Ivan Kurz

A SOLOIST’S SUSTENANCE

Ivan Kurz (born 29 November 1947 in Prague) ranks among the most important Czech composers of his generation. He studied composition under Emil Hlobil at the Faculty of Music of the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, completing his postgraduate studies under Václav Dobiáš. Since 1977 he has been employed as a teacher at the faculty. Kurz is known as a composer of stage music and also as an eminent writer of music for film and theatre. Clear within the sound of his music is his creative approach, expressed through the synthesis of diverse compositional devices. He is the author of numerous chamber music pieces (e. g. three string quartets from 1979, 1999, 2008), vocal (e. g. Krajiny andělské – Angelic Realms for baritone and symphony orchestra, 2009) and electro-acoustic compositions (e. g. Poema konce. Hudba k básni Mariny Cvětajevové – The Poem of the End. Music to the poem by Marina Tsetaeva for reciter, string quartet, tam-tam, claves and concrete sonic objects, 2005). The focus of his work, however, lies for the most part in music for symphony orchestra (e. g. his cycle of seven symphonic pieces from 1979 to 2005). The public is largely familiar with his music for the television series Panoptikum města pražského (Curios of the city of Prague) and Četnické humoresky (Gendarme Humoresques).

The composition Sólistův chléb (A Soloist’s Sustenance) was written in 2010 as a commission for the Prague Spring 2011 festival, as a mandatory competition piece in the trombone section. This fact led the author to utilise the manifold technical and expressive possibilities of the instrument: “I wanted for every soloist to be able to show how well he plays his instrument, and at the same time to demonstrate how hard it is for him to earn his living – thus the title A Soloist’s Sustenance. I dare say that I trust myself not to have made it overly demanding technically, and that despite the difficulty of the piece, there will be opportunities for spontaneous musicianship.”

BA 8019, ISMN 979-0-2601-0528-7, EUR 10.95   BUY