Thursday, March 12, 7.30PM
CZECH AVANT-GARDE
Illustrated talk by Patrick Bade
Kaprálová String Quartet No. 1, Op. 8: I. Con brio
Martinů String Quartet No. 5, H. 268
Dvořák String Quartet No. 14 in A-flat Major, Op. 105
Bohemian National Hall
321 E 73rd St, New York, NY 10021
The Czech avant-garde was not a single style but a state of mind — an insistence on seeing the world anew. In interwar Prague, painters fractured conventional forms, photographers reimagined space through light and shadow, and composers stripped music to expose raw feeling. The result was an art of radical compression, modern in energy and intensely poetic at heart.
This program traces that spirit across three composers and three generations. In the music of Antonín Dvořák, the Czech voice emerges warm and lyrical, rooted in song and folk rhythm. With Bohuslav Martinů, it becomes cosmopolitan and restless — shaped by Paris and neoclassicism, charged with the pulse of modern life. And with Vítězslava Kaprálová, it reaches a concentrated intensity all its own: taut, psychologically charged, and utterly of its moment.
All three belonged to a Prague alive with artistic experiment — a city where Toyen and Jindřich Štyrský were transforming painting with their surreal canvases, and where composers were pushing music to its expressive limits.
Czech Avant-Garde invites us to hear how a national voice evolves — presented at the Bohemian National Hall, an important center of Czech culture in New York City for more than a century, and today home to the Czech Center and Consulate General.
No refunds, no exchanges. Artists, programs, dates, and prices are subject to change.
Programs and artists are subject to change. If an event presented by Aspect Chamber Music Series is cancelled or postponed, we will announce the change—if time permits—by email, phone, a letter sent to your home, and on www.aspectmusic.net.