Concert performances of compositions

Memory of the Prague Palace for Chamber Orchestra

Recording of the premiere on 27. 4. 2007 in the Liechtenstein Palace in Prague on Kampa.

Performers: Roxy Ensemble, conducted by the composer.

However, the historic palace, which today lives a contemporary life, contains a historical memory of various building styles. That is why music is written in such a way that it mirrors contemporary compositional thinking, which is interrupted by historicizing elements.

Roots of Time / Radices temporum for Orchestra

Recording of the Prague spring festival (sound only, no picture).

Prague Symphony Orchestra FOK conducted by Gennady Rozhdestvensky.

 1. Entrata
 2. Credo
 3. Postludium

In the composition I use compositional techniques of the Renaissance and Baroque periods and excerpts from compositions by Claudio Monteverdi, Carlo Gesualdo da Venosa and Johann Sebastian Bach. The inclination to historical music is more evident in the first movement. In the course of the second and third movements, it disappears more

Biblical Sonata for Harp

Recording from the graduation concert of Hana Hrachovinová at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague
on 4. 5. 2015 in the Martinů Hall.

   1st movement – Moderato / David and Solomon
   2nd movement – Grave / David's lamentations
   3rd movement – Allegro / Construction of the Solomon's temple

The Biblical Sonata was created by shortening and reworking the original melodrama David and Solomon for recitation and harp. I was intrigued by three places from the 1st and 2nd books of Samuel, from the 1st Royal and from 2nd Chronicles. David playing harp for Saul, David's painfully beautiful and sincere lamentation when he learns of the death of Saul's son Jonathan, whom he loved very much, and finally some moments from the construction of the temple of the Lord, which his son Solomon is building instead of David. The musical character of the individual parts corresponds to the original text template, which was the inspiration for the musical component. The third movement uses some historical forms.

Aztecs for percussion

Recording from the graduation concert of Anežka Nováková at the Brno Conservatory on 26. 4. 2018.

   1. House of Roses
   2. Song Flower
   3. Ritual of human sacrifice
   4. Conquista – the Return of God-King

The composition Aztecs should be a small flower of a European, laid on a monument to the admirable civilization that Europeans destroyed. In the first three parts, three groups of instruments – drums, metal and wooden – will be heard . The fourth one connects the sound of all three together.

The "House of Roses" was a place in an Aztec temple where young Aztecs danced around rose bushes to the accompaniment of drums. This part is an image of the Aztec belief in life. "Song flower" (in xóchitl in cuícalt) is the name of graceful Aztec poetry. This sentence is an image of the Aztec sense of beauty. The "Ritual of human sacrifice" stems from the Aztec belief that he who is sacrificed to the sun by having his heart torn out alive will turn into a star in the sky and will shine eternally on earth. This part, as horrifying for us Europeans, is meant to depict the natural belief of the Aztecs in the infinity of the afterlife. "Conquista – the return of God-king" is the part that reminds us that Cortez's conquerors appeared just at the time when the Aztecs – again after 52 years – were expecting the return of the king from the sea, where legend has it that he had gone in ancient times. The invaders were greeted as a retinue of the long-awaited god who was to become their king. Cortez, to whom all the treasures of the Aztecs were opened, instead became their murderer. The symbolism of the murderers who came from the East was a powerful source of inspiration for me, ten years after the Russian occupation of our homeland in 1968.

Sonnet sequence for Cello and Piano

Recording from the concert of Umělecká beseda 11. 12. 2018.
Performers: Eduard Šístek and Barbora K. Sejáková.

The Sonnet sequence is a poetic form that brings together 15 sonnets created in a mutual circular connection. The last verse of the first sonnet is identical to the first verse of the second sonnet. The last verse of the second sonnet is identical to the first verse of the third sonnet, etc. The last verse of the fourteenth (last) sonnet is identical to the first verse of the first sonnet. This closes the circle of fourteen sonnets. The first verses of all sonnets are combined into a separate sonnet (the so-called "wreath sonnet"), which is the intellectual cadence of the entire sonnet sequence. In musical form, I started from the poetic form. The character and mutual relations of the "thematic" sphere of the individual sonnets also try to reflect the poetic form of the sonnet.

