M2 Christmas Concert

Programme

Jan Vičar
Slunovrat (Solstice) – World premiere of a work commissioned by the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava

Jan Vičar
Vysoko Hvězda

Jakub Jan Ryba
Czech Christmas Mass “Hej, Mistře!” (Missa pastoralis bohemica)

Performers

Soňa Godarská – soprano
Alžběta Vomáčková – mezzo-soprano
Vincenc Ignác Novotný – tenor
Pavel Švingr – bass
Permoník Karviná Youth Choir
Martina Juríková, Karina Grimová – choirmasters
Friends of Singing Choir Permoník Karviná
Martina Juríková – choirmaster
Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava
Stanislav Vavřínek – conductor

Composer and musicologist Jan Vičar is one of the prominent figures of Czech musical life. He taught at the Department of Musicology at Palacký University in Olomouc and is currently Professor at the Department of Music Education at the University of West Bohemia in Plzeň. Thanks to his accessible and communicative compositional language, which does not shy away from influences of popular music and jazz, his works have gained popularity among Czech and international choirs alike.

Alongside the symphonic fantasy Slunovrat (Solstice), commissioned by the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava, the concert will also feature the cantata Vysoko Hvězda, originally written in 2020 for the National Boy Choir of Canada. Due to the pandemic, its premiere took place only in 2021, performed by Permoník Karviná with the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava. The cantata presents original stylizations of six European Christmas carols, interwoven with the melody of Silent Night by Franz Xaver Gruber.

Jakub Jan Ryba’s Czech Christmas Mass “Hej, Mistře!” is one of the most distinctive symbols of Czech Christmas. This joyful pastoral work telling the story of the birth of the Saviour gained popularity soon after its creation and, even more than 230 years after its first performance in Rožmitál pod Třemšínem, has lost none of its folk charm or freshness.