ANDREAS SCHOLL
& CZECH ENSEMBLE BAROQUE
Programme
- František Ignác Tůma: Te Deum
- František Ignác Tůma: Mottetum de tempore
- František Ignác Tůma: Motteto de S. Joanne Baptista
- František Ignác Tůma: Sinfonia a 4
- František Ignác Tůma: Motetto per ogni tempo
- František Ignác Tůma: Dixit Dominus
Performers
- Czech Ensemble Baroque
- Andreas Scholl - countertenor
- Roman Válek - conductor
- Romana Kružíková - soprano
- Pavla Radostová - soprano
- Jakub Kubín - tenor
- Jiří Miroslav Procházka - bass
- Josef Žák - leader
- Tereza Válková - choirmistress
This is the very first time that the Prague Spring is hosting Czech Ensemble Baroque, a leading vocal-instrumental group focused on the period interpretation of early music based on authentic historical sources. Led by its founder, Roman Válek, the ensemble will present the modern premiere of motets by František Ignác Tůma, along with the latter’s exultant Te Deum. They will be joined by soloist Andreas Scholl, the stellar German countertenor, whose performance of hitherto neglected works by this phenomenal Czech Baroque master promises a truly special occasion of international significance.
The engagement as Kapellmeister at the Viennese court of Queen Elisabeth Christine of Brunswick-Wolfenbüttel, mother of Maria Theresa and widow of Emperor Charles VI, proved to be a golden era in the musical career of Czech Baroque composer František Ignác Tůma (1704-1774). He wrote hundreds of sacred and secular works, in particular, major sacred motets for solo voices and large ensemble. Compositions for solo alto occupy a privileged position in Tůma’s motet oeuvre. Rediscovered pieces reveal Tůma as a supreme master of high Baroque church music. New transcriptions of his surviving notated scores have been compiled by a team of musicologists using materials from libraries and archives in Vienna, Berlin, Prague and Dresden, and thus his music can now once more come to life on the concert platform. The alto part will be sung by Andreas Scholl, for the past twenty years one of the world’s most respected countertenors. Over the course of his varied career he has worked with Philippe Herreweghe in performances of Bach’s cantatas and Passions, he has appeared with the Berlin and New York Philharmonics, and he has undertaken operatic roles at the Salzburger Festspiele alongside Cecilia Bartoli, and also with Reneé Fleming at the Metropolitan Opera.
Since its founding in 1998 Czech Ensemble Baroque has been a favourite of concert-goers and music critics alike. Its repertoire includes cantatas, operas, concertos and symphonies primarily dating from the Baroque and Classical periods. Since 2012 the ensemble has been organising its own subscription series in Brno’s Besední dům entitled “Bacha na Mozarta!”, and it is also the Ensemble-in-Residence of the Znojmo Music Festival. The group is a regular guest of domestic and foreign festivals, and its recordings are released on the ARTA and Supraphon labels. “The Baroque ensemble, a group assembled by Roman Válek, movingly brings this work once more to public notice, undertaking a faultless synthesis of fidelity to the notated score and flexibility of expression,” wrote the French magazine Diapason, reviewing a recording for Supraphon of František Ignác Tůma’s Requiem. Milan Bátor then applauded their recording of music by František Xaver Richter in Harmonie magazine: “The recording brings us a performance of polished intonation in the orchestra, while the superbly rounded phrasing and the individual solo numbers bring a sense of assurance, feeling and insight.” The ensemble regularly collaborates with some of the finest domestic soloists, such as Adam Plachetka and Hana Blažíková, and they regularly team up with Andreas Scholl, whom they accompanied on a European tour in 2021. Immediately after their Prague Spring concert Czech Ensemble Baroque plans to record Tůma’s motets for the French label Evidence Classics.
