Beethoven Among the Aeroplanes
Bassoonist Michaela Špačková, the holder of the “Podium für junge Talente” award in the ARD Competition will walk unseen between the aircraft at the NTM exhibition. Together with your ticket you will also receive a Beethoven pass featuring a range of experiences.
Programme
- Luboš Sluka: Sonata for bassoon and piano
- Lera Auerbach: I Walk Unseen
- Robert Schumann: Fantasiestücke Op. 73
- Nikol Bóková: Preludes
- Ludwig van Beethoven: Sonata for cello and piano in G minor Op. 5. No. 2 (arr. Michela Špačková)
Performers
- Michaela Špačková – bassoon
- Amadeus Wiesensee – piano
“The world around us is constantly evolving; human dreams, desires and feelings, however, stay the same. And so, while historical machines remind us today of how much the world has changed over the past few centuries, the emotions expressed by the music of Clara Schumann or Ludwig van Beethoven are still very much part of us,” states bassoonist Michaela Špačková, introducing her Prague Spring programme, which she conceived exclusively for the Transport Hall of the National Technical Museum. “The opening Sonata for bassoon and piano by Luboš Sluka (1928) will draw you into a realm of colours and imagination. The following three works – a song by Clara Schumann (1819–1896) filled with longing, the Czech premiere of I Walk Unseen by Lera Auerbach (1973), inspired by a John Milton poem, and Fantasiestücke by Robert Schumann (1810–1856) – will guide you through a series of memories, dreams and fantasies, from the tenderest emotions to disturbing nightmares. The second half of the concert will open with the poetic Preludes by Nikol Bóková (1991), performed for the first time in a version for bassoon. Nikol captured the bassoon’s sound character superbly while, at the same time, giving it a completely new dimension – her language is modern, yet very human and sensitive; she allows room for beauty, depth and immediate emotional expression,” Michaela Špačková adds. The evening will culminate in a performance of Sonata in G minor by Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827), originally written for the cello.
#MeetBeethovenLive
I completed my first two sonatas for violoncello opus five in Berlin in 1796. It may be of interest to you that, on my way to Prussia, I spent some time in Prague; it was my first visit to Bohemia. I travelled to Prague with my benefactor, Prince Karl Lichnowsky, and I stayed at the Golden Unicorn inn in Malá Strana. Prague was still living and breathing Mozart and I was quite naturally carried away by this: regardful of his concert aria Bella mia fiamma, addio, I decided to compose the concert aria Ah, perfido, spergiuro after meeting the soprano Josepha Duschek. A fascinating woman and a wonderful singer, that Mrs Duschek! I completely understood Mozart’s enchantment. I believe the fondness was mutual since, that same year, she sang Ah, perfido in Leipzig, and two years later, in 1798, I was invited to her music academy in Jahn’s Hall on Himmelpfortgasse in Vienna; here I accompanied her on the fortepiano and I also performed one of my violin sonatas together with Ignaz Schuppanzigh. But back to Berlin! When violoncellist Jean-Louis Duport and I played my two sonatas opus 5 before King Friedrich Wilhelm II of Prussia, who, incidentally, was himself a highly accomplished cellist, the latter rewarded me with a gold snuffbox filled with one hundred Louis d’Or coins! As you can imagine, I was overjoyed, and thus I dedicated my sonatas to him. I do not mean to boast, but I consider these pieces to be very fine indeed. I would even venture to say that I have set foot on new, original and hitherto unexplored soil.
Michaela Špačková
Michaela Špačková chose the bassoon because the teacher was a nice, young guy. Her subsequent steps led her from Prague to Berlin and to the Hochschule für Musik Hanns Eisler Berlin, and to Paris, where she studied for a year at the Conservatoire national supérieur de musique et de danse. She has now been in Berlin for eleven years, she gives concerts, she is head of bassoon at the Hochschule für Musik und Tanz in Cologne and she holds masterclasses all over the world. As a soloist she has performed in Berlin’s Konzerthaus and Suntory Hall in Tokyo, and she has appeared with the ORF Radio-Symphonieorchester Wien, the Munich Chamber Orchestra and the Czech Philharmonic. She has won more than twenty awards in international competition, among others, in the Prague Spring competition and the ARD in Munich. For her Prague Spring debut she will be joined by pianist Amadeus Wiesensee, the very first Artist-in-Residence of the Beethoven House in Bonn.
