VIKTOR KALABIS & ZUZANA RUZICKOVA FOUNDATION♫

Watch New York University's Professor Michael Beckermann Introduce the Music of Victor Kalabis - click here

***New 3 set CD collection...see Review below

First complete recording on CD of the String Quartets

Praga Digitals - THE STRING QUARTETS (complete):

GERHARD VIELHABER learn more about this artist

César Franck: Prélude, Choral & Fugue
Viktor Kalabis: Akcenty op. 26
Robert Schumann: Fantasie op. 17

Label: ClassicClips

 

Moving Clarinet
Viktor Kalabis took enormous joy in the clarinet and this comes through beautifully in this new CD from Premiere Music

Irvin Venyš - clarinet
Martin Kasík – piano

Pieces by Josef Páleníček, Bohuslav Martinů, Miloslav Ištvan,
Karel Husa and Viktor Kalabis

REVIEWS

Viktor Kalabis

Posted by Phil Muse in Symphony,  chamber music, MSR

Music of Viktor Kalabis - Zuzana Růžičková, piano & harpsichord;
Josef Suk, violin; The Suk Trio; Vlach String Quartet; Prague Chamber Soloists; Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek, Zdeněk Košler, Václav Neumann, and Karel Šejna.

Czech composer Viktor Kalabis (1923-2006) was an unknown name to me when this 3-CD jewel box arrived in the mail. As I began scanning the Internet for basic research in writing this review, I was astonished to find that only two Kalabis works were listed on Arkivmusic.com, both buried in recordings of works by other composers. My wonder increased as I actually began listening to the composer’s music. Here was a distinctive, major voice of the 20th century, one who by rights should have a place in modern music near to Bartók or Kodály, two older contemporaries whom he admired, or Stravinsky, of whom he wrote a thesis. (I will leave it to others more qualified than I, and to time, which reveals all things, to determine the exact niche.) Why had I never encountered this striking figure before, in concert or on record?

The answer lies in the fact that Kalabis spent his most creative years in a time when his country was under a Communist regime. That he fell in love with and married a Jewish woman (the great keyboard artist Zuzana Růžičková) probably did not endear him to the authrorities. That they both steadfastly refused to join the Party met with petty retribution. For Růžičková, the first harpsichordist to record all the works for her instrument by J.S. Bach, it meant confiscation of all her fees from foreign concerts. For Kalabis, it meant denial of every visa application to travel abroad and promote his own music in the concert hall. It was a conspiracy of utter silence, in its effect more damning than anything that even Shostakovich experienced under the Soviet regime in Russia.

But there were some unexpected plusses. If Viktor Kalabis was denied a visa to travel, so were other artists. Thus he benefitted from the opportunity to develop professional and personal relationships with a number of great musicians in Prague in the four decades before the Party was overthrown in 1987. The work of many of these artists, as well as the contributions of outstanding sound engineers, is heard in the present program. Further, he had the advantage of being married to a world-class musician who might be expected to critique and perform his music. (Has anyone , other than Robert Schumann, ever been in that situation?) And just as he devoted his energies to the Bohuslav Martinu Foundation and Institute at a time when that composer’s work was a cause to fight for, so he himself has had the benefit of a similar foundation that continues to promote his work after his death (for information on its activities, visit www.kalabismusic.org ). The story of how the present MSR release became a reality is no doubt involved, but I note that the secretary of the international Viktor Kalabis and Zuzana Růžičková Foundation, the distinguished American flutist and educator John Solum, is credited here as executive producer. Providing further aid in the transatlantic effort were MSR’s Robert LaPorta for product management, unnamed engineers at Supraphon, Prague who provided superb digital transfers, and Richard Price of Candlewood Digital, who did the final digital mastering. It was a quality job all around, right down to the cover art and package design by Tim Schwartz of Orion Productions.

Having said all that, let’s get around to discussing the music. Viktor Kalabis’ style is distinctive. His music is economical, honest and direct. Right from the opening of any of the works in this program you get a clear impression of its purpose and specific weight. He is clearly a modernist with little of the romantic heritage in the forefront of his music, and yet his music has a distinctly Czech flavor that separates it from the modern mainstream in which it flows. The modernist features in his music compel, rather than repel, the listener, in particular his compelling rhythms, to which he frequently interjects boldly contrasted elements, his occasional use of bitonality and tone clusters, as he does in the Sonata for Trombone and Piano (1970), and most of all his wonderful color palette, especially at the dark end of the spectrum. His music is pure, with no implied program – the exception being The Two Worlds: Ballet Music, which he wrote for a staging of Alice in Wonderland by the Children’s Music department of Czech Television. Though his music is serious, it is never depressive.

Due to Kalabis’ concise style, we have the advantage of hearing eleven major works in this 3-disc package. Beginning with his Piano Concerto no. 1 (1956), which he wrote as a wdding present for his wife (Růžičková performs it here in a delightful performance with the Czech PO under Karel Šejna). Intended partly as a tribute to Mozart in his bicentennial year, it is a modern work that is very Mozartean in its formal design, its clarity, and its gentle humor. Listening to it, I kept recalling Mozart’s Concerto No. 24 in the seriousness of its opening movement and the wonderful way the piano leavens that severity with the warmth and intimacy of its solo in the slow movement, an Andante marked molto quieto e semplice. Two symphonies are included. Symphony No. 4 in two movements (1972) is highly dramatic, with sensational use of the percussion as an integral element. No. 5 (1976) is subtitled “Fragment,” not because it is incomplete (it is in fact a unified work in a single movement), but in honor of Michelangelo’s famous unfinished sculptures, which it emulates in its highly condensed content and emotion. Chamber Music for Strings (1963), written for the Prague Chamber Soloists, shows a striving for all the rich tonality and expression of which a string orchestra is capable.

The chamber works bear further evidence to Kalabis’ concise expression and dramatic power. String Quartet No. 2 (of seven), which Kalabis wrote in 1962-63 in the shadow of his father’s impending death, reveals these qualities. So do the Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord (1967), here performed by the artists for whom it was written, Suk and Růžičková, and the Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello (1974), likewise performed by the Suk Trio, to whom it is dedicated. In both we have distinguished ensemble playing and a central slow movement in which the final word is left to Suk’s violin, magically trailing off its final phrase into ultimate silence. In its mastery of harmony and counterpoint in a modern context, Kalabis’ six 2-voice Canonic Inventions for Harpsichord (1962, played here by Zuzana) pays handsome, scintillating homage to both Bach and Scarlatti. And even the Divertimento for Wind Quintet, perhaps the lightest work on the program, reflects Kalabis’ concerns for concision and pithy expression as it pays its respects to a golden past era from the perspective of a more problematical modern one in which it is still possible to find meaning and even elusive happiness.

Karl van Eycken in his extensive biography published in Movement Janacek monthly, No. 54
July 2007 (Paris) Praise for Viktor and Zuzana...

 

“Kalabis left us a masterful oeuvre.  We count him among the great ones of the second half of the 20th century.  His musical universe combines both necessary elements, i.e., an artistic sense developed to rare heights coupled with a completely professional mastery.  With great strength of expression he reflects both the joys and the convulsions of our times together with a clearly humanist message, never falling into the trap of facility or superficiality.  I avow that I deeply love Kalabis’s music and hope that more and more people will discover it.”

Jindřichův Hradec Honors Viktor Kalabis - Special exhibition celebrates a composer who spent much of his childhood in this southern Bohemia town and who, together with Zuzana, was to spend many happy and inspirational summers here in recent decades.

 

A Wonderful Prague Spring Festival Saw Outstanding Performances in two concerts the complete string quartets by Viktor Kalabis

 

Some of the Highlights of Performances of Works by Viktor Kalabis –2009

An overview from Zuzana Ruzickova, Prague, February 2010

Prague Spring International Music Festival 2009
18 May and 25 May 2009, St Agnes’ convent
V. Kalabis: String Quartets Nos 1-7
Kocian Quartet, Zemlinsky Quartet

Other performances: Kocian Quartet: 5 July 2009,  Lausanne, Switzerland
Zemlinsky Quartet: 3 and 6 November 2009, Library of Congress, Washington, USA (on original instruments, see review recorded for Praga Digitals)

The Hawthorne Quartet
String Quartet No. 6 Op. 68, 13 February 2009, Symphony Hall, Boston, Ma, USA
15 February 2009, Roxbury
String Quartet No. 4  Op. 62, 28 February 2009, Filene Art Center
String Quartet No. 6 Op. 68, 1 April 2009, Boston College
String Quartet No. 5 Op. 63, 24 May 2009, Tanf Art Gallery, Skidmore College, Saratoga Springs, NY
String Quartet No. 5 Op. 63, 24 May 2009, Lenox, MA

Washington Musica Viva
Czech Center, NYC   /Kalabis-Martinů programme/
Sonata for Violin and Piano Op. 58
Piano Trio – G. Kitzis violin, M. Goeke cello, C. Banner piano
Christ and Stephen´s Church, New York, 6 November 2009
Sonata for Viola and Piano Op. 84
Eva Gerard viola, Carl Banner piano

The BBC Concert Orchestra, „New Generation Artists“ /also recorded BBC 3/
Harpsichord Concerto Op. 42, Mahan Esfahani, harpsichord, Watford

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Rudolfinum, Prague 11 and 12 Febraury 2010
Symphony No. 2, Op. 18, conductor Zdeněk Mácal

Czech Chamber Music Society, Praha, Rudolfinum
8 March 2010, String Quartet No. 4 Op. 64, Graffe Quartet

Recordings:
- Suite for Clarinet and Piano Op. 55. Irwin Venys, Martin Kasik,
Czech Radio, Praha and Arco Diva
- „Hallelujah“ (Psalm 150) Op. 74, Ondrej Lebr violin, Vaclav Macha piano
Czech Radio, Praha
Concerto for Basoon Op. 61, Vaclav Vonasek bassoon solo,
Woodwind Ensemble, conducted by Alois Cocek
Czech Radio Praha

Other Kalabis´s works habe been played by reknowned Czech interpreters in the Czech Republic, as for instance:
Monika Knoblochova, harpsichord
- Aquarelles, Op. 53, Preludio, Aria e Toccata ("I casi di Sisyphos") , Dialogues for Cello and Harpsichord Op. 77
Petr Nouzovsky, cello
- Rondo drammatico Op. 86, Monologues Op. 83
Wihan Quartet
String Quartet No. 3 Op. 48
Martinů Quartet
String Quartet No. 5 Op. 63
Stepan Graffe
Sonata for violin and piano Op. 28
Jan Peruska, viola
Sonata for Viola and piano Op. 84
Harmonia Mozartiana Pragensis, Octet
Spring Pipes Op. 50
Septuor Strange Pipers Op. 72
Jiri Hlavac, clarinet
Sonata for clarinet and piano Op. 30, „Impressions“ for 2 clarinets
Jan Riedlbauch, flute
„Alure“ Op. 80

Jiri Kollert, a young pianist already of some reknown, has chosen for the thesis of his doctorate Kalabis´ Works for Piano, including Concerto and Chamber Music. He is consulting with Emil Leichner and Z. Ruzickova.

The Czech Radio broadcasts many Kalabis´s works on both Radio 3 and D-dur.

On the whole we registered over 70 performances of  Kalabis´ works in 2009.

REVIEW: Supraphon Records

“Composer Viktor Kalabis, who turned eighty on 27th February, 2003, ranks among prominent Czech composers of our time. His compositional style is highly distinctive, indeed unmistakeable. In a way that is entirely his own, he has been linking up with the legacies left behind by the epoch-making masters of 20th-century music. In his progress along this road, he has produced works marked by respect for compositional order, wealth of harmony, and inventive melodic devices. His output has comprised over 90 opuses encompassing a wide variety of genres. Kalabis´s music furnishes an eloquent testimony to the spiritual conflicts of the 20th century, never losing its distinct humanitarian message, blending elements of pathos with a sense of tender emotionality and intimacy, admiration for the family of man and for nature, meditative introspection, and spontaneous joy. In his formative years, Viktor Kalabis combined studies of composition and conducting, demonstrating his skill in that latter field on this CD as well. His works were interpreted here by a distinguished cast of soloists and ensembles. This portrait of composer Viktor Kalabis offers a chance of insight into the labyrinth of paths followed by 20th-century music. Viktor Kalabis: a composer´s message on the spiritual and artistic conflicts of the 20th century.”

RADIO BROADCAST: Czech Radio 2007

Viktor's music is still widely broadcasted. Czech Radio played a number of Viktor's pieces throughout 2007. The list of performances is included in the link above.