My composition is dedicated to the memory of my grandfather Jiří Hejda, an important journalist and economist of pre-war Czechoslovakia. After the communist putsh in February 1948, he became uncomfortable with the communist regime. What followed was best expressed by Jiří Hejda himself: "In December 1949, just before Christmas,  I was arrested, in June 1950  I was sentenced to life imprisonment in the trial of Dr. Milada Horáková, after which I passed through Ruzyně, Pankrác, Mírov, Leopoldov and Valdice, only to be released "on parole" in May 1962 at the age of 67. The twelve and a half years I sat innocently in prison could not be undone. And they were evil... Under these conditions, sonnets were created. They were created – but they were not written. Because having a pen and paper in the cell meant correction, i.e. even worse starvation and sleeping on bare ground without blankets and without a headrest in an unheated room. In the despair of the sadness of loneliness, when many committed suicide, I decided to write poetry... Without pen and paper, one had to rely only on one's own memory." During his imprisonment, Jiří Hejda created without any possibility of writing and for many years he was forced to keep in his memory 10 Sonnet sequences, which is over 2000 verses.

Piano Sonata

Recording of the concert 1. 12. 2019 (Ateliér 90).
Performer Barbora K. Sejáková.

   1. Introduction (Allegro vivace)
   2. Scherzo (Presto)
   3. Meditation (Andante)
   4. Toccata (Allegro)

This composition was created in several phases. When I wrote Shadows and Reflections for a chamber ensemble,  I was thinking on going back to some parts of this piece and using them as the basis for separate compositions. And so the third movement of this sonata was originally one part of Shadows and Reflections. The sonata is dedicated to Barbora K. Sejáková.

Intimate Music for Cello

Recording from the concert of Umělecká beseda 30. 3. 2021. Performer Eduard Šístek.
(beginning in 27:30 minutes)

Intimate music was created in the spring of 1968. I wrote it for my friend and colleague in the Ars cameralis ensemble, the violist Karel Doležal. He wanted to play some of my composition. At that time, he always enthusiastically recounted how he saw a girl "with spring eyes" (as he used to say) who he liked extraordinarily. And so I wrote a piece for him, which should be a kind of modern serenade that he could play under the window with the right one with spring eyes. Karel Doležal used to play the song with liking, but I never asked him if he played it to his future wife as a serenade. When Witold Lutosławski recommended the piece to his London editor for publish in 1979, the publisher from Chester Music asked me to make a cello version. And so since 1984, when the composition was published, there have been two versions.

Songs for Lucinka for Cello and Piano (selection)

Recording from the concert of Umělecká beseda 7. 11. 2020.
Performers: Alžběta Krištofová and Barbora Krištofová.
(beginning in 1:25 minute)

   Snow Song
   Horse Song

Once upon a time, I composed a lot of children's songs for children's radio broadcasts. When both my granddaughters were little, they like to listen to these songs. Later, when one of them started playing the cello,  I adjusted many of them for her.

Per flauto (1st movement)

Recording from the concert of Umělecká beseda, streamed from Portugal on 21. 9. 2021.
Performer Monika Štreitová.
(beginning in 27:30 minutes)

Per flauto is a short piece from 1975. A year later, I added the second movement, but the notes were lost. Recently I found sketches of this second movement, so hopefully someday both meovments will be performed together...

Flower from Paradise for recitation and girls' choir
on verses by Jaroslav Seifert.

Recording of the concert of Umělecká beseda 30. 11. 2021.
Performed by Rudolf Kvíz, choir Coccinelle, conducted by Jan Rybář.
(beginning in 27:30 minutes)

The composition Flower from Paradise was created from the initiative and impulse of Bohumil Kulínský jr. It is dedicated to him, his mother, Dr. Blanka Kulínská and their choir Bambini di Praga. The composition sets to music Jaroslav Seifert's poem Paradise Lost from the collection Umbrella of Piccadilly. The composition was first performed at a concert marking the 10th anniversary of the founding of the Bambini di Praga choir on 17 April 1983 in Prague in the Dvořák Hall of the Rudolfinum. The choir Bambini di Praga performed, choirmasters Dr. Blanka Kulínská and Bohumil Kulínský jr., and Radovan Lukavský recited.