Sunday Music Show | All stories

It seems hard to believe, but Czech conductor Vladimír Válek, who headed the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra for 26 years, turned 80 this week.

This week we feature music by Tereza Černochová (formerly of Black Milk).

Prague dance outfit Ohm Square have been around since the mid-1990s when they made a splash as purveyors or live drum’n’bass and breakbeat and featured on some of the era’s most memorable Czech movie soundtracks. Last year the group, now slimmed down to the duo of Charlie One (Charlotte Fairman) and Jan 2 (Jan Čechtický), returned after a long absence with the LP A Curious Place Between Souls and Atoms on leading local indie label Starcastic.

Today’s edition of Sunday Music Show is dedicated to the late singer, song-writer and pianist Filip Topol, frontman of the Prague-based rock group Psí Vojáci. The album Sbohem a řetěz is a live recording of a concert which took place in Prague’s Archa theatre earlier this year to mark the first anniversary of Filip Topol’s death. It features some of the country’s most respected underground bands, such the Plastic people of the Universe, Garáž or Zuby nehty, interpreting the best known songs by Psí vojáci.

This week Sunday Music Show profiles Ivan Moravec, a phenomenal Czech pianist who was at home on prominent world stages and who died last month at the age of 84. With his demise the country has lost a great artist, a cultural ambassador and a dedicated music teacher.

In this week we hear tracks off a newer project by acclaimed singer and performer Vojtěch Dyk and B-Side Band.

Prague-born, Canada-based Lenka Lichtenberg recorded the haunting Songs from the Breathing Walls at a dozen synagogues in Bohemia and Moravia. Chiefly comprising Jewish liturgical pieces the wonderful 17-track CD, released in 2012, represents a poignant tribute to the Czech Republic’s lost Jewish communities.

In this edition of Sunday Music Show we look at a new album by the popular Czech singer, composer and multi-instrumentalist Radůza, called Marathon – příběh běžce or Marathon the story of a runner. The album is a story of warfare, starting with the Battle of Marathon and ending in 1946 in the Sudetenland. Marathon was issued in May at the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the end of the Second World War.

In this edition of Sunday Music we will be playing songs of Old Prague by the band Šlapeto and the Šlapeto revival band Patrola. They bring back the days of Prague at the turn of the nineteenth century with its taverns, cabarets, artists, craftsmen and prostitutes –extolling the attractions of Prague’s girls, beer and its famous Žizkov district.

This Sunday falls on July 5, a public holiday in the Czech Republic marking the legacy of Saint Cyril and Methodius, two Christian missionaries, who arrived in Moravia in 863 to spread the gospel in the Slavic language. In this edition of Sunday Music Show we will listen to the Glagolitic Mass by Czech composer Leoš Janáček, a musical homage to the two missionaries. The version you are going to hear today is performed by the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras.