2024
2023
2022
2021
2020
2019
2018
2017
2016
2015
2014
2013
2012
2011
2010
2009
2008
2007
2006
2005
2004
2003
2002
2001
2000
1999
1998


home

2024

One of the highlights of the year was Kapralova’s debut at the 2024 BBC Proms. This largest world festival featured the composer’s Military Sinfonietta in a performance by the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Jakub Hrusa. The year also saw another impressive number of new releases of Kapralova’s music—five in all—by both established and independent Czech, German, British, and US labels. Kapralova’s music was again performed widely across the globe—in as many as sixteen countries—with the US, UK, and the Czech Republic leading the way in the number and frequency of performances and broadcasts throughout the year. Finally, by the end of the year EuroArts produced a 52-minute television documentary Life in the Bugatti Step: The Czech Avant-Garde between the World Wars that included a segment on Vitezslava Kapralova.

Performances

Besides Kapralova’s songs that remain immensely popular with international singers, it was her compositions Suita Rustica, Military Sinfonietta, April Preludes, and the string quartet that were most frequently performed worldwide last year. Among the most anticipated performances of the year was Kapralova’s debut at the 2024 BBC Proms, which took place at the Royal Albert Hall on August 28: on this occasion, the composer’s Military Sinfonietta was played by the Czech Philharmonic under the baton of Jakub Hrusa. Another highlight of the year was the performance of Suita Rustica by the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Petr Popelka, at the Nobel Prize Concert in Stockholm on December 8. As well as the BBC Proms, Kapralova’s music was also presented at as many as twelve other international festivals and a music competition, including the Fremde Erde Festival, Dvorak Festival 2024, Mahler Jihlava Festival, Janacek Brno Festival 2024, Concentus Moraviae, Festival Krumlov 2024, Islington Festival, Leamington Music, Mänttä Music Festival, Royal College of Music Keyboard Festival, Otakar Sevcik Festival, University of Leeds International Concert Summer Festival, and American International Czech and Slovak Voice Competition at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. The latter presented rarely performed art songs Smutny vecer and V zemi ceske (with Julia Johnson winning the Kapralova Prize for her rendition of the latter song). In addition, the 2024 MTNA Conference in Atlanta included a lecture-recital titled Alternative History: Three Epic Piano Sonatas by Women, in which Asher Ian Armstrong performed Kapralova’s Sonata Appassionata.

Recordings

Last year again saw an impressive number of new releases featuring some of Kapralova’s music. In January, the German classical label ARS Production released Florence Milett’s album of piano music titled Piano Parlando I that included Kapralova’s piano miniatures Two Posies. In March, the largest Czech label Supraphon released a recording titled Forgotten Czech Piano Concertos, featuring concertos by Kapralova, Borkovec, and Kovarovic, performed by Marek Kozak and Prague Radio Symphony conducted by Robert Jindra. In April, the largest German classical label CPO released a long-awaited double album solely dedicated to Kapralova’s music. The recording, titled Vitezslava Kapralova: The Completed Orchestral Works, was produced in collaboration with the Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava, and supported by the Kapralova Society. The Met’s tenor Ian Koziara’s and Bradley Moore’s remarkable recording Silenced: Unsung Voices of the 20th Century, was released in a digital version in August by the Chicago label Cedille Records (the disc will be available in 2025). Their album featured Kapralova’s song cycles op. 4, 10, and 12, and Waving Farewell, op. 14. In September, the British independent label Meridian Records released a digital recording Brief Encounters, featuring Peter Mallinson’s and Lynn Arnold’s arrangement of Kapralova’s Deux ritournelles (arr. for viola and piano). Finally in December, La Boite a Pepites, a French record label and music producer, released a video vignette on Kapralova as part of their series Calendrier d’Avent 2024, featuring her Elegy for violin and piano.

