Programme:
Eugen Suchoň:
Ty Kúty, ty Kúty from Kúcanské piesne (Eugen Suchoň)
Z jednej strany Moravy from Kúcanské piesne (Eugen Suchoň)
Karol Szymanowski:
Piglet from Children’s Rhymes, Op. 49, No. 4 (Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna)
How Best to Get Rid of a Hornet from Children’s Rhymes, Op. 49, No. 2 (Kazimiera Iłłakowiczówna)
Frédéric Chopin: A Maiden’s wish from Polish Songs, Op. 74, No. 1 (Stefan Witwicki)
Antonín Dvořák:
Good Night, My Darling from In Folk Tone, Op. 73, No. 1 (traditional)
I Have a Faithful Mare, Op. 73, No. 4 (traditional)
“Měsíčku na nebi hlubokém”, Rusalka’s aria from Rusalka
“My cizinou jsme bloudili”, Bohuša and Julia’s duet from The Jacobin
Emmerich Kálmán: “Lári fári”, from The Gypsy Virtuoso
***
Antonín Dvořák:
Hear my prayer, O Lord, my God from Biblical Songs, Op. 99, No. 3 (Antonín Dvořák)
God is my shepherd from Biblical Songs, Op. 99, No. 4 (Antonín Dvořák)
Hear my prayer, O Lord from Biblical Songs, Op. 99, No. 6 (Antonín Dvořák)
Sing ye a joyful song unto the Lord from Biblical Songs, Op. 99, No. 10 (Antonín Dvořák)
Songs My Mother Taught Me from Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, No. 4 (Adolf Heyduk)
Now the String is Tuned, Lad from Gypsy Songs, Op. 55, No. 5 (Adolf Heyduk)
Bohuslav Martinů:
The Moravian Girl from Songs on Two Pages
The Lads of Zvolen from Songs on Two Pages
Leoš Janáček:
Uncertainty from Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs
Message from Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs
Bailiff’s Daughter from Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs
Kdo má počernů galánku from Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs
Bedřich Smetana: Kalina’s aria from The Secret
***
Franz Liszt: Grand galop chromatique in E-flat major, S. 219

In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries it became increasingly common for composers to incorporate folk elements into their music, thereby contributing to the awakening of national consciousness and the establishment of a national form of music in their own countries. Art songs – settings of poems and other texts usually written for one voice with piano accompaniment – played a particularly effective role in this process, since their texts made them more intelligible to audiences. The Embassy of the Czech Republic will host a concert of art songs (and one work for piano) from several European countries: Slovakia (Eugen Suchoň), Poland (Karol Szymanowski, Frédéric Chopin), the Czech Republic (Antonín Dvořák, Bohuslav Martinů, Leoš Janáček, Bedřich Smetana) and Hungary (Emmerich Kálmán, Franz Liszt). The songs will be performed by the Slovak soprano Tatiana Hajzušová, who trained in Bratislava and is a regular guest at the theatres of Košice and Wiesbaden, as well as a frequent collaborator with the Slovak Philharmonic, and the Czech baritone Jiří Rajniš, who trained in Prague and Los Angeles and regularly appears in principal operatic roles at the Prague State Opera and at other opera houses and concert halls in the Czech Republic and Slovakia. They will be accompanied on the piano by the Polish pianist Adriana Magdovski, born and trained in Maribor, who performs regularly around Europe and in the United States as a soloist and chamber musician.