REVIEW: CDMusic.CS in Prague

“….Recording by Zuzana Ruzickova, a world-acclaimed harpsichordist inseparably associated with J. S. Bachďs music, here introducing 20th century compositions, with which she reaped success during her tour of Japan in 1997. Comprising a number of world premieres, the recording was made in January 1998 on a modern instrument designed to match the character of the works.”

 

REVIEW: Stamford Symphony Performance (Symphony No. 3)

"The pair of concerts that concluded the Stamford Symphony’s season last weekend at the Palace Theatre were far more than musical expression of highest attainment.

They made an eloquent statement about human experience, its moments of pain, trials and non-resolutions, about Kosovo and the killings in Colorado, about the fundamental brotherhood of all mankind.

The focal point was the American premiere of music by Viktor Kalabis, probably unknown to almost everyone in the audience.  It was his third symphony, written in the early 1970s to protest Communist suppression in Czechoslovakia.

A political statement? No way!  It was a poignant express of human suffering by a first-class composer who possibly created one of the most moving works of our time.  If you were there, you might understand that this is not hyperbole... "

(2 May 1999 By John S. Sweeny/The Advocate and Greenwich Time)

FEATURE: “Zuzana Ruzickova, Grande Dame of the Harpsichord,” full article
(Translated by Rolf Liebergesell)

"Sirens, police every where, masses of agitated people course through the narrow streets of the inner city. Mass protests against the communist regime. Suddenly the rumor: “Tanks are coming.” The words fly from mouth to mouth. Will history repeat itself? Will the cry for freedom and democracy be brutally suppressed as in the 1968 “Prague Spring”? Uncertainty, fear and tension hover over the city.

No, not over the whole city. In the center of Prague there is an oasis of quiet: a small recording studio. Here, the harpsichordist Zuzana Ruzickova records the six Brandenberg Concertos by J.S. Bach. Music lovers have waited for this recording a long time. Zuzana Ruzickova does not want to disappoint them...."

(August 1998 By Deborah Cowley/German Readers Digest)

REVIEW: "Chamber Group's History Lessons" (Concerto for Harpischord and Strings), full article

"...The second capsule survey involved the harpsichord concerto in baroque and modern terms. Zuzana Ruzickova was the twice-featured soloist, and her facility at the keyboard during Bach's D Minor Harpsichord Concerto, BWV 1052, impressed not so much in the first movement cadenza as in the finale's accelerated running fingers. The Concerto for Harpsichord and Strings (1975) by Viktor Kalabis received its American premiere, and couldn't have been entrusted to better hands..."

(1 February 1994 By Charles McCardell/Washington Post)

The following reviews were translated by Zuzana Ruzickova and edited by John Solum...

REVIEW: Op. 21, Chamber Music for Strings 

“…is a most interesting work… one feels oneself in the presence of a musician who has ideas to communicate, says them in an unequivocal way… a work of substance which unfailingly keeps holding you in its spell.” 

(Gilles Votvin, La Presse, 9 October 1967)

REVIEW: Op. 25, Concerto for Orchestra

“Kalabis is undoubtedly one of the most outstanding Czech composers of the second half of our century, and the Concerto proves it to perfection. . . It is a work full of dynamism and personality, which draws the audience into its world and never allows even a moment of inattention.  Isn’t this fact in itself proof of the value of Kalabis’s music?"

(Luldvik Kasparek, Hudebni rozhledy, no. 5, 1999)

REVIEW: Op. 26, Accents for Piano 

“… rhythms of unheard-of energy, magic sound, strongly polarized dynamics in the shortest possible time segment, all this did help me -- the then (1997) shy youngster 14 years old -- to liberate my feelings in a previously unknown way.  Seldom now did I take recourse to Mozart or Mendelssohn. . . Kalabis’s music opened up a new world for me.” 

From a booklet text to a newly-released CD by German pianist Gerhard Vielhaber
(Franck, Schumann, Kalabis, on Classic clips)

REVIEW: Op. 33, Symphony No. 3 

“… a poignant expression of human suffering by a first-class composer who possibly has created one of the most moving works of our time.  If you were there, you might understand that this is not a hyperbole. . . one listened with tears in the eyes.  How many contemporary works can produce this emotion?”

