Baroque for moderns

Jaroslav Svěcený is a man on a mission.

An accomplished violinist and music historian who has traveled the world giving concerts and lectures on European violin-makers, Svěcený looked around his Prague 4 neighborhood seven years ago and decided it needed a dose of culture. So he created Tones of Chodov, a series of outdoor classical music concerts that now attracts star players and capacity crowds to the Chodov Water Fortress (Chodovská tvrz) every summer.

But the age of the audience, like that at classical concerts everywhere, bothers him. "It's like an alarm for me," he says. "We have all these great players. But where are the young people?"

The short answer is, going to rock and hip-hop shows but not classical concerts. Svěcený hopes to change that with projects like Vivaldianno, his updating of Baroque music with rock star Michal Dvořák, which was a hot-selling CD last year and will be performed live at Chodov this year. The six-concert series also includes a night "For All Generations," with Karel Gott's keyboard player, Pavel Větrovec, and jazz singer Jitka Zelenková joining Svěcený for an homage to modern composers such as George Gershwin, Leonard Bernstein, Dave Brubeck and Chick Corea.

"This is PR for classical music," Svěcený says. "Hopefully young people will hear it and realize there are other possibilities. Maybe Vivaldianno leads to Mozart, which leads you to Brahms, which leads you to Janáček."

Purists need not worry - Svěcený is deeply grounded in the classical repertoire, and has no intention of abandoning it. His specialty is Baroque, and there's plenty of it on this year's schedule.

The series opens with a gilded night of Baroque (July 21) featuring three violinists - Svěcený, his talented daughter Julie and frequent accompanist Dana Vlachová - backed by the Czech Chamber Orchestra, performing Vivaldi, Bach and Benda. The latter is an 18th-century virtuoso violinist and composer who left one particular concerto only in manuscript form, which Svěcený found in a private collection in Germany. Complementing that will be Bach and Vivaldi concertos transcribed by Fritz Kreisler.

The following night is Vivaldianno, with keyboard player Dvořák and guitarists Radim Hladík and Jiří Janouch adding some electricity to an ensemble that also includes percussionist Tomáš Waschinger and flute player Jaime Garvitzu. The volume comes down the next night (July 23) with Czech classical guitar star Lubomír Brabec joining Svěcený for a "Summer Strings" outing of pieces by Paganini, Giuliana and Gragnani written expressly for violin and guitar.

After a weekend break, the series resumes with a sterling trio - Svěcený, Vladímir Rejlek on trumpet and Josef Popelka on organ positive - playing 18th- and 19th-century music (July 27). "Rejlek is in the National Theater orchestra, he's a fantastic Baroque trumpet player," enthuses Svěcený. "He's got a very nice sound, light with many colors."

Had enough Baroque yet? If not, the following night reunites Svěcený with another of his favorite accompanists, harpsichord player Jitka Navrátilová, for a program of Corelli, Vivaldi, Tartini, Händel and Benda. If you've never seen one of his multi-violin performances, this is a good one to catch; he will be bringing and playing six different 18th- and 19th-century violins, all made by Prague craftsmen in Malá Strana.

The festival closes July 29 with the contemporary composers' concert.

As an entree point to classical music, this is about as inviting as it gets: easily accessible music, rich and melodic, performed in a relaxed outdoor setting. Aficionados will appreciate the level of scholarship and detail in the programs, period instruments and excellent caliber of supporting players. And everyone enjoys the intimacy and historic resonance of Chodov.

A practical word of advice: Go early, as the fortress can be tricky to find if you've never been there before, and seats fill up quickly. It's worth the effort.

Frank Kuznik can be reached at
fkuznik@praguepost.com