech Nonet went on a tour to Spain. The following words are a direct quotation of a former Nonetist, the flutist Václav Žilka, who belongs to those members who had to leave the ensemble that year. ’Three months before the competition which date we already had known, we left for a Spanish tour. There we experienced a great disillusion and surprise. From one of our colleagues who was an active member of the Czech Communist Party, we learnt who was going to succeed in the competition after the tour and who was not. It was clear the competition was just a farce. That is why after the arrival four members of the Czech Nonet were discharged.’ Among these four players, apart from Václav Žilka, there were also Václav Vodička, Oldřich Uher and Vilém Kostečka. The first violinist Emil Leichner left with them. Not in this undignified way. Emil Leichner, having played decades in the Czech Nonet, retired just before the fortieth anniversary celebration.

New musicians came to these posts. We have to point out, more than a half of this chamber ensemble were new members. These were Bohdan Warchal, Lubomír Malý, František Hertl, Jiří Válek, and Karel Lang.

The 1970’s and 1980’s

The years following 1963 were characterized by frequent changes of the first violinist. Within the period between 1975 and 1989 this happened 9 times altogether. If we consider the fact this involves nearly a thirty-year-long period, the ensemble changed its members every two years on average. The period of Václav Snítil is a time of settling down and stabilization when the Nonet had a first violinist who stayed in the ensemble longer than just a few seasons.

The workload in the 1970’s and 80’s was giving concerts both at home and abroad. The part and parcel of the work was recording new compositions, most of them coming from the same period.

The 1990’s

The Czech Nonet stayed under the head of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra until the end of 1989. From 1 January 1990 until 30 June 1994, it came under the state agency of ARDO. Together with the Czech Nonet, its whole archive, originally stored in the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, belonged to ARDO. In July 1994, the Ministry of Culture stopped subsidizing the ARDO Agency, which led to the end of this agency and the Czech Nonet was, again as in the beginning, a freelance ensemble.

That was followed by numerous moves of the ensemble, which resulted in losing most of the archive. We cannot even find the contracts of the former members or even concert programs, just some information materials from the most recent years. (However, the sheet music archive is complete and in 1997 it was organized and cataloged.)

The 1990’s was another unstable period for the Czech Nonet. Looking at the socio-economic situation in the field of music or just the living conditions (arranging the rehearsal room, etc.), one cannot be surprised there was a certain parallel with the early 1930’s. Unfortunately, the level of activity in the areas of local concerts and tours declined.

Though we can view some of the 1990’s as years of crisis due to changing personnel or small numbers of concerts, we must remember that it was at this time the Czech Nonet started to organize its own concert series. And, in 1995, the Association of Friends of the Czech Nonet was founded as the main promoter and organizer of the subscription concerts.

In the 1995-6 season the first subscription series called ’Music and Paintings’ took place. The rudiments of the cycle are entwining music and fine art. They have been connected from time immemorial. Cave paintings, various sculptures expressing the musicians or paintings on all kinds of vessels show the state of music. And a concert in a gallery is a connecting part between these close kinds of art. Not once we witnessed ’opening’ the paintings while listening to the corresponding music, or while going through a deep emotional relationship. We may get the feeling we can ’understand’ them even better than if one would explain them in educated words. A theorist often rather takes us out of the picture whereas music or poetry bring about ’understanding’ as if in the purest state. The question why this happens and why a person under such circumstances is open to a much deeper experience is the psychology of perception, synestezy. It is a merging of numerous sensual perceptions at the same time, having a deeper effect than a simple sum of single perceptions. We can say it is a special way of interpretation of one piece of art by another. Music broadens the perception of a fine art piece, a poem or a drama. As well as making music among the paintings may enlarge the number of associations, or otherwise, it can determine them. It is very fruitful in such concerts, people from various artistic professions can meet, share their opinions and find out the similar and different artistic problems a conductor, a musician, a painter or a poet can have.

The Czech Nonet has been organizing the chamber music cycle Music and Paintings every year since 1995. The concerts take place in the Lichtenstein Palace Gallery in Lesser Town, Prague. The ensemble invites some other chamber ensembles, such as the Prague Wind Quintet, the Guarneri Trio Prague, the Prague Piano Duo, the Époque Quartet, etc., to participate. Young musicians - brilliant students or Academy of Music and Performing Arts graduates – get the opportunity to play with the renowned chamber ensembles. Helena and Jaroslav Horáleks, Michal Matzenauer, Valentin Popov, Rudolf Riedlbauch, Petr Šmaha, Kamila Ženatá, Romana Králová, Vojtěch Adamec, Ivan Tausinger, Jaroslav Alt, Ivan Viták and Jiří Mika, Miroslav and Zdeňka Marschals, Eva Mansfeldová, Alena Petříčková, Pavel Kryml, Jan Tichý, Karel Prášek, Arnošt Chabera, Jitka Hilská, Alexandr Hejl, Kateřina Opltová, Anna Vančátová and many other painters have or are going to present their work at the concerts.

