Interview with composer Lukáš Hurník

These three big Bs of German music are greats and we keep returning to them. Was there any other, at first glance unsuspected, impulse behind this concert?

The impulse was a commission from Germany, from Professor Lucas David, a doyenne of the German violin school, who lives in Detmold. Brahms also worked there at one time, so everything was connected. The Detmold Orchestra, with the professor as soloist, premiered the composition and the complete town council sat in the front row, the hall was sold out, the applause was deafening, the final movement was repeated in its entirety as an encore… The atmosphere surrounding contemporary music in Germany is somewhat different than in our country.

Could you describe the Trigon concerto a bit more to listeners?

The symbol of the triangle – the trigon – permeates the entire concerto. The two string orchestras create the base of the triangle and the violin stands at the tip. It is dedicated to the three Bs of German music, and it has three movements. The first movement is a fantasy at an elegiac tempo, with several dramatic peaks and virtuoso cadences. The second movement is a scherzo in the true, humorous sense of the word. Quotations from Beethoven’s Consecration of the House and Brahms’ Third Symphony collide in it. Their tussle has to be taught morals by the reproving B-A-C-H theme. Johann Sebastian then rules the roost in the final movement, where the motif of his Concerto in D Minor becomes an overwhelming force that overpowers everything written before and after it.

How many concertos have you composed? And what attracts you to the form?

I have two concert symphonies – Globus, for percussion and orchestra, and Girl and Machine, for flute and orchestra. The concerto as a form is not actually that close to me. There’s always the expectation of a show with it. Trigon is more of a concert symphony, with an equal role for a pair of orchestras, than a virtuoso attraction.

You’re known to have played bass guitar. Do you have any practical experience with the violin?

I’ve held a violin in my hands only once, for about a minute. Violinists don’t like to lend them to lay people.

How do you write for violinists then?

In Rychlík’s book Modern Instrumentation it says that everything can be played on the violin, and I hold to that. I’ve apologised in advance to Mr Roman Patočka, to whom I express deep gratitude.

Is it possible to say how much time you devote, among your numerous activities, to composing?

The last two years I wrote the oratorio Journey to the Cross, so this year I’ve rested a bit and devoted some time to different pleasures, like wine. But over the holidays I joined my two hobbies, for reasons of time, and wrote the moteto Aqua et Vino, a celebratory choral composition about wine. And now I’m trying to write a melodrama for the 10thanniversary of the Festival of Concert Melodrama, but that’s more a question of “stolen” than saved time.

What do you actually enjoy about composing? It must be rather hard work! You’ve got to “squeeze” ideas and motifs out of yourself, and then, develop and link them logically, organically…

We’re living now in a pragmatic age in which everything has to have its strategic goal and purpose. Everything is written into tables and then there’s an evaluation and measuring of effectiveness, whether it is the right move. Maybe that’s why for me it’s greatly satisfying to do something that brings no measurable effect. The amount of energy a person has to expend on creating a couple of minutes of orchestral music – that’s a long way from the relaxation that we expect from a real hobby. But at the same time, many people still think that it makes sense to write, play and listen to music, don’t they?

If you’re asking me, yes. Would you be able to name for me your ideal composer from the classical field (though I know that as a rocker you’ve bestowed that honour on Frank Zappa)?

In some of his activities Zappa wasn’t that far removed from classical music. But I’ve divided my classical idols into several fields: for melody it’s Mendelssohn, for rhythm it’s Michael Tork and Shostakovich, for harmony Dutilleux and Wagner, for craftsmanship Britten, for colour Martinů and Penderecki, for polyphony Zelenka, etc.

Briefly to Czech Radio. This year you’ll be completing your second decade there. In 1992 you joined the Music Journalism and Education Department. What programmes and colleagues do you remember fondly?

The first lady of the department was Mrs. Olga Jelínková. A great teacher. And also Yvona Nouzová, who ate only hermelín and who was let go as surplus to requirements, so she went to Sydney where they immediately gave her her own show on ABC. At that time we created the programme Telefonotéka, to which people could phone in live, which in 1992 was not so common and a little risky. Telefonotéka is still being broadcast today, as is my show Da capo, in which we look at various aspects of music and train the ears to discern things in music.

As the current editor-in-chief of Czech Radio 3 Vltava, I’d like to ask which of today’s programmes you’d most happily recommend to our season ticket holders?

Well, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra has a regular programme on Tuesday’s at 20:00 and I can recommend that. There’s also some musical education to be had in Slovo o hudbě [A Word about Music] at 17:00 and Matiné in the afternoons. But I’d mainly like to draw attention to the existence of the music station D-dur, which broadcasts classical music with brief comments 24 hours a day.

To return at the end to Lukáš Hurník, the composer – please tell us when and where we can hear your music next?

The Hradec Králové Philharmonic has brought out a CD of my Journey to the Cross. A large orchestra, organ, choir, children’s choir, two soloists, two people reciting, Mr. Somr and Mr. Hartl… You know, I’d be glad if that CD got a spin in stereos from time to time.