History
The
birth of Hlahol dates back to 1860 when restoration of Austrian
constitutional life gave an impulse to lively expansion, when
contemporary political events were followed in quick succession by
various events of national importance in the public and cultural
sphere. These were the years of construction of the building of the
Czech National Theatre, of emancipation of music and of the concert
stage, of the foundation of societies dedicated to the enrichment of
the national revival.
Hlahol was founded by Jan Ludevít Lukes, famous Prague
singer and
brewer, whose private choir transformed, at the beginning of 1861, into
a public society – and performed for the first time under the
name of
“Hlahol” (the occasion was the funeral of the poet
Václav Hanka in
January 1861). At that time it had 120 members, all men.
In 1862, the Czech national painter Josef Mánes drew the
Hlahol
standard bearing the slogan "Sing to reach the heart, the heart to
reach the motherland”, invented by Josef Sklenář,
then a student of law.
The
first choirmasters were J.L.Lukes and Ferdinand Heller, renowned author
of the Česká Beseda. The first elected president of the
choir society
was an aristocrat – count Rudolf Thurn-Taxis.
The
choirmasters in 1863 were F. Kaván and B.
Smetana, and in the
following year F. Heller and B. Smetana. Hlahol moved to the
“Queen of
England” house in Široká street
(today’s Jungmannova).
Directed by P.
Křížkovský, Hlahol performed the
conductor’s imposing cantata Cyril and Method in Brno in
1863.
Po Smetana was followed as conductor by Karel Bendl, who was then
27-years-old. His term was marked by a decline in the number of parties
and festivities and focus on the true mission of the society
– singing
(in the artistic sense of the word). The then president of the Hlahol
society, Josef Huleš, was also Prague burgomaster. The first
female
“reinforcements” joined on March 9, 1873, when the
mixed choir sang
Dvořák’s "Hymnus".
The
soirée in the New Town theatre on May17,1870 was organized
on the
occasion of the laying of the foundation stone of the National Theatre,
where Smetana’s "Rolnická" was performed. Besides
Hlahol, 211 other
song choirs took part in the performance celebrating the event.
In May 1872, Hlahol went on tour to Dresden at the invitation of the
Czech Vlastimil choir. Hlahol gave its own concert for a wide German
audience and decided to donate the revenue from this concert to the
pension fund of the Dresden opera choir.
In 1876, JUDr. J. Fleischmann was elected president of the society; in
1877, the choirmaster was 24-year-old Karel Knittl. Hlahol moved into
the building of the St Wenceslaus Insurance Company in
Řetězová Street,
and from there into the Douša building on Wenceslaus Square.
Knittl
deserves great credit for the establishment of the women’s
choir –
called the “Ladies Section” - incorporated into
Hlahol in the autumn of
1879. The number of female members rose to 143; the male choir had 200
members.
Knittl’s era culminated with the performance of
Dvořák’s Stabat mater
(30.11. and 2.12.1884) and Berlioz’s Requiem (19. and
26.4.1885). Other
important performances were Dvořák’s Wedding Shirt
(8.11.1885),
Fibich’s Spring Romance (3.6.1886), Bendl’s
Christmas Eve (also 3.6.86)
and Klička’s Funeral at Kaněk (12.12.1886).
Hlahol serenaded Tchaikovski during his visit to Prague in February
1888. In return, the Russian composer promised to compose a new choral
for the choir, which he eventually did send with Bendl.
In 1886, the
emperor awarded the choir with the "Literis et artibus" gold medal.
In
1889 Hlahol performed Dvořák’s Mass in D major
(25.3.) together with
Schubert’s Song of Spirits over Water and
Mendelssohn’s Motette for
three female voices.
A large assembly of choirs was
held on the occasions of the
Ethnographic Exhibition in Prague in 1895. The first prize from among
13 participants was awarded to the Pilsen Hlahol, Vinohrady Hlahol and
the Svatopluk choir from Uherské Hradiště. Klička
resigned as
choirmaster in 1897 (the year when Bendl died). Knittl once again
conducted the choir in the four years that followed; in 1901, however,
he became the administrative director of the Prague conservatoire and
resigned, for the second time, as choirmaster of Hlahol. Hlahol was
then conducted for two years by K.Douša, followed by Adolf
Piskáček,
who performed Berlioz’s Requiem, Bach’s Mass in H
minor and Beethoven’s
Missa solemnis.
In 1901 Hlahol went
on tour to Zagreb, and in 1910 to Ljubljana.
The most important event of Piskáček’s term,
during the presidency of
Antonin Adámek, was the construction of Hlahol’s
own building. In
November 1902 the board proposed the purchase of a plot (which occurred
on September 25, 1903) and adopted the plans of board member and
architect F. Schlaffer including ornaments designed by J. Fanta. Both
did the work for free.
Construction started on May 3, under the guidance of master-builder Č.
Gregor. The first rehearsal of Hlahol under its own roof took place on
September 18, 1905. The opening ceremony took place later, on November
4 and 5, and was celebrated by a concert and ball at Žofín
island
(November 4, 905) and Sunday mass in the Týn church. At 11
a.m. the
building was solemnly handed over to serve its new owner. The interior
design of the Large Hall was complemented in 1921 by Alfons Mucha with
his last large major work – the lunette "The Song" (not
however
installed in the Hlahol building until 1934).
From the architectonic point of view, the Hlahol building is one of the
purest and most prominent art nouveau monuments of its kind. The
embankment façade is decorated with two large mosaics and
boasts
original carved doors; the rear, restored façade bears the
name HLAHOL
executed in large gold letters. Due to their significance and original
decoration (including the busts of choirmasters and individual pieces
of furniture), the premises of the Hlahol choir were declared a
monument of cultural heritage.
Piskáček was an extravagant and generous figure, so in 1911
a
competition was announced to find a new choirmaster. It was won by the
29-year-old choirmaster of the Vinohrady Hlahol, Jaroslav Křička. The
latter conducted Hlahol for 9 years, including the period of the Great
War. He produced the Missa choralis by Franz Liszt,
Dvořák’s Hymnus,
Novák’s Tempest and Wedding Shirt,
Fibich’s Spring Romance, the lyrical
oratorium Les Béatitudes by César Franck and
Dvořák’s Requiem and
Bach’s cantatas.
Hlahol sang at the funeral ceremonies of Czech poets and artists
Sládek, Vrchlický, A. Bráf,
Mikuláš Aleš, and of the 88-year-old
founder of the choir Ferdinand Heller, of the composer Malát
and former
society president V. Srb.
As choirmaster, Křička insisted strictly on punctuality and discipline
– two prerequisites for the successful outcome of artistic
activity.
Serious misdemeanours were punished, sometimes by erasure from the
membership list.
The
tension between choir members and choirmaster (who demanded individual
tests of all singers) resulted in Křička’s resignation in
June 1920.
But it is his merit that Hlahol continued to perform as a mixed choir.
A tour to Yugoslavia took place in 1921. The choir sang
Foerster’s
Czech Song and From the Fate of Hands and Great, Wide, Homeland Fields,
Vycpálek’s Our Spring and Křička’s
Advent and Old Town Tower.
In December 1921, 50-year-old Jaromír Herle was called in
from Vienna,
where he headed the Lumír choir, to take up the baton. Among
the Hlahol
performances at large funerals, ceremonies to commemorate
František
Ondříček on May 2,1922, in the Pantheon of the Regional
Museum,
funerals of A.Heyduk and A.Rašína in February
1923 deserve special
mention. In 1925, the choir society exceeded the number of 1000
members.
In 1927, Hlahol went on tour to Frankfurt am Mein, with a stop in
Nuremberg; in 1952, the choir toured Yugoslavia to attend the Slavic
festival held on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the Glasben
matica society in Ljubljana. Eight concerts were given during the tour.
In the 69th year of Hlahol, Herle recruited, as his assistant,
choirmaster P. Miloševič, a Yugoslavian, to be followed two
years later
by composer and pianist Josef Stanislav, and, in its 74th year, by Dr
Václav Smetáček, conductor and oboe player,
former 1st choirmaster of
Typografie.
The 70th year of Hlahol was the year of the 60th birthday anniversary
of Vítězslav Novák. His Two Ballads for a Mixed
Choir and Orchestra
(Ranosha and the Enchanted Daughter) and the Wedding Shirt were
performed.
During the 75th season (1935-1936), the Council of the Capital City of
Prague awarded the Hlahol society the Sucharda commemorative plaque for
meritorious work for the country and nation. The president of the
society received the plaque from the hands of the Lord Mayor of Prague
K. Baxa.
Hlahol,
too, had a jubilee plaque made for this occasion. The plaque, which was
the work of prof. J. Drahoňovský, was then donated to
Hlahol’s honorary
members, clubs and corporations.
The
celebration of the 60th birthday of the president of the society
J.Stanislav was an occasion of the first performance of the
children’s
choir.
Choirmaster Václav
Smetáček had a very keen
interest in Czech chorals and capella music.
