PRAGUE SPRING INTERNATIONAL MUSIC COMPETITION

That was Eliška´s question, the violinist of our string quartet last summer. We had been talking about creating a string quartet for almost two years. We were students of the same professor, visiting the same violin masterclasses and we get along not only as musicians, but also as good friends, which is the basis for quartet. In the moment Eliška said the question we started looking for the violist and the violoncellist. The artdirector of Academy of Chamber Music Tomáš Jamník helped us with this goal. Our preparation started in August last year. We met at the castle Nelahozeves and started exploring if we could play together. Like every beginning even this was not easy. It is difficult to play in a string quartet because the intonation, harmony and musical feeling must be the same. Four people have to play like one organism. Despite of these difficulties we really liked it so we met again in September. I did not mention one important thing. Each member of our quartet studies in a different city (Wiena, Salzburg, Warsaw and Basel) that is why we knew our rehearsing and meeting would not be easy at all. We took the matters into our own hands and during the next meeting we recorded the piece for the preround of Prague Spring.

We thought that we would know if we were accepted in the competition at the beginning of January, but because of the covid situation and confusion about the course of the competition, Prague Spring was forced to change the date of deadline to the end of February. Even though our waiting for results was a bit longer, until the middle of March, it was worth it, because we got a message that we and other nine quartets were accepted in the competition. Its course was planned that the first and second round would be online and the third would take place in Rudolfinum. The performance would be broadcast live with all the participants and members of the jury.

Until the half of April we had to record uncut videos with five quartets. All kind of styles from Mozart, through Dvorak to a modern piece written especially for this competition. We planned it exactly day by day, but things got a little bit complicated for us with one member´s illness. Although we did not want to give it up, deep inside me I started to accept that the competition was over for us. Luckily the above mentioned Tomáš, who was our leader, figured out a plan. We tried to get in touch with our best violoncellists, who would be able to learn all pieces in few days. We were lucky and our effort turned out well. The violoncellist agreed on coming from Switzerland and recording all quartets with us. The marathon started right after his arrival. We finished it with recordings for the first and the second round. The fact that we came to this point after all those complications was a great reward. We really did not think that we could be one of three participants in the finals.

I calmly came back to Salzburg and expected to stay there minimally one month. I was taken out from this peace on 20th of April when we got the message that our quartet was accepted as the only czech into the finals.  As I did not expect us to get through, the euphoria was even bigger. I packed my things and came back to Prague in four days. Every era has its advantages and disadvantages. The advantage of this covid era was that online teaching allowed us to go away from our schools for a few weeks, fully concentrate on the competition and to fulfil our school duties. We knew we all had other important goals and exams after the competition. That is why we wanted to take it all with the utmost responsibility. We “moved“ to the castle Niměřice for three weeks. The perfect conditions for rehearsing were prepared for us there. We were beautifully taken care of. Our good friend cooked us amazing meals and whenever we needed anything, someone always arranged it. We played Beethoven first Razumowsky quartet and Janáček Kreutzer sonata which was written on motives of Tolstoj book Kreutzer sonata. It is incredibely interesting to play the piece when you can exactly follow the story in background. Both pieces are quartet masterpieces and it was great to play them. We really enjoyed the musical leadership of Peter Jarusek, who is violoncellist in Pavel Haas Quartet and who has a lot of experience from the quartet branche.

It was a bit surprising that I personally was most nervous the first week of rehearsing. As the finals got closer I was calmer and less nervous. Me and Eliška enjoyed playing even more because we borrowed great instruments from National collection of instruments – Stradivari and Degani. It was totally amazing to play these violins.

When the big day came, we slept enough, had good breakfast (you can not eat so much later), did a mental preparation and practised. In the afternoon we arrived to the general rehearsal to Rudolfinum. We were in a good mood, but during the rehearsal, when it was one hour left until the start of the competition, we felt a small tension. With the whole crew on the stage and a lot of people running around setting up the microphones and fixing everything to perfection, we did not have much peace, so we started to get a little nervous. During the performance of the first Quartet from Austria we were focused, concentrated and started to calm down again. I was looking forward to our performance. I really like playing in the Dvorak hall. Overall it was quite like my dream came true. Prague Spring is our biggest competition and i tis also appreciated abroad. It is a great honor to be a part of the finals. I knew I wanted to enjoy that moment. I came to the stage with confidence that everything would be alright, that we would play as wonderfully as we could. I love the fact that music is an universal language. It can speak to players and to listeners too. I think we expressed everything we wanted to give to the audience, which is the most important thing. It is amazing how our bodies are able to be maximally concentrated the whole hour and give the best results.

After the performance I was very tired, all the stress from last three weeks was gone and I was glad that we enjoyed it together and played well. I knew that the third Quartet of Korean players was also wonderful, but I did not care too much about the results of the competition. I knew we did our best and it was time for the jury to decide. We got the third price together with Austrian quartet and we were so happy for it. It was a huge reward for our striving and after few difficulties during preparation. We are looking forward to our next playing and concerts. We will have few in September and we-the whole Kukal Quartet-will be glad for every new listener, who is reading this blog.