Following the closing bars, the Janáček Philharmonic Orchestra, headed by the Berlin conductor Roland Kluttig, was met with boisterous cheers – it was this orchestra that had performed three times at the Ostrava festival and had to master eleven long and difficult pieces within a record period – just twelve days! They worked the entire time with four conductors: Peter Rundel and Roland Kluttig from Berlin, Ondřej Vrabec from Prague, and Petr Kotík. Compared to previous biennials the performances of the Janáček Philharmonic Ostrava at this year’s festival again marked a big step forward.
Top performances were expected from Ostravská banda. The musicians, who came to Ostrava from eight different countries, form a tight-knit orchestra that is capable of learning within a very short time even the most difficult scores, such as Ligeti’s piano concert, in which there was a brilliant performance from the Belgian pianist Daan Vandewalle as well as the Ostrava Philharmonic. There are currently only around six pianists in the world who are capable of playing this concert. Among the soloists, Hana Kotková, singing alongside Ostravská banda, again distinguished herself, and sang for the first time in the Czech Republic Wolfgang Rihm’s Gesungene Zeit. All the invited guests gave top-notch performances: the mezzo soprano Katalin Károlyi from Paris, Amadinda Percussion Group from Budapest, Fišer Quartet from Prague, Quasars Ensemble from Bratislava, Canticum Ostrava choir with Yuri Galatenko, DoelenKwartet from Rotterdam, Phosphor Ensemble from Berlin, Claire Wild from London, and many others. Appearing for the first time in Ostrava was O.B.SQ (Ostravská banda String Quartet) – a string quartet made up of first players from Ostravská banda, and their performance, particularly of Lejaren Hiller’s Quartet No. 5, was one of the highlights of that evening. Ostrava Days 2009 once again presented major musical compositions of the 20th century – like the works by Ligeti and Varése mentioned above, Morton Feldman’s rarely performed Flute and Orchestra (the flute solo was played by Petr Kotík), and Cage’s Four4.
This year Ostrava Days opened up to the world media for the first time – critics from top music magazines based in New York, Los Angeles, and London were present for the duration of the festival, and important European music publishers and most critics and musicologists from Prague and Brno also attended the festival.
Before the start of the festival (21.8.), the Ostrava Days Institute took place (from 10.8.) on the premises of Janáček Conservatory Ostrava. There, 34 students from 18 different countries were selected, and they were truly thrilling, because what makes any school a good school is the quality of its students. Their compositions were a clear contribution to the success of the festival, and they performed the most modern work based on the most diverse aesthetic and ethnic principles.
In the words of the participants, Ostrava Days festival is growing in terms of the quality and quantity of its performers and visitors. Credit for this is largely due to the artistic director of Ostrava Days, Petr Kotík. Credit is also due to all the institutions involved, especially the City of Ostrava, and the sponsors and benefactors who will certainly support the next Ostrava Days in 2011.