After the outbreak of the 2nd World War, the activities of the mixed
choir subsided. The choir developed artistically under the communist
regime, but there was little contact with other countries; the Hlahol
building fell into disrepair.
A permanent museum of Hlahol society souvenirs, documents and trophies
was installed on the first floor of the house on the embankment.
In 1941, the Hlahol board purchased equipment for reproducing
gramophone records and had it installed in the rehearsal room. The
loudspeaker was used both to listen to recordings of classical cantatas
and oratoria, and to play light dance music during Hlahol parties and
the social gatherings of the Community Department.
Dvořák’s jubilee culminated with the performance
of the complete St
Ludmila oratorium on June 7, 1941. On January 13, 1941, the Hlahol
board decreed that the male choir should abandon the use of
aristocratic dress suits as concert attire and in future perform in
dinner jackets. A fun boat trip to Zbraslav was organized for members
on June 28, 1941.
On November 10 and 11, 1942 Hlahol performed the Mass for the Organ by
F. Liszta (in Leoš Janáček’s
arrangement). December 18,1942 was the day
of the first performance of Křička’s "Thyme" and "Angelus".
The extraordinary rehearsal on June 11,1943 was used as an occasion to
commemorate the 20th anniversary of Hlahol’s international
triumph at
the singing competition in Amsterdam, where it had won the first - most
cherished - prize in the mixed choirs section.
Alas,
an official inspection of the premises on September 27 and 29 resulted
in the issue of a notification by the Regional President in Prague to
immediately vacate the hall, cloakroom and all amenities, the gallery,
office and meeting room, which were then allocated to the Todt -
Einsatzgruppe VII, Oberbauleitung organization in Prague IV.
Hlahol found
temporary accommodation from October 20,1944 in
Štěpánská Street 35.
This
was when choirmaster Vratislav Vycpálek started giving
courses of
children’s choral singing, attended by 164 children. At the
end of the
successful course the children went on a boat trip to the
Vranská dam.
Hlahol got the keys
of its building back on January 8 and 9, 1945, and
on January 1, 1945 rehearsals started “on home
soil”.
But the bad days were not yet over. On April 20, 1945 the defense
department of the Prague city authority sequestered the hall and
cloakroom for the Odkolek company to store flour there.
On May 9,1945 Hlahol took part in a large national rally in support of
the Czech border region of Červený Hrádek near
Chomutov, a place where
in 1938 the decision had been made “about us without
us” and where the
secession of the border regions from the republic had been designed. On
September 15, 1945 the “Czech Song” was sung,
besides the national
anthem, in the Tyrš building, at a gathering of the
Czechoslovak Sokol
Community held in memory of Sokol founder Miroslav Tyrš.
After a long absence, Hlahol was invited by Czechoslovak Radio to
record Foerster’s oratorium "Saint Wenceslaus"on September
23, 1945.
Dr V. Smetáček resigned, and with him his deputy J.
Bubeníček. After
another conductor crisis, this time concerning A. Dolinský,
a new
conductor was appointed at the end of 1945 - professor Cyril
Pecháček.
The 70th anniversary of the death of F. Palacký on June
8,1946 was
celebrated by the performance of Praus’s "Choral of the
Czechs" and
Smetana’s "Solemn Choral" and "Prayer".
Immediately after the revolution, Hlahol donated 12,000 crowns for the
restoration of the Old Town Hall and 5,000 crowns to the composer B.
Krawec, who had lost all his belongings as well as the manuscripts of
his compositions in the bombing of Dresden.
The mixed choir, under the direction of J. Kasal, sang at the opening
of the “30 Victorious Years of the U.S.S.R.”
exhibition at Myslbek
pavilion on Na Příkopě Street.
As a part of the Prague Spring festival, Hlahol performed A.
Dvořák’s
oratorium "Saint Ludmila" on the third courtyard of Prague Castle on
May 15, 1948. Six other choirs took part, accompanied by the Czech
Philharmonic orchestra combined with the FOK orchestra and conducted by
R. Kubelík.
The men’s choir together with other Prague singers sang at
the funeral
of president E. Beneš on September 8, 1948. They choir sang
the Praise
of the Merciful Lord on Tylovo Square, behind the National Theatre.
The new choirmaster Z. Tomáš (born 1915) was
assisted from March to
September 1948 by Jan Kasal, the second choirmaster. On September 27,
the latter, however, joined the Orchestra Association of Prague
Teachers. Z. Tomáš proved his abilities as the
principle of the music
school in Rakovník and the conductor of the amateur opera in
that town.
