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CHOIR HISTORY
FOUNDATION OF THE CHOIR
The choir began performing in 1935 under its founder choirmaster Jan Kühn (pictured), as the Czech Choir. Originally it was to have performed as an ensemble for the broadcasts of the Czechoslovak Radio and appeared for the first time on 8 January in the same year in Foerster’s opera Debora. Shortly thereafter the original 27-member choir increased to an ensemble of almost 200 members.
Jan Kühn and his wife
Otakar Jeremiáš
JAN KÜHN THE MOTIVATOR
However, Jan Kühn’s goals went further than his primary motive for establishing the radio ensemble, which was live broadcasting on radio waves. They moved from a closed studio to concert stages. In the first year the choir made 87 radio broadcasts nevertheless by 1936 it had already performed with the Czech Philharmonic at its first public concert in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House conducted by Otakar Jeremiáš (pictured). The choir soon proved itself to be a reliable partner of Prague orchestras during the performance of cantatas, oratorios and operas therefore becoming an essential part of Prague musical life.
It was engaged by prominent orchestral conductors such as Rafael Kubelík, Václav Talich, Karel Ančerl, Václav Neumann or Václav Smetáček. Some concerts became memorable events. For example, the performance of Dvořák’s Saint Ludmila in the courtyard of Prague Castle conducted by Rafael Kubelík (1948), a rendition of King David conducted by Arthur Honegger (1949) or a performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony at the Prague Spring Festival (1949) conducted by Erich Kleiber.
The choir’s first gramophone recording was that of Antonín Dvořák’s Stabat Mater oratorio with conductor Václav Talich, the album being released in 1952. To begin with, the amateur ensemble gradually worked its way to become professional and from 1953 it was incorporated into the Czech Philharmonic, which became its most important partner. Its first foreign tour came in 1957, when the choir travelled to France and to the German Democratic Republic.
NEW SOUND WITH VESELKA AND MÁTL
A new era began in 1959 when the leadership of the choir was taken over by Josef Veselka (pictured) and began working to fully professionalise the choir. Under his leadership the choir acquired a modern sound which became an example of quality for many choirs in Europe. He placed emphasis on its a cappella repertoire and particularly on Renaissance polyphony. The choir presented Czech (Havelka: In Praise of Light, Sommer: Vocal Symphony) and foreign contemporary composers (Britten: War Requiem, Stravinsky: The Wedding) on Prague stages. Josef Veselka’s unrivalled analytical work built on brilliant dramatic structure for each composition and perfect purity of intonation.
It was renamed to the Prague Philharmonic Choir in 1969 mainly because of foreign agencies. The new name was chosen to emphasize its association with the Czech Philharmonic and the city of Prague. The early 1960s saw the choir taking on more foreign tours, particularly to Italy (the festival in Perugia, guest appearances at the Santa Cecilia Church in Rome, at the La Fenice Opera House in Venice, the San Carlo Theatre in Naples, in Palermo and at La Scala in Milan), followed by collaboration with world conductors (Mehta, Abbado, Muti, Ozawa and others).
After leaving for Rome, Veselka passed on the leadership of the choir after 23 years to his pupil Lubomír Mátl. During his ten-year tenure, the Prague Philharmonic Choir recorded such works as as Antonín Dvořák’s Stabat Mater and Rekviem with conductor Wolfgangem Sawallischem, Johannes Brahms´ cantata with Giuseppe Sinopolim and regularly performed at tha Rossini Opera Festival in Pesaro. Its gramophone recordings with the Czech Philharmonic won international awards in Paris, Berlin and Tokyo, and the choir then recorded some exclusive opera music.
Josef Veselka
Jaroslav Brych
KÜHN’S RETURN AND SUCCESS ABROAD
The next stage of the choir’s history began in 1990 with the return of the name of Kühn. It was the founder’s son, Pavel Kühn, who took over the choirmaster´s baton. He built on the tradition of his father in choral education, a unified way of singing, phrasing and rhythm.
Its a cappella repertoire came to the fore again and especially top works of 20th century Romanticism. Great attention was devoted to expression and preserving the different interpretations of compositions of various styles.
In 1991 the Prague Philharmonic Choir began performing as a separate organisation. It established new contacts abroad, began collaborating with the Berlin Philharmonic, Amsterdam Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Israeli Philharmonic and others. An important step was also to establish collaboration with the best gramophone companies (Decca, Sony, Deutshe Grammophon, EMI or TelDec.)
Jaroslav Brych (pictured) then became principal choirmaster who from 1996 to 2004 continued the artistic legacy of his predecessors. Jan Rozehnal took over the leadership of the choir for the next year.
LUKÁŠ VASILEK
The current era of the Prague Philharmonic Choir dates back to March 2007 when Lukáš Vasilek (pictured) was appointed as principal choirmaster. The choir is regularly invited to perform at world and Czech music festivals, but also as an opera chorus in famous theatres. It collaborates with world-renowned conductors who often directly request that it performs with orchestras at concerts or recordings. Obviously of no less importance is concert collaboration with Czech orchestras, primarily with the Czech Philharmonic.
In recent years the choir has collaborated on the recording of the Souvenirs album of Russian opera diva Anna Netrebko appearing at Prague’s O2 Arena in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with the North German Radio Symphony Orchestra in Hamburg, completed tours of the United States of America which included concerts in New York and Washington, and tours of Mexico. The Prague Philharmonic Choir performed at the memorial concert as a tribute to Jiří Bělohlávek, and also at the concert performance of Puccini’s Turandot in Israel conducted by Zubin Mehta. The recording of several of Bohuslav Martinů’s cantatas was praised by prestigious music magazines BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone.
Under the leadership of principal choirmaster Lukáš Vasilek the choir has built a position of highly valued partner of world orchestras. An example of this is collaboration with the Berlin Philharmonic and its new chief conductor Kirill Petrenko, its performance at the Festival in Baden-Baden, the concert at the BeethovenFest in Bonn with Vladimir Fedoseyev and collaboration with conductors Zubin Mehta, Alan Gilbert, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Fabio Luisi or Mariss Jansons. The Prague Philharmonic Choir has been making recordings in the long term for DECCA. It still considers its main home partner to be the Czech Philharmonic led by its chief conductor Semjon Byčkov, but does not neglect its collaboration with other Czech ensembles.
A new direction is being taken by its own choral concerts which the choir usually organises three to four times in a season. It invites its partner the PKF – Prague Philharmonia and brilliant soloists to these concerts. Then the entire ensemble of choir, orchestra and soloists is conducted by Lukáš Vasilek. At these concerts the choir has presented majestic works such as Britten’s War Requiem, Poulenc’s Stabat Mater or Martinů’s Kytice (Bouquet of Flowers). Unusually, it also sang a programme of jazz spirituals.
Lukáš Vasilek