Broadcasts

Kapralova’s music was frequently broadcast in 2024, with the BBC, Czech Radio, and Radio France among the participating broadcasters. Czech Radio 3 (Vltava) produced a short segment on Kapralova, a part of their podcast series Skladatele ve stinu (Composers in the Shadow). Radio Prague International produced two programs solely dedicated to Kapralova and her music: a 30-minute radio feature, broadcast during the station's Sunday Music Show, and a 6-minute video vignette (available on YouTube)—a part of the 12-part miniseries Czech Music Greats, featuring the music of Jan Dismas Zelenka, Jan Vaclav Hugo Vorisek, Josef Myslivecek, Bedrich Smetana, Antonin Dvorak, Josef Suk, Bohuslav Martinu, Leos Janacek, and Vitezslava Kapralova (—her official inauguration in the greatest Czech classical music canon!).

Reviews and articles

In anticipation of Kapralova’s debut at the 2024 BBC Proms, Bachtrack published an interview about Kapralova and her Military Sinfonietta on July 19 (Karla Hartl was interviewed by Lawrence Dunn). As expected, the debut generated a lot of interest from reviewers whose critical reviews were published in Bachtrack (Alexander Hall), Opera Today (David Truslove), Seen And Heard International (Chris Kettle), Music OMH (Keith McDonnell), Planet Hugill (Robert Hugill), The Telegraph (Ivan Hewett), The Spectator (Richard Bratby), Financial Times (Alastair Macaulay), Arts Desk (David Nice), Dvorak Society Newsletter (Patrick Lambert), Colin’s Column (Colin Anderson), Susan’s Column (Susan Elkin), Arcana.fm (Richard Whitehouse), and john’s musical journey. Several other concerts featuring Kapralova’s music were reviewed in Bachtrack (Nick Boston’s review of a performance of Kapralova’s string quartet by Pavel Haas Quartet), Klasika Plus (a performance of Suita Rustica by the Prague Philharmonia and of Kapralova‘s string quartet by the Janacek Quartet), and Opera Plus (a performance of Kapralova’s violin pieces at the Festival Krumlov 2024). The Kapralova recordings released last year also garnered much attention. Supraphon’s Forgotten Czech Piano Concertos recording was reviewed in the Classic Review (Tal Agam), Pianist Magazine, BBC Music Magazine, The Sunday Times, musicwebinternational (Jonathan Woolf), and the Dvorak Society Newsletter (Alan Rosenfelder). The Cedille recording Silenced: Unsung Voices of the 20th-Century was reviewed in Classical Voice of America (Mark T. Ketterson), musicwebinternational (Jonathan Woolf), and Textura. Meridian Records’ two-disc release was reviewed in The Strad (Joanne Talbot) and musicwebinternational (Jonathan Woolf). The CPO double album Vitezslava Kapralova: The Completed Orchestral Works received the most reviews, in the end earning the Diapason d’Or (a review for Diapason by Anne Ibos-Auge). The album was also reviewed in the Gramophone (Andrew Farach-Colton), BBC Music Magazine (Jeremy Pound), Klassik Heute (Martin Blaumeiser), Pizzicato (Remy Franck), Kapralova Society Journal (Karla Hartl), musicwebinternational (Jonathan Woolf), and Magazin Patriot (Milan Bator).

Television

In 2024, EuroArts, a German producer and distributor of audio-visual music programs for television, produced a 52-minute music documentary Life in the Bugatti Step: The Czech Avant-Garde between the World Wars. The film depicts the colorful, playful and experimental music scene between the two world wars in the former Czechoslovakia, highlighting careers of composers Jaroslav Jezek, Erwin Schulhoff, Victor Ullmann, Pavel Haas, Alois Haba, E.F. Burian, Bohuslav Martinu, and Vitezslava Kapralova. A film by Anne-Kathrin Peitz, this television documentary was produced by EuroArts in partnership with Czech Television and the German public broadcaster Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk.