Every year’s dramaturgy is composed with the intention to bring the opportunity of comparison of the older compositions with the new ones, not infrequently the compositions are premiered at these concerts. One cannot speak about dozens of compositions per year, but the interest of composers in the Czech Nonet is still remarkable. Our intention in this dramaturgy seems to be successful as the concerts have already been nearly or completely sold out for some years. The first three years and the seventh were carried out with the help of grants from the Ministry of Culture, the Capital City of Prague Council and music foundations, the fourth to sixth years were supported by a general sponsor.

In order to illustrate the importance and its coverage we are publishing a critique from ’The Hudební Rozhledy’ here:

MUSIC AND PAINTINGS

On 21 December 1999, in the time before Christmas, one of the Music and Paintings cycle concerts was opened with a new piece by Lukáš Matoušek – ’Viderunt omnes fines millenii’, together with a Romana Krátká vernissage. The new composition had been bespoken by the Czech Radio in the European Radio Union who at the occasion of the magic date of 1 January 2000 made a program of short – in our case a c. six-minute – compositions by member-state authors whose mutual source of inspiration was the Perotin Christmas gradual of ’Viderunt omnes fines terrae’ (All frontiers have seen praise the Lord). Lukáš Matoušek stated for The Hudební Rozhledy: ’I enjoy searching the connections between the historic and contemporary music both as a composer and as an interpreter, and I find the early music a rich source for my compositions. That is why the historical mirror here is in the contemporary conception.’

Viderunt omnes fines millenii (All have seen the end of millennium) is a paraphrase of the Perotin organum mentioned above and which choral theme, together with the oldest Czech sacred chant heritage, the ’Hospodine, pomiluj ny’ (Lord, hear us) is worked upon by a mixage technique in a free Neo-Gothic style. The nonet is divided into two instrumental groups: the strings supported by the French horn, quoting some parts from the choral in rhythmically more stable time lengths, against the woodwinds playing shorter and rhythmically more movable motives. Apart from Perotinus’s contrapuntal work in his own hocquet technique, the work with the dissonance, typical for the Middle Ages, is elaborated here as well. Although the compositional principles drawing from the early authors are by no means unusual in contemporary music, the way Lukáš Matoušek managed to create a rapid and attractive composition in a limited space is praiseworthy. Performed by the Czech Nonet, the first performance sounded convincing and happy.

Nonetto favoloso (Bayard, the Brave Prince) by Václav Trojan, despite the author’s typical melodic fantasy and instrumental colorfulness carried signs of its original purpose, the soundtrack for Trnka’s well-known film of the same name. Unfortunately, the composer has not given a firmer formal structure – the current composition seems like a program sketch which needs a visual final touch. One of the great problems for the instrument families originating in the 20th century is the absence of any classic repertoire, unfortunately sought by the nowadays audience most of all. Solving the difficult problem of transcriptions, the Czech Nonet used serenades which can bear such an intervention. Unfortunately, the Ingman transcription of the Dvořák E major Serenade, Op.22 is due to the extreme, nearly soloist load for the winds not a great one. Though a successful, well- attended evening was ended with Christmas carols in Thuri’s arrangement for a wind quintet. (Michal Matzner, Hudební rozhledy, year 53, No.2, published in 2000)

The Turn of the Millennium

The importance of the Czech Nonet at the turn of the millennium does not lie in promoting an unusual instrumental combination as since its foundation, both the compositional and the interpretation techniques have changed a lot. Its importance should be seen in the insistent purposeful promotion of contemporary acoustic classical music, presenting new compositions and their propagation both at home and abroad, in interesting the younger musicians in chamber music – most of all during a cooperation within chamber concerts with an extended number of players -, interesting the listeners towards contemporary music and also organizing the chamber concert cycle entwined with the works of renowned fine artists, called Music and Paintings. With this credo and these ambitions, the Czech Nonet entered the third millennium.

The dramaturgy of the chamber music cycle Music and Paintings is based on presenting new works by both Czech and widely-known composers, performing rare chamber music, entwining the visual and auditory arts.

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