A rich harvest

The best and most diverse music festival of autumn begins its 15th installment this week with an appropriately eclectic opening concert: Norwegian saxophonist Jan Garbarek, backed by the British male vocal quartet The Hilliard Ensemble at the National Memorial on Vítkov Hill (Sept. 19).

Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble originally teamed up in 1994, combining Garbarek's warm approach to jazz with the ensemble's reverence for sacred vocal music on the seminal album Officium.

This year, the group reunited to record Officium Novum, a sequel to their now legendary earlier effort. The ensemble's unlikely combination of jazz and vocal chamber music, which blurs the barriers between jazz, classical and early music, is a fitting opener for this year's Strings of Autumn, given the range of the program.

Festival founder Marek Vrabec tells The Prague Post that diversity has always been the festival's driving force, but for Strings of Autumn's 15th anniversary, special attention was paid to past favorites.

"This year's Inspiration series celebrates 15 years of Strings of Autumn with three concerts given by key figures from the festival's history: Jan Garbarek and The Hilliard Ensemble, who first performed at Strings in 1997; cellist Jiří Bárta, who brings a new version of the Reflections project premiered at the 2002 festival; and Brad Mehldau, who returns for his third Strings appearance," he says.

There truly is something for everyone at this year's festival, from Garbarek's pithy jazz saxophone phrasings to Bárta, one of the leading Czech classical musicians, to the throat singing ensemble Alash, performing at the Czech Museum of Music (Oct. 21). A quartet of masters of an ancient singing technique from the region of Tuva, once part of Mongolia, Alash combines traditional Mongolian instrumentation with throat singing, in which several resonating tones from each singer are audible at once.

Also present in this year's program is a special two-day event designed for parents and children ages four to 15. Strings for Children is a weekend series of concerts and musical workshops featuring African drummers and local ethnic singing ensemble The Yellow Sisters (Oct. 2 and 3 at Kolowrat Theater).

The inclusion of programming for little listeners is appropriate, as one of the brightest stars of this year's festival is also the youngest.

The brilliant violinist Julia Fischer plays an intimate concert at Saint Anne's Church (Oct. 16). At only 26, Fischer has been a professor at the Music Academy in Frankfurt since 2007, when she became the youngest music professor in German history. Fischer's career as a performer has been similarly charmed, sending her on performance tours around the world with the great conductors of classical music, including Matthias Pintscher earlier this year.

Fischer will perform three sonatas by Ysaye, Beethoven and Franck, accompanied by Ukrainian pianist Milana Chernyavska. Theirs is one of several duet performances throughout the festival. The lauded jazz pianist Brad Mehldau will perform with Swedish mezzo-soprano Anne Sofie von Otter at the Municipal House (Oct. 26).

Mehldau has achieved recent mainstream success with his inspired jazz interpretations of popular songs by Radiohead and Nick Drake, among others. Mehldau trained as a jazz and classical pianist, however, and his performance with von Otter of Love Songs, seven songs Mehldau composed to play with the opera star, is unlikely to venture into rock territory. But given the fact that von Otter has had crossover success with Elvis Costello, this energetic duet's performance may well be less than traditional.

In terms of venues, the gothic basilica of the Týn Church on Old Town Square is about as traditional as it gets. A performance by the renaissance song revisionaries Dowland Project should be uniquely appropriate for this inspiring setting. (Nov. 3)

A four-piece ensemble of tenor vocalist John Potter, bass clarinet, violin and baroque guitar, Dowland Project's repertoire is as wide-ranging as their instrumentation. The group will be playing from their third, most recent album Romaria, which features love songs and chants from the 12th century to the present.

Vrabec says the festival's use of several different venues, from the Týn Church to the Vítkov Monument - which is being used for the first time this year - is a deliberate choice and part of the festival's philosophy.

"We look at venues not as a means to an end, but as a central part of the concert experience. And I think people enjoy seeing artists perform in venues they might not traditionally be associated with. This is all part of the experience of discovery we hope the festival provides - we see it as a sort of crossroads where a range of genres, venues and musical backgrounds come together," he says.

The festival wraps up in grand style with a performance by four time Grammy Award-winning American jazz vocalist Diane Reeves at the Congress Center (Nov. 21). Reeves has made a name for herself with her sultry, soulful refashioning of jazz classics. Besides her usual backing band, which includes piano, drums and upright bass, Reeves will be accompanied by the Prague Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Martin Kumžak, a combination that should bring the festival to an exquisite close.

Strings of Autumn has rightfully earned a reputation for unparalleled diversity. With such a wide variety of world class musicians in attendance, the festival lends some brightness to the darkening days of autumn in Prague.

Stephan Delbos can be reached at
sdelbos@praguepost.com