Czech Music | All stories

The years of German occupation and decades of communist rule that followed have given music a very special role in Czech society. Amid censorship and political manipulation, music became an important and often subversive tool of free expression. The Doruzka family in many ways embodies this unusual history. The broadcaster and writer Lubomir Doruzka was born in 1924, and has been writing about jazz for well over sixty years. He still broadcasts regularly on the subject. His son Petr, born in 1949, has continued the tradition. He grew up listening

In this special programme, we offer a taste of Czech Christmas music through the centuries. We’ll be hearing from the 17th century “Christmas Songbook” of Adam Michna z Otradovic, one of the founding fathers of this country’s rich tradition of carols, with recordings by the Moravian Madrigalists, and a new CD by the Zvonecek (Little Bell) children’s choir. There’ll be a stirring Christmas Mass from the 1770s by Frantisek Xaver Brixi, and we’ll even be finding out what happened when the Angel of the Lord broke his sled, in a traditional Moravian Christmas

In this edition of Encore we mourn the loss of two major figures on the Czech classical musical scene, and we enjoy a Smetana Trio recording of Martinu, that reminds us that not everything that came out of the 1950s was atonal and dissonant.

For this edition of Encore we go to the movies, looking at two contemporary composers who have approached the art of composing for film from very different angles.

In this edition of Encore we find out how today's French horn differs from the horns of 18th century Bohemia, we have more from the composer who wrote a Requiem for Mozart, and we have some delightful choral music from a distinguished contemporary Czech composer.

In this edition of Encore we look at a rarely used musical form, shared by Bach and the 20th century Czech composer, Jan Novak. We also feature two highly promising young Czech musicians, cellist Tomas Jamnik and pianist Ivo Kahanek.

Carl Stamic was probably the very first virtuoso violist. He lived from 1745 until 1801. The viola is sometimes described as the alto voice of the violin family - if you think of violins as sopranos, violas as altos, cellos as tenors, and the contrabass as bass.

It is quite possible that you will have heard Hans Krasa's famous children's opera Brundibar, but it is less likely that you will have heard it performed in English. Naxos has now come out with a first English language recording.

Today we look at two very different recordings. The first is by a 20th century Czech composer whose name is almost forgotten, but whose music is familiar to every Czech child. The second offers intriguing insights into changes in the way music was played in the course of the 18th century.

Today we bring you no less than two father-and-daughter musical teams, with music by Czech composers Jan Novak, Lubos Sluka and Jaroslav Ridky, as well as an excellent recent Martinu recording, featuring the composer's two piano quintets and his Sonata for two violins.