Journal of Women in Music

In 2024, we published the twenty-second volume of Kapralova Society Journal. The winter issue opened with Kheng K. Koay’s article "Inner Mind Narrative of Stacy Garrop in Inner Demons," and Tom Moore’s series Women of the 19th-Century Salon continued with a vignette on Mlle. E. Mailly. The issue was rounded off with the usual In Review section that included a review by Erik Entwistle of Leonie Karatas’s recording of Kapralova’s piano music, released in 2022 by EuroArts. The summer issue featured the articles "Seaside Lullabies, Erotic Nocturnes, and Flamenco Flourishes: The Art Song of Poldowski," by Asher Ian Armstrong, and "Eartha Kitt—The Early Years: A Young Performer Finds Her Voice," written by Erin Hauger. The issue also included Kapralova at the Proms, an interview whose abridged version was first published by Bachtrack in anticipation of Kapralova’s debut at the 2024 BBC Proms. Tom Moore’s series Women of the 19th-Century Salon continued with a vignette on the pianist Jeannette Boutibonne, and the In Review section included a book review by George Henderson of Norman Meehan’s biography of Jenny McLeod.

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the following artists who promoted Kapralova’s legacy in 2024:

Sauli Aaltonen, Maddy Ables, Martin Andre, Asher Ian Armstrong, Lynn Arnold, Tamila Azadaliyeva, Hana Bachmann, Thomas Bandy, Denisa Baresova, Francisca Barritt, BBC Concert Orchestra, Katelyn Bouska, Barbora Brabcova, Katelyn Brown, Auris Brunensis, Sarah Cahill, Alexander Cappellazzo, Vojtech Cervenka, Timothy Cheek, Dominic Cheli, Sol Chin, Miyun Chung, Joe Clark, Joseph Clegg, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Daejeon Philharmonic Orchestra, Marc Dooley, Katarina Duchonova, Lucy Farrimond, Helena Fialova, Michaela Fialova, Markus Fohr, Pierre Fouchenneret, Theo Fouchenneret, Nadia Francavilla, Fulham Symphony Orchestra, Tiffany Fung, Vendula Galdova, Luisella Germano, Nicole Eve Goldstein, Anne Gross, Pavel Haas Quartet, Sam Haywood, Eric Head, Ahmad Hedar, Anna-Maria Helsing, Houston Symphony Orchestra, Helena Hozova, Alena Hron, Jakub Hrusa, Sheng-Ching Hsu, Martin Hybler, Instrumentalverein Dortmund, Monika Jagerova, Janacek Philharmonic Ostrava, Janacek Quartet, Roman Janal, Robert Jindra, Elizabeth Jirickova, Julia Johnson, Ivan Jovanovic, Viktorie Kaplanova, Kapralova Quartet, Francine Kay, Russell Keable, the Kensington Symphony, Moshe Knoll, Zhena Kobylyanska, Zuzana Kohoutova, Matleena Koivusaari, Mitra Kotte, Marek Kozak, Ian Koziara, Lake Union Civic Orchestra, Benjamin Larsen, Julien LeBlanc, Su-a Lee, Sitong Liu, Haika Lubcke, Joana Ly, Peter Mallinson, Bianca Maretti, Tatiana Medvecka, Isabella Mensz, Florence Milett, Adam Millstein, Yuliya Minina, Bradley Moore, Tamara Morozova, George Morton, Alexander Nick, Kathleen O’Mara, Paul Orgel, Orix Duo, Antonio Oyarzabal, Arnau Petrivalsky, Klara Ema Pinosova, Victoria Pinto, Podkrkonossky symfonicky orchestr, Petr Popelka, Benjamin Porter, Prague Philharmonia, Prague Radio Symphony, Luis Ramirez, Jack Redman, Erin Ridge, Veronika Rovna, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, Blair Salter, San Francisco Civic Symphony, Paul Schrage, Maggie Sczekan, Barbora Sejakova, Sevcik Academy Orchestra, Sheffield Philharmonic Orchestra, Dan Shilladay, Daniela Sicari, Jana Sochacka, South Bohemian Philharmonic, Michelle Tapp, Jonathan Tilbrook, Eliska Tkadlcikova, Julian Trevelyan, Trinity Laban Symphony Orchestra, Richard Uttley, Juraj Valcuha, Fabrice Vestad, Jana Vondru, Mary-Victoria Voutsas, Viva la Classica! Ensemble, Tomas Vrana, Daren Weissfisch, William Wielgus, wind players of Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, Weronika Wojtkowska, Leah Yackanech, Steven Yeung, Kristyna Znamenackova, and Matous Zukal;

and the following organizations and individuals:

Tal Agam, Alberni Classical Concerts Society, American International Czech and Slovak Voice Competition, Colin Anderson, Apocryphonia, arcana.fm, Asher Ian Armstrong, ARS Production, Austria Exilarte Zentrum Wiener, Austrian Cultural Forum New York, Bachtrack, Milan Bator, BBC Music Magazine, BBC Proms, BBC Radio 3, Martin Blaumeiser, Boite a Pepites, Nick Boston, Richard Bratby, The Brazen Head, California State University, Capital City Concerts, Cedille Records, Amy I-Lin Cheng, Cite de la musique et de la danse, The City of Opava, Classical Voice of North America, Classic Review, Andrea Clearfield’s SZalon, Colburn School, colinscolumn.com, Concentus Moraviae, Concerts on the Slope, cpo, Czech Center London, Czech Radio 3, Czech Radio Publishing House, Czech Television, Diapason, Hana Dolezalova, Richard Dove, Lawrence Dunn, Dvorak American Heritage Society, Dvorak Festival, Dvorak Society Newsletter, Ecole normale de musique Paris, Elizabethtown College, Susan Elkin, Erik Entwistle, EuroArts, Andrew Farach-Colton, Mae Faulkner, Jakub Ferencik, Festival Krumlov 2024, Festival Verfemte Musik, Fondatrice Elles, Johann Foss, France Musique, Remy Franck, Fremde Erde Festival, Galicia Jewish Museum, Eugene Gates, Gramophone, Harmonie, Erin Hauger, George Henderson, Jan Hlavac, Lukas Hurnik, Anne Ibos-Auge, International Opera and Music Festival Janacek Brno 2024, Islington Festival, John’s musical journey, Juilliard School of Music, Kensington and Chelsea Music Society, Mark T. Ketterson, Chris Kettle, Klasika Plus, Klassik Heute, Kheng K. Koay, Björn Kowalewsky, Kulturni centrum Golf, Kulturni centrum Strelnice, Patrick Lambert, La Opera’s Recovered Voices, Leamington Music, Lidove noviny, Los Angeles Opera, Heloise Luzzati, Olga Machonova Pavlu, Magazin Patriot, Mahler Jihlava Festival, Meridian Records, Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk, Tom Moore, MTNA Conference, Musee d’Orsay, Museum Policka, Musica non grata, Musicgebouw, musicwebinternational, Nas Martinu Society, Barbora Navratilova, The Nobel Prize Concert 2024, Opera Plus, Walter Parker, Anne-Kathrin Peitz, Pianist Magazine, Zbynek Pilbauer, Pizzicato, Polnische Akademie der Wissenschaften, Jeremy Pound, Jan Prusa, Radio France, Radio Prague International, Niina Ranta, Royal College of Music Keyboard Festival, Martin Schröder, Seen and Heard International, Otakar Sevcik Festival, Silk Purse Arts Centre, Robert Skarda, The Spectator, Renata Spisarova Kotik, The Strad, The Sunday Times, Supraphon, susanelkin.co.uk, Joanne Talbot, Textura, UCI Clair Trevor School of the Arts, Umelecka beseda, University of Leeds International Concert Summer Festival, University of Michigan-Ann Arbor, University of New Brunswick, University of Vermont,University of Wisconsin-Green Bay, Petr Veber, Vermont Public’s Live Performance Series, Victoria Ensemble, Villa Aurora, Webster University School of Music, Wentworth Villa, Richard Whitehouse, Wiesenthal Institute for Holocaust Studies, Wigmore Hall, Jonathan Woolf, Zakladni umelecka skola Jihlava, and Zalon Arts.



Annual report by Karla Hartl. Last update on January 6, 2025.