(John Sweeney, The Advocate and Greenwich Time (Connecticut), 2 May 1999)

REVIEW: Op. 34, Symphony No. 4 

“This masterly work is so sufficient in its absolute perfection, with enormous potential both of music and philosophy.  It bears witness to Kalabis’s ever-developing creativity…”

(Jaromir Havlik, Hudebni rozhledy, No. 4, 1975)

REVIEW: Op. 38, Five Romantic Songs about Love (R. M. Rilke)

"…from the most tender purity… to a dramatic outcry, from light and happiness to… philosophy, this crystalline, wise and yet passionate work presents five aspects of love…”

(Jiri Pilka in his book Viktor Kalabis)

REVIEW: Op. 39, Sonata for Violin and Harpsichord 

“…a fundamental work, necessary to grasp the composer’s personality…”

(Jiri Pilka in his book Viktor Kalabis)

REVIEW: Op. 42 Concert for Harpsichord and Strings 

“To my mind this Concert is exquisite, one of the key works of its composer because of its polyvalence, of its many mysteries and purely musical riches…”

(Jiri Pilka)

REVIEW: Op. 50, The Pipes of String 

“… a most interesting work with clashing dissonances and polymetric structures, which partly deny the innocent title…”

(O.B., Stuttgarter Zeitung, 2 August 1987)

REVIEW: Op. 58, Sonata for Violin and Piano 

“…tension growing out of perfectly measured and masterfully handled musical components… the summit of this year’s “Days of Contemporary Music.”

(Pavel Skala, Hudebni rozhledy, 1982)
 

REVIEW: Op. 65, Canticum Canticorum 

“…a sort of Magnificat, though not extolling St. Mary but the eternal might of love… Kalabis appears here more like a contemporary of his compatriot Milan Kundera than a faithful bible mystic, his musical language sensuous… Rilling’s “Kantorei” probably never sang such sensual music before…”

(H. Koegler, Stuttgarter Zeitung, 11 August 1987)

REVIEW: Op. 66, Diptychon for Strings 

“… an inward song… full of fantasy and at the same time logical, has been spread before us in unheard-of beauty.”

(Milos Pokora, Hudebni rozhledy, 1988)

REVIEW: Op. 72, The Strange Pipers 

“…Viktor Kalabis emerged from the program like a giant, who, though originating in neoclassicism, was somehow much more interesting in original thought, precise form, and exciting instrumentation than those rooted in modernistic styles.” 

(Petr Kofron, Lidnove noviny, 4 June 1996)

REVIEW: Op. 84, Sonata for Viola and Piano  

“…a masculine, mature song from beginning to end, full-voiced and filled with wisdom, simplicity, charm, equanimity and feeling…a very personal, intimate work.”

(Jan Smolik, Hudebni rozhledy, 1998)

REVIEW: Op. 85, Capriccio for Two Violins and Piano 

“…it was the climax of the evening… it does transmit… pure joy of music, entirely…”

(Jan Smolik, Hudebni rozhledy, 2000)

REVIEW: Op. 87, Three Impressions for Two Clarinets 

“… if there had been a prize from the audience, in this concert it would surely have gone to Viktor Kalabis, so long and ecstatic was the applause.”

(Jan Smolik, Hudebni rozhledy, 2001)

REVIEW: Op. 91, A Little Suite for Two Bassoons 

“…there is a lot of music in this “little” suite!  It has dramatic as well as playful points, both bassoons even get to “swing” a bit… Viktor Kalabis set a high standard right at the beginning of the concert.”

(Jan Smolik, Hudebni rozhledy, 2003)

 
Examples of reviews from the early communist era...

Sonata for Clarinet and Piano (no opus number) 

“…our working classes demand music which reflects their sincere joy in the building of our new socialist future.  The road which Kalabis takes with no little self-confidence leads back, not forwards.  He should abolish those hard harmonies of his, be more active in the “Socialist Youth Movement” and learn from those new people rather than at the feet of western modernists…” 

(Bohumil Karasek, Lidove noviny, 1949)

Op. 4, Second Piano Sonata 

“It would be well if Kalabis would endeavor to find in his music more joyous tones and quit those disconsolate, mournful ones in which he is frowning just now and which at his youthful age are decidedly unhealthy and nihilistic…”

(Bohumil Karasek, Prace, 1950)