Konvergencie 2025 / Prednáška muzikológa Aleša BŘEZINU

Lecture by musicologist Aleš BŘEZINA
FRIDAY / 17/10/2025 / České centrum, Prepoštská 6, Bratislava / 17:00

Lecture by musicologist and composer Aleš BŘEZINA, director of the Bohuslav Martinů Institute.

From "MartinWHO" to "MartinWOW"

"This summer, I had the opportunity to dramaturgically participate in the 35th annual Bard Music Festival in the state of New York, which chose Martinů and His World as its theme. This event, extraordinary in every way, clearly showed how deep a gap exists between the present and the achievements that Martinů achieved during his stay in the United States between 1941 and 1953, when he was one of the most performed living composers.
To festival goers, but also to the performers themselves, this classic of 20th century music was known at best as the author of one or two compositions, but far more often they only knew his name - and sometimes not even that. However, this changed fundamentally with each of the eleven concerts at which a total of 35 compositions by Bohuslav Martinů were performed. During them, the audience's astonishment continuously grew, until it resulted in complete admiration for this composer and his work, as well as amazement at the fact that she could fall into oblivion for almost three quarters of a century.
This process of discovery was best expressed by a visitor who said after the last concert that she had gone from "MartinWHO" to "MartinWOW". Another of the regular listeners called Martinů the Mozart of the 20th century, referring to the composer's fertility, the variety of his work and the emphasis on the emotional effect and beauty of his music.
What were the reasons for Martinů's rousing success during his lifetime and vice versa - what was the reason for his legacy subsequently falling into oblivion? What role did the political situation of a bipolarly divided world play in this? To what extent did the advent of the avant-garde of the second half of the 20th century, represented for example by Pierre Boulez or Karlheinz Stockhausen, contribute to this? What makes Martinů attractive to listeners again today and what appeals to them the most in his music? What effect did the fall of the Iron Curtain have on the renaissance of his work, but also the activities of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation and Institute?
These are some of the questions that will be heard at the lecture and to which we will try to find answers in a dialogue with the audience."
Aleš BŘEZINA

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Aleš BŘEZINA in his scientific he devotes his profession primarily to research on Bohuslav Martinů and Czech and world music of the 20th and 21st centuries. Since 1995, he has been the director of the Bohuslav Martinů Institute in Prague (www.martinu.cz) and the chairman of the editorial board of Súborné kritické editions of the works of Bohuslav Martinů. In 1998, he successfully reconstructed the original version of Bohuslav Martinů's opera Greek Passion, which was subsequently performed at the music festival in Bregenz, Austria, in its world premiere. In December 2014, he published the first volume containing the Epos of Gilgamesh (Best Edition award, Musikmesse Frankfurt 2016). He published several books, professional collections and scientific studies in Czech and foreign magazines, lectured in Europe and the USA.

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🎫 Free entry
👉 festival pass: https://bit.ly/MARTINŮ_PERMANENTKA
📌 Change of program and performers reserved.
📌 full program of the festival: www.konvergencie.sk/vstupenky

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🔘 The organizer of the event is the Konvergencie festival.
🔘 The event takes place under the auspices of the mayor of the SR Bratislava, Matúš Vall.
🔘 Main partners: Art Support Fund, ZSE, Slovenskej sporiteľne Foundation, Bratislava
🔘 We also thank the partners: SOZA, BKIS, FiF UK - Moyzesova sieň, Kino Lumière, České centrum, Artforum and other partners and media partners for their support.