The
Hlahol rehearsal on May 21,1948 was visited by its former second
choirmaster in Herla’s time (1929-1931), P. Miloshevich, a
Yugoslav,
currently professor of the Belgrade Academy of Music. He was greeted
with a song after which he conducted Smetana’s "Motto".
On May 10, 1949 Hlahol, together with other singers and conducted by Z.
Tomáš, sang Smetana’s Freedom Song at a
charity concert dedicated to
the restoration of the Prague Emauzy complex that had been badly
damaged by aerial bombing.
On May 28 to 29,1949 Hlahol
toured the Karlovy Vary and Mariánské
Lázně spas. There were some 180 participants.
On June 20,1951 Hlahol performed in the Wallenstein gardens, singing
Dvořák’s hymnus "The Heirs of White
Mountain” under the direction of J.
Stárek.
The house in Liliová Street, which Hlahol received as a
legacy, was in
the end donated to the State. Hlahol was, in fact, forced to do so,
because the revenue from concerts and from rent of Hlahol properties
did not cover the cost of maintaining this building.
There was also no possibility at all of organizing competitions of
contemporary choir music, which had been one of the main cultural
missions of Hlahol. This role was assumed by other institutions
–
especially the Union of Czech Composers, where however there was no
interest in composition of new choir music. The formerly regularly
allotted subsidies from the government also stopped in the new era.
On October15, 1951 Z.
Tomáš produced Dvořák’s
“Wedding Shirt” cantata.
On
September 19, 1952 Hlahol, together with the FOK orchestra, prepared a
joint celebration of the 70th birthday of professor Jaroslav Křička.
The orchestra, under the baton of dr. V. Smetáček, performed
Křička’s
overture “The Blue Bird” and his 1st Symphony
"Youth”; the second part
of the concert was conducted by Z. Tomáš and
included Křička’s
"Moravian Cantata". The composer then conducted Smetana’s
"Motto".
The main event of the 93rd season (1953-54) was the autumn concert on
November 23 and 24,1953, when H. Berlioz’s "Faust”
was performed.
On July 1,1954 Hlahol became
the choir of the Municipal House of Enlightment (Městský dům
osvěty, MDO), a situation which lasted until the 98th season (1958).
Financial difficulties and
adherence to a balanced budget was but
one problem. Another was ideology – the involvement of Hlahol
in public
and political life.
June 30,1951 was the last day of business at the pub in
Hlahol’s
property in Vojtěšská Street. The tenant withdrew
from the lease and,
since there was no new tenant interested in keeping the pub open, the
Prague district authority cancelled the license issued in the name of
Hlahol.
Hlahol at this time
had 197 members (129 women and 68 men).
However,
there was no revenue from the buildings and, moreover, the latter
required maintenance. At the same time, overhead costs were rising.
Tickets were sold by members. The children’s choir was
self-sufficient
only thanks to the fact that its members paid an enrolment fee, which
then paid for the rehearsal costs. The Hlahol budget was very tight and
its repertoire started becoming one-sided, purely classical, with the
dominance of church choirs and, only as a kind of appendix, folk songs.
November 19 and 20, 1956 saw the
performance of Liszt’s “Die
Legende von der heiligen Elisabeth ” oratorio conducted by Z.
Tomáš.
Alas, this event resulted in a loss of 630 crowns. But none of the
non-professional Prague ensembles could afford to present such a great
work..
M.
Venhoda followed professor M. Doležil as choirmaster of the Prague
Teachers Choir and resigned as head of the Hlahol children’s
choir. He
was replaced by Čestmír Stašek, thereto
choirmaster of the Prague
Children’s Choir of the Central House of Pioneers in Prague -
Vinohrady.
The Hlahol rehearsal rooms were used also by the Orchestral Association
of Prague Teachers and, temporarily, by the Bohemian Singing Choir.
Dance courses and exercise sessions of Z.
Zabylová’s ballet studio took
place there as well.
The premier of the
cantata “War and Peace” by the
Sorbian composer B. Krawec (1861-1948) was on January 24, 1957.
On April 23 and 26, and on May
2,1957 Hlahol performed Rossini’s opera "William Tell".
Choirmaster Z. Tomáš
proposed the establishment
of Hlahol’s own orchestraas
an independent section of the society, to function on an amateur basis,
yet to be proficient enough to accompany the choir during most of its
performances. This is a similar milestone in the history of Hlahol as
had been the addition of the female choir to what had originally been a
purely male Hlahol choir.
Hlahol
had 206 performing members (146 women and 60 men). The numbers of
singers in individual voice categories in the female choir were 47, 30,
40, 29; in the male choir 14, 15, 18, 15. The symphonic orchestra had
70 members.
