Iva Bittová & Mucha Quartet, Stadtkirche, Rudolstadt Festival, Germany 7 July 2024
23. 11. 2024 | Rubriky: Articles,Live reviews
[by Ken Hunt, London] Traditional folk tunes have long leached into classical composition. In Central Europe in the times before many nations gained independence, music stoked senses of cultural identity and aspirations of nationhood. The polyvalent artist Iva Bittová came out of the Communist-era, Czechoslovak alternative theatre scene. She is a violin-vocal virtuosa, a Bachelor of Music, and an acclaimed film actor. She is mixed Moravian, of Slovak, Hungarian and Roma stock. The Mucha Quartet came together at the Conservatory in Bratislava, the capital of the Slovak Republic, in 2003.
This bespoke Rudolstadt Festival took place in the Stadtkirche, the town’s baroque church and the programme of mixed Moravian and Slovak folksongs for voice and string quartet transported. At its heart were works by the Moravian composer-collector, Leoš Janáèek (1854-1928) and his benchmark folksong collection Moravská lidová poezie v písních (Moravian Folk Poetry in Songs), and the Hungarian composer-collector, Béla Bartók (1881-1945) and his Slovenské spevy (Slovak Songs).
One of our age’s most versatile and incomparable voices, fittingly Bittová went vocally from bird cheeps to her operatic, rafter-raising mezzo range. In this recital she never touched the violin.) The surprise sprung, for me, were the Mucha Quartet’s ‘solo’ interludes. They were the Slovak composers Eugen Suchon (1908-1993) and Alexander Moyzes (1906-1984). Personal highlights were the Suchon folksong settings for quartet, especially the joyous ‘Pod Anicka, podze za mna’ (‘Be my bride, Annie’) and ‘Husicky popolavé’ (‘Little Grey Geese’).
It was a concert which seared itself into the imagination. It met with a rapturous reception. It was recorded for the European Broadcasting Union.
All images (c) Ken Hunt/Swing 51 Archives