Kühnův dětský sbor - Prague Philharmonic Children's Choir

Artistic cooperation

Since the beginning, the Kühn Children’s choir has intensively cooperated with outstanding artistic institutions, bodies, chamber ensembles, interpreters, conductors, composers and artists from other fields. Full description in this chapter would be immensely large, so let us attempt at least to provide a brief summary.

Already within the first year of existence the choir‘s pure sound and precision in both intonation and rhytm has been noted by public as well as professionals and composers. The beginning of the activity is bound to the radio recording studio, to the programmes for schools, to the folk songs and then to the Czech choral compositions for children. The quality of intepretation gave rise to new compositions by the authors illustrated by the names as Otakar Jeremiáš, Jaroslav Křička, Václav Trojan, but also by J. B. Foerster and Vítězslav Novák. The quality of interpretation was such as to stimulate the composers to more challenging compositions. It is not easy just to enumerate the long series of compositions which were either composed namely for the Kühn Children’s choir or which have been first performed by it. The above mentioned list of composers was later continued by Rafael Kubelík, Jan Hanuš, Klement Slavický, Otmar Mácha, Petr Eben, Zdeněk Šesták, Jiří Teml and many others. This kind of cooperation later led to the conception of new vocal-instrumental forms for children choir accompanied by the chamber ensemble or orchestra. These cantates, church compositions, choral and dance programmes and musical and dramatical pieces for children has substantially enriched the Czech music of 20th century. In this context we cannot miss the the long lasting extensive cooperation with eminent musicologist and composer Jiří Berkovec, who has arranged the composition of Adam Michna of Otradovice, Karel Václav Holan Rovenský, Jakub Jan Ryba and other Czech school-masters.

For full forty years, since 1952, the the Kühn Children’s choir was part of the foremost institution of arts, the Czech Philharmony. The frequent contact with the outstanding orchestra, professional mixed choir, chamber ensembles, soloists and exceptional personalities of conductors, together with uncompromising demands for artistic perfection has directly influenced the progress of the artistic profile of the body.

Comparable enrichment results since 1963 from the regular cooperation with the National Theater and since the nineties also with the Prague State Opera. The opera world offering also actors display offers an unparalled charm for children. The number of performances, in which the the Kühn Children’s choir members have performed, reaches thousands. We also have to recall the frequent invitations of KDS to cooperation with opera festival Bregenzer Festspiele (Carmen, La Damnation du Faust, The Cunning Little Vixen), with Teatru municipale in Bologna (Werther), with opera festival in Spoletto (The Cunning Little Vixen) and the Chaise-Dieu festival (La rappresentatione di anima et di corpo od E. Cavalieri).

An independent chapter is the participation of the choir in the marionette films of Jiří Trnka with the music of Václva Trojan in the fifties.

Frequent tours abroad have led the choir to contacts with organizers, artistic agencies and festival and to long-term and periodic cooperation, illustrated by Teatro municipale in Regio Emilia (Q. Zanoni) , Avignon festival (G. Durand), Kajimoto agency, French institution CIME (J. Menet) etc. Still, the most important is the cooperation with the Prague Spring music festival since 1947 until present, the music festival Smetana’s Litomyšl, with the festival Young Prague, with the organizations of the composers and interpreters especially for the introductions of contemporary production, as well as recent participation in the Prague Openings of world’s contemporary compositions, in the past with the Czech TV and continuing cooperation with the Czech Radio (the list of the recordings numbers several hundreds).

The series of foremost Czech and foreign conductors, who led the choir while introducing major oratories, cantatas and opera pieces is also respectable. Just as extensive is the cooperation with orchestral, choral and chamber ensembles and with individual interpreters. Apart of the Czech Philharmony, the choir has many times performed with the Symphonical orchestra of the Prague capital FOK, Symphony orchestra of the Czech Radio, Prague Chamber Philharmony, Pilsen Philharmony, South Bohemian Chamber Philharmony, Dvořák Chamber Orchestra, Suk’s Chamber Orchestra, Virtuosi di Praga, Prague Chamber Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra FOK, as well as Gewandhaus orchestra, Nurnberg symphony, symfoniky, orchestra of Avignon opera and others.

The other artistic partners of the choir include a series of chamber ensembles: Czech Nonet, Prague Wind Quintet, Wind Quintet Academia, Wind Quitet Juventus, Smetana Quartet, Doležal Quartet, Talich Quartet, Stamic Quartet, Kocian Quartet, Panoch Quartet, Wihan Quartet, Quartet Jupiter. Of the other artists, let us list at least those, whose cooperation with the choir has been extended: the pianists Božena Kronychová, Jiří Holeňa, Boris Krajný, Jaroslav Šaroun, Stanislav Bohunia, Daniel Wiesner, organists Jan Hora, Petr Sovadina, Pavel Černý, Dorothea Fleischmannová and Jan Kalfus. The exceptional occassions included also cooperation with Josef Suk, Zuzana Růžičková, Eva Urbanová, José Carrerasem, with Radovan Lukavský etc.

In conclusion, we need to recall the artistic cooperation with those who have directly influenced and developped the choir’s standard of interpretatio: it is first of all the voice educators Františka Krýsová (who has contributed priceless thirty years which results in a permanent base for the musical and vocational qualities of the choir), Stanislava Jirků and Eliška Toperczerová – Hrubá, with the last one cultivating also the dramatic performances of the choir members while directing the musical dramas. Here we have to list also the academical painter Alena Hoblová, creator of the costumes and scenes for several scenical projects and choreographs František Bonuš, Libuše Hynková and Živana Vajsarová.

The bried and by far not exhaustive commentary to the artistic cooperation of the Kühn Children’s choir illustrates the width and interpretational ambitions of its activities.