In 1959, Hlahol lent the score of Dvořák’s
"Requiem" to Solothurn in
Switzerland, where the work was produced thrice by the local orchestra
and choir.
On
June 8 and 4,1960 Hlahol produced the populist "Evening of the Most
Beautiful Waltzes", which turned out to be an erroneous repertoire
policy. The performance was conducted by Z.
Tomáš. Hlahol gave the same
performance for the participants of the Spartakiada mass calisthenics
festival on June 14, at the Prague Střelecký Island.
G.F.
Händel’s oratorio “Alexander’s
Feast” was performed on February 1961 and conducted by J.
Kasal.
On March 27,1961, the Hlahol orchestra, conducted by Z.
Tomáš,
performed three concerts by L. van Beethovena and the piano concert in
A Major by F. Liszt.
The general assembly of the society elected the new president of Hlahol
on June 16, 1961 - dr. František
Šišma, who remained in this post until
1972. In 1961, Hlahol issued its new badge designed by the sculptor
Arnošt Košík.
In 1962, Hlahol rehearsed Verdi’s Simone Boccanegra. It also
produced
Kabeláč’s works for the children’s choir
and the mixed choir and the
Maryka oratorium by the composer Hurník and, in 1965,
Händel’s Messiah
and Černohorský’s Praecatus est.
In 1967 Handel produced
Händel’s oratorio L Allegro.
Even at this very
complicated period Z. Tomáš
managed to prepare a reasonable repertoire for Hlahol and ensure a good
standard.
Due
to the financial difficulties of the ensemble, especially after 1970,
it was not possible to give so many concerts with the orchestra and, in
1978, the orchestra had to be dissolved.
The new artistic director and main choirmaster appointed in 1980 was
professor Jan Kasal. He focused on the artistic quality of the singing
and capella and, infact, restored the choir to the essence of its
existence. In 1982 he rehearsed B. Martinů’s “Field
Mass”, and in 1983
“Opening of Springs”.
In 1984, J. Kasal
founded the strings orchestra.
By rehearsing J.S.Bach’s Cantata No. 31, professor Kasal set
out on a
new artistic course which he had no intention of leaving. This meant
that a part of the membership (mainly elder members) had to leave.
In 1986 Hlahol had 94 members of the mixed choir, 50 members of
children’s choir (artistic head M. Hájek), 18
members of the chamber
ensemble of Czech madrigalists (head Frant.X. Thuri). The chamber
orchestra was headed by Pavel Rabas.
The Offertorium and Qui tollis composed by V.J. Kopřiva and K.B.
Kopřiva was produced on April 14,1986 in the Mayakovsky Hall in Prague.
Večerní Praha
published an article on October 1,1986 ""Prague Hlahol Celebrating its
125th Anniversary"."
The
chairman of Hlahol, baritone Ing. Jan Nič, has been a member of the
ensemble for 66 years. He is most proud of the participation of Hlahol
at the laying of the National Theatre foundation stone ceremony when,
on May 15, 1867 Hlahol together with other choirs embarked on garlanded
and lighted boats on the Vltava and when, on the second day, 212
singing choirs, under 81 association banners, assembled in Prague at
its invitation. Three thousand singers marched in procession towards
the building site of the National Theatre where they gave a concert.
The
Prague of today has also had the opportunity to witness monumental
concerts conducted by Jan Kasal and Jiří
Bělohlávek, at which 1200
members of many ensembles sang together Smetana’s Czech Song.
On October 27, 1986 a concert took place at the House of Artists. It
was introduced by dr. Václav Holzknecht. The program
included works by
Czech composers O.F. Korte, Jan Novák and
Vítězslav Novák.
A scenic performance
of a series of Czech Christmas carols was
performed on December 19,1986. The dramaturg was Pavel Czikrai.
Hlahol took part in a special concert titled “The Rose from
Lidice”
held on May 24,1987 as a part of the Prague Spring festival and, on
November 17, 1987 in the concert of choirs in the Large Hall of
Slovanský Island in Prague.
M. Raichl’s
“Loving without Meeting” was performed on June
23,1988 as well as folksongs arranged by P. Eben.
The long-serving Hlahol board member Karel Polák died in
October 1988;
Hlahol’s president Jan Nič died in November of the same year
and was
buried on December 27,1988 into the Hlahol tomb at Vyšehrad
cemetery.
1On December 13,1988 Hlahol performed the compositions of G.M.
Palestrina, D. Buxtehude, P. Eben (Carol Singers from
Těšín), Kasal
(This Night in Bethlehem) in Benátky nad Jