Ostrava days of new music 2005.

Although he has lived mainly in the United States since the end of the Sixties, Petr Kotik, the composer, flautist and leader of the New York S.E.M. Ensemble, is a very important figure in contemporary Czech music. When in 2001 he came up with the project of a biennial Ostrava Days event and the idea of founding a Centre for New Music in Ostrava, many people (including myself) rather doubted that any enterprise of this kind had any prospects of success here. Kotik conceived the Ostrava Days as a "Second Darmstadt", in all seriousness and with all the implied ambition.

Events have proved Kotik right, and he has literally done wonders together with his small production team headed by Renata Spisarova. The Ostrava Days Institute--three-week (!) composition courses focused on work with orchestra (!) has come into existence, and composers and performers with international reputations have been coming to Ostrava as lecturers. Kotik persuaded the Janacek Philharmonic to participate, an orchestra with which he has several times successfully performed difficult works of the post-war avant-garde as well as entirely contemporary pieces (before and after the launch of the Ostrava Days). His invitation was accepted by the Arditti Quartet, an ensemble specialising in contemporary music and considered among the best quartets in the world. The Days culminate in a weeklong festival involving more than ten concerts. Even in its very first year the festival immediately became practically the most important festival of contemporary music in this country in terms of choice of music and scale. The Ostrava Days 2001 was an unequivocal success.

This year saw the third Ostrava Days festival; the project has abandoned none of its ambitions and has in fact tended to grow. The industrial city of Ostrava, struggling with high unemployment and other problems, is perhaps one of the last venues we would expect for such an event, but it clearly appreciates and supports "its" festival. The Institute is regularly attended by more than 30 young composers, largely from abroad (the registration fee is a hefty 2000 USD, but scholarships are provided). Apart from P. Kotik the OD Institute permanent lecturers are the legendary composers Alvin Lucier and Christian Wolff, while many other leading figures can already be considered long-term collaborators with OD. They include the composer Phill Niblock, the composer Zsolt Nagy, the members of Kotik's S.E.M. Ensemble pianist Joseph Kubera and percussionist Chris Nappi, the baritone Thomas Buckner and others--and the list is far from complete. In 2001 and 2003, participants in the Ostrava days included such prominent composers as Jean-Yves Bosseur, Tristan Murail, Frederic Rzewski, Somei Satoh, Martin Smolka and Rebeca Saunders. This year the role of "chief star" was taken by Louis Andriessen, and the musicologists Makis Solomos and Volker Straebel were invited. It is no exaggeration to say that OD is an event of international stature.

The Ostrava Days Festival is more ever more attractive. In addition to the Janacek Philharmonic (which actually in the end turned out to be the weakest link), a now traditionally large number of distinguished and lesser known ensembles and soloists performed at the festival, and above all a significant number of usually young musicians (some from the ranks of students at the OD Institute) specialising in contemporary music. The international group (The Ostrava Band) of these musicians formed for the purposes of OD, flexibly metamorphosing from the various necessary chamber ensembles to an ensemble of more than twenty members, this year ensured that the standard of performance at the OD was very good, which was no always the rule in previous years.

I shall choose from the best moments of the festival: the opening concert presenting the Atlas Eclipticalis (together with Winter Music) by John Cage--the Janacek Philharmonic with many additional musicians is divided up spatially into three orchestras, into the cool beauty of the sounds generated inc accordance with astronomical maps the Ondrus miners' brass band suddenly breaks in with its two "numbers". A greeting from Charles Ives? The outstanding Soozvuk Ensemble led by Marian Lejava, Lejav'a beautiful piece The Gloaming Sessions. The dark organ recital by Christoph Maria Moosmann with music by M. Feldman, H. Holliger, O. Messiaen and E. H. Flammer. Alvin Lucier's new piece, Explorations of the House--Lucier has dusted off an old trick of his: the orchestra plays a few bars of Beethoven, the recorded sound is reproduced into the hall and once again recorded, and after several repeats the resonance of the hall changes Beethoven into abstract electronic music. The Canadian string quartet Quatuor Bozzini--add a pioneering repertoire to the usual superlatives (perfect ensemble play, absolute identification with the text and so forth). The leader of the quartet, Clemens Merkel, later brilliantly performs one of Luigi Nono's last pieces, La lontananza nostalgica utopica futura. The almost family atmosphere at the night performance of an extract (cca two hours) of Erik Satie's Vexations. Andriessen's La Passione, Xenakis's Ata for large orchestra, Ives's Piano Sonata no. 2 ("Concord, Mass. 1840-1860") performed by Heather O'Donnell, the violinist Hana Kotkova with Berio's Sequenza VIII (see photo), Petr Kotik's Variations for 3 Orchestras and so on. I could go on in the same fashion for much longer, because practically every concert was a real event.

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Although the festival is the most conspicuous and for the general public the only accessible part of OD, the meaning of the enterprise should not be "reduced" to the festival. The three-week meeting of all the participants in the "Days", both "maestros" and "pupils", composers and performers, and enthusiasts, generates a very special atmosphere in Ostrava. If the words had not become too much of a cliche, it is an atmosphere we would call creative and companionable. All the events take place close to each other. The Institute uses the premises of the recently renovated conservatory, the evening concerts are held in the nearby City of Ostrava House of Culture, and everyone is accommodated in a few adjoining hotels. Unlikely people gathering in an unlikely place; as if the city had been taken over by a conspiratorial spirit. Two years from now when you encounter a legend of the New York experimental school in Ostrava in the afternoon with a hot dog in his hand, making for the tram, you will appreciate what I mean.