Sunday Music Show | All stories

Pianist and composer Beata Hlavenková is one of the bright lights on the Czech jazz and alternative music scene. In this edition of our Sunday music program we’ll be playing excerpts from the musician’s highly acclaimed latest album called Theodoros - Gift of God.

The rock and blues singer and song writer Michal Prokop has been part of the Czech music scene for over 50 years. With their clever lyrics, his songs have always appealed to sophisticated audiences but he has also scored a series of major hits. While strictly apolitical during the communist era, Michal Prokop went into politics in the 1990s but quit, and recorded his latest album which came out in 2012.

Karel Kryl was one of the most significant Czech anti-communist protest singers. His sparse and poetic songs such as Bratříčku zavírej vrátka (Close the Gate, Little Brother), written in direct response to the Soviet invasion, reflected the frustrations of many Czechoslovaks in the 1970s and ‘80s. This year sees two important anniversaries relating to the singer-songwriter: Monday is the 20th anniversary of his death, while the 70th anniversary of his birth falls in April.

In this week’s Sunday Music Show we listen to music by the soulful a capella group Yellow Sisters and speak with one of its four members Bára Vaculíková (and her young daughter). Antonia, Bára, Hawa and Leňa have been singing together since 2005, using their versatile voices to create full, rhythmical and often playful music.

The album Šero by the band Orff Brothers has won the won the Apollo Award by Czech music critics for the best recording of 2013. The Orff Brothers, whose sound has been described as electro-folk, evolved from a fictional ensemble to a real band. Šero is only their second album in eight years.

Markéta Irglová is a Moravian-born, internationally known singer, songwriter and pianist who records exclusively in English. The modest musician was not yet 20 when she became the only Czech woman ever to win an Oscar, for Falling Slowly with Glen Hansard. After the pair went their separate ways romantically and professionally, Irglová – now based in Iceland – struck out on her own in 2011 with the poetic, piano-driven LP Anar.

This week’s Sunday music show profiles the album Crazy Classic by a refreshing young group called Two Voices. Since they first appeared on Radio Prague the two voices have expanded to four –three female and one male voice – but the basic idea is the same, presenting well know classics in an irreverent manner thanks to the witty and outrageous lyrics by chanson singer Jana Rychterova. So stay with us for some Bach, Strauss and Tchaikovsky in a refreshing new rendition.

The Czech folk-rock band the Eben Brothers was formed in the late 1970s by multi-instrumentalists Kryštof, Marek and David Eben. The sons of a respected classical music composer however only rose to national fame two decades later with their award winning albums Silent Home and I’m On It.

Dol Dauber was the central figure in one of the leading Czech dance or jazz band groups of the interwar years. Between Europe wide appearances, Dauber often headed the bill during the summer season at Mariánské Lázně’s plush hotels with the spa providing inspiration for many of his compositions. Dauber’s band also featured in several Czech film hits.

“Texas-Czech, Bohemian-Moravian Bands: Historic Recordings, 1929-1959” is a wonderful compilation featuring groups such as the Joe Patek Orchestra, Bacova’s Ceska Kapela and Adolph Pavlas and His Bohemians. One of Tom Waits’s favourite 20 LPs, the album offers a fascinating take on the dechovka (brass band) music that the Lone Star State’s huge Czech community brought with them from the old country.