Czech Republic Festival Janáček Brno 2024 [5] – Eben: Brno Children’s Choir (choirmaster: Valeria Maťašova), Jitka Houfova (piano) Pavel Čenĕk Vaculík (narrator). Reduta Theatre (Mozart Hall), 23.11.2024. (GT)
Petr Eben – Elce pelce kotrmelce (Hubble Bubble, Flip Flop)
One of the most interesting and attractive elements of the Festival Janáček Brno 2024 was the number of musical events across the spectrum from opera, symphony concerts, song recitals, piano and string chamber concerts, folk concerts, and on the fringe were exhibitions, theatre performances and talks. Several days included matinee events before opera or symphony performances, and among one of the daytime concerts that attracted me was the concert of the Brno Children’s Choir of a modern piece by Petr Eben who was well known in the UK for his concerts and his teaching. I was also attracted to this choral concert as I already was aware of the choir’s participation in The Cunning Little Vixen, the final festival event.
The Brno Children’s Choir was founded in 2004 to instil in children a love and respect for choral music and appreciate its beauty and profound character. The ensemble regularly take part in opera productions of the Brno Janáček Theatre, most frequently in Bizet’s Carmen, Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen and Martinů’s The Plays of Mary, Dvořák’s The Devil and Kate and the children’s opera Puss in Boots. The choir have most recently taken part in new successful stagings in Brno of Dvořák’s The Jacobin, and Puccini’s La bohème. Important annual events for the fifty strong choir are the opening of the Christmas illuminations on Freedom Square and concerts with the Brno Jewish Community and the Terezin Memorial. On the international stage, among other prizes, the Brno Children’s Choir have won the gold medal at the 2018 European Competition for children’s choirs in Neerpelt, Belgium.
The Czech composer, organist, pianist and teacher Petr Eben (1929-2007) studied piano and composition in Prague and worked as a musicologist before being awarded a professorship at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He authored several textbooks on teaching and collaborated with other Czech musicians on the Czech Orff School published in four volumes. Eben performed extensively worldwide, in 1978 Eben held a professorship in composition at Manchester’s Royal Northern College of Music. His compositions embrace all genre, and a mark of his international recognition is the awarding of Chevalier de l’Orde des Arts et des Lettres in 1991 and the Medal of Merit by the Czech President in 2002. At the age of fourteen, Eben was a captive of Buchenwald from 1943 until 1945, and also suffered in the postwar period when he was not promoted because of his religious beliefs, despite which his music was performed and recorded by Supraphon. As a composer, he was most highly regarded for his innovations in keyboard performance, and especially for his organ and choral works. He was appointed President of the Prague Spring Festival in 1989.
Among Eben’s most popular works is his Elce pelce kotrmelce (Hubble Bubble Flip Flop) a cycle of motion songs written in 1969-1970 on lyrics by Václav Fischer. The total of fifty-three songs are simple, cheerful uplifting songs based on nursery rhymes and illustrated in a songbook of singing exercises. The original publication included specific movements and an explanation for performance of each song. The song cycle has become popular among children’s choirs in the Czech Republic, and a recording was made in 1973 by Supraphon as recognition of its success among both audiences and choruses in the country.
The lyrics are formed from rhymes about adventures and strange events and each section was introduced by the narrator; thankfully the programme had full translations of the original lyrics by Fischer, opening with ‘Hooray, kids, for the trip!’ with especially vivid descriptions of swimming in which the singers waved their arms to the texts, and even more in the song, ‘Little Waves.’ There were more colourful singing when the journey met with animals, fish, a stork, and a frog, all impersonated by the children. The singing and accompanying facial and other arm and bodily movements made their singing tangible, and one hardly needed the booklet’s translations to know what their singing was about.
In all, the facial movements and heartening singing by the choir in portraying this cycle of verses and folk tales was tremendously enjoyable, and it was quite clear of the children’s own pleasure in this performance. The choir’s outstanding direction was by Valeria Maťašová and the skilful accompaniment by Jitka Houfova at the keyboard helped make this event a memorable success together with the fine narration by Pavel Čenĕk Vaculík with his noble tenor voice. The packed concert was full of enthusiastic mothers and fathers, uncles and aunts, as well as members of the public, I found it a tremendously enjoyable event revealing another element in the richness of singing among the Czechs. It then came as no surprise to hear and see the children’s choir excelling themselves in Janáček’s comic opera The Cunning Little Vixen on the closing evening of the 2024 Festival here in Brno (review here).
Gregor Tassie