Sunday Music Show | All stories

Hello and welcome to Radio Prague with me Ruth Fraňková. In today’s Sunday Music Show we look at a famous Czech musical film called Balada pro Banditu or Ballad for a Bandit. Shot in 1978, the “folk musical” about the famous Carpathian outlaw features Miroslav Donutil, who has since become one of the most popular Czech actors, and the world-renowned musician Iva Bittová.

In this Sunday Music Show we profile Czech country music legend Mirek Hoffmann. In a career spanning more than half a century the country singer recorded over 30 albums and performed thousands of concerts.

In today’s programme we’ll be playing tracks of off the latest solo effort by David Koller – the legendary drummer and frontman for the rock group Lucie. His album, Československo with L-O-V-E in the word in caps, was recently named album of the year for 2015. Československo is of course the Czech name for the former Czechoslovakia.

On his Facebook profile Lazer Viking’s genre is listed as “slop pop/bubblegum punk/young oldies”. Going by his excellent 2015 debut Radical Karaoke, the colourful Czech artist – who previously traded as Boy Wonder and the Teen Sensations – has also been immersed in girl groups, doo wop, surf pop and possibly Ariel Pink.

In this week’s Sunday Music show we are profiling 22-year-old Czech singer Gabriela Gunčíková who will represent the Czech Republic at this year’s Eurovision Song Contest. The singer will perform the song I Stand, an English-language song with music by Christian Schneider and Sara Biglert and lyrics by Biglert and Aidan O'Connor.

Today’s edition of Sunday Music Show is dedicated to one of the legends of Czech 20th century music, Jaroslav Ježek, who is best known for the songs he composed for the legendary avant-garde satirical cabaret, the Liberated Theatre. This year marks 110 years since Ježek’s birth and on that occasion we will be listening to three unique albums that pay homage to the great composer and pioneer of Czech jazz music.

In this week’s Sunday Music we feature tracks from singer/actress Barbora Poláková’s debut. The singer is behind the singles Kráva (Cow) and Nafrněná (snooty or stuck-up).

This edition of Sunday Music Show is devoted to Czech opera singer, bass-baritone Adam Plachetka, who is currently at home at the Vienna State opera. One of the bright lights on the Czech opera scene Plachetka can boast of being the first Czech to perform on leading opera stages in New York, Vienna, London and Milan before having reached the age of 30.

Maternity leave, as most parents know, is no holiday despite what the Czechs call it (mateřská dovolena). In this week’s programme, we play music from the duo Mateřská.com, focusing largely on how tough it can be to take care of little kids, often with insignificant help from their spouses.

The Prague group Vložte Kočku (meaning Insert the Cat; apparently it’s a reference to American Psycho) revolves around brothers Kryštof and Cyril Kaplan. Last year the indie outfit returned with Hedvika, an impressive set of lo-fi, often manic rap-infused electronica.