Interview with conductor Jan Kučera

Do you work as hard as it looks at first sight?
I'd say it's more that I have fits of hard work and fits of laziness. Both extremes. Dvořák's ritual of rising at five in the morning and writing at least forty bars of a score, that complete concentration every day: that's what I'm looking for and what I want to achieve.

When have you had to throw yourself into your work, like it or not?
I know that exactly! Last year, when I had several concerts with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra. At the same time I was practicing for the Prague Spring conductors' competition. I had around twenty-five large scores at home.

What's the solution?
Don't go insane and take it one step at a time. Use all your strengths, set your priorities, find your reserves, save time. And look forward to your holidays. Luckily my nerves are good. I've always said that the people in the audience aren't there to watch some nervous, trembling creature making mistakes.

Were you satisfied with your honourable mention at the Prague Spring competition?
It could have turned out better, but it could have been worse too. I was approximately fifth out of more than a hundred conductors. I admit I thought I could do better, but we have to take a sporting attitude to competitions. I have great reservations about them as there's no ideal scoring system. Imagine you've got just twenty minutes and in that time you basically pretend to be rehearsing with the orchestra. I was a bit bothered by the fact that we didn't have more accompanists, more cooperation with soloists, for the competition. That's better for revealing technique and aptitude. I remember a brochure for a conducting competition from the beginning of the 1990s, when Zdeněk Košler had prepared a study full of fermata and changes in tempo and dynamism. The candidates received it ten minutes before going on stage. That kind of discipline makes sense to me.

Do you have any role models among your peers?
I do, but I wouldn't say it was a conductor. I think we'll be hearing a lot more about a very skilful composer, Petr Wajsar, who's also an excellent interpreter, singer, guitarist and pianist. He moves between genres and also writes original choral works. What I like most about him is his vast knowledge and his sense of humour. There aren't many people like that.

Which instruments can you play?
I taught myself to play the trumpet a bit, around a campfire I can pick up a guitar or an accordion, and there's also the piano - and that's enough for me.

What were you like as a student?
Bad! Teaching myself works best for me. At school I was always fighting, a rebel without a cause, but in the end it always turned out well. I liked playing, writing music and conducting.

At the conservatory you originally studied composition. Did you already know at the age of fourteen that you wanted to be a composer?
I started playing the piano when I was three and I always preferred improvisation over practicing, by far. At school I used to play songs I'd heard on the radio. My parents, bless them, always gave me massive support. When I was about ten years old they took me to Prague for a consultation. We visited Ivan Klánský, Petr Eben and Valentina Kameníková. I played the piano for them and improvised. Unusually they all agreed it would be better to make use of my natural inclinations and to choose composition as my main subject, not the piano. We couldn't ignore that.

What role has your family played in your career?
I come from Železná Ruda in Šumava and all my relations were amateur musicians. In my family tree there's someone I'm proud to be related to: Karel Polata from Sušice. He had a famous brass band and used to travel the world with circuses. He played wonderful Šumava songs, which still move me today when I listen to recordings from the archives. You'd be surprised how beautifully I play them on the accordion.

What other factors have been crucial for your development?
I have very happy memories of my magical years at the conservatory. I studied the piano under Jiří Toman, and Bohuslav Řehoř taught me composition. He gave me free reign, didn't force me to do anything, and yet he managed to guide me from a distance. Later I took up conducting too, and I studied under all the professors who were teaching there at that time: Košler, Farkač, Vodňanský, Kasal and Miriam Němcová. That diversity was evidently a good thing. And the highlight to date was meeting Vladimír Válek.

When and how did that happen?
In my fifth year at the conservatory some friends and I held a concert of our own music and compositions by our peers. One piece was performed by the Epoque Quartet, whose first violinist was Martin Válek, the chief conductor's son. I conducted the entire piece, and then the chief conductor came and offered me consultation. We met a few times and in the end he took me on as an external teacher for my final year at the conservatory. Thanks to that I had incredible good luck: when I graduated from the conservatory I conducted the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra in the Rudolfinum, which was sold out, and I also performed three of my own symphonic poems there. It was fantastic, magnificent!

What were the lessons like?
Don't think we sat down at the piano and talked about where my hand should go. No, I already knew the technique. Válek did something unbelievable: he threw me in at the deep end! He put me in front of eighty professionals with years of experience and I had to deal with that. I probably did all right, because our cooperation gradually expanded.

What did he teach you?
Naturally there were a lot of technical and practical finesses, such as how not to move the baton, how to speak nice and loud, that in rehearsals you don't say "b" and "c" but "bravo" and "charlie". At the time I largely copied his style of conducting; that was inevitable. And why not? The musicians seemed to play well with him. Today I'm trying to find my own style, but his technical base, the pure, clear style that I always liked in him: I honour that. The fact that he gave me, his sole pupil, his fifty years of experience, that seems almost astral to me...

What do you admire about him as a person?
He's straight, fair, and if I go to him with a problem he helps me out. And if I'm nervous, taking too much time, he knows right away and tells me it's not okay. Our relationship is built on the basis of partnership. He gave me confidence, he likes me, it's fantastic for me and I try not to embarrass him.

What changed in September 2008, when you became the conductor of the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra?
With my official post and the trust of the orchestra and the chief conductor I feel more responsible. But you'll have to wait, I've only just begun, so we'll see later.

Was it hard for you, being so young, to have authority with the orchestra?
They smoothed my way from the start, thank God, or at least that's how I saw it. I didn't notice any deliberate sabotage, no one accused me of making mistakes, so I can only praise the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra, they've always helped me a lot. And it would have been so easy to psychologically destroy a young conductor...

Which works would you like to perform with the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra?
I'd like to do impressionist music, the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra doesn't play it much. And then large symphonic works, Mahler's symphonies for example. And for something different I'd like to study Bach's St. Matthew Passion - not on period instruments, of course. I'd say that Bach wouldn't mind the possibilities available in sound now.

And if I were to ask about the highlight of your work there so far?
Only one? That would probably be The Rite of Spring at the Sazka Arena, when the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra accompanied the company of the legendary Canadian choreographer Marie Chouinard as part of the international festival Tanec Praha 2007. Stravinsky's score is a bit frightening for any conductor, and since the conservatory I'd looked at it and said: this is mad, no one can conduct this. In the end it was fine. It was great working with the ballet. And as I'm an old hand at the theatre, I enjoyed every second of it.

When did you start working for the theatre?
I've written a lot of music for the stage and during my time at the conservatory I spent four seasons as a pianist at Divadlo v Celetné. That's where I got rid of the stage fright I'd previously suffered from.

Under what conditions do you work best when composing?
Don't get any romantic ideas. It's work, often very hard work. I sit down at the piano, maybe with a vague idea about the shape, form or instrumentation of the composition that should result, and the piano is my faithful assistant. We search together. I compose entirely by hand; I don't like computers. I'm old-fashioned.

Do you have a weakness for a particular instrument?
I like string quartets, and the strings in general. Perhaps because I don't play them. And mainly thanks to my wonderful experience of working with the Epoque Quartet. I arranged for them, wrote various additional pieces and found that there were unexpected possibilities for the sound. But what I enjoy most is a symphony orchestra.

How many compositions have you written for symphony orchestra?
If I include arrangements for a New Year's Eve concert for the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra it's about fifteen. Not all of them have been played, but they've always been very important to me. I improved by writing them. They're not ideal, I'd rework them today, but I needed to get them behind me.

What is your most extensive work to date?
When I was seventeen I wrote a large symphonic poem, Absinthe, for a massive symphony orchestra with an organ and lots of trumpets. Four movements, each half an hour long... it's probably unplayable.

Which ones are you most proud of?
I'd stand by the three symphonic poems I wrote for my graduation. I think I managed to get to grips with themes from Kundera, Hrabal and Kolář. I read a lot, I enjoy literature, so I composed a kind of homage to them.

What else inspires you apart from literature?
Probably Prague. And Šumava, where I was born. I cherish it in my mind as the subject for a composition.

Do you regard arrangements as something supremely creative, or is it more a craft, a way of earning a living?
Mostly as a way of making a living, but also as valuable experience. When arranging I realise just how much work it takes to write a symphonic score - and I try to be more considerate to the works I'm given to conduct. Thinking them up and writing them takes a massive amount of work. You need a lot of time and concentration. For me as a conductor it's clear that if the composer prescribes piano, that's how we have to play it.

Do you work on film music too?
I'd like to do more, I enjoy the combination with the image. I've just finished writing music for a short documentary film by Petra Nesvačilová, a director at FAMU. Aside from that I greatly admire Zdeněk Liška, an unappreciated and half-forgotten composer who works with the link between music and image quite incomparably. Just listen to his music for Vláčil's films, or the music you can hear in Major Zeman.

What do you think is the power of music, what can it do to people?
It's a ticket to other worlds. And it shouldn't be talked about too much... because when the music starts, all that's been said retreats to a respectful distance.

One last question. Do you think you'll be able to maintain your trinity as conductor, composer and pianist?
All three things are vital for me, they complement each other perfectly, so my answer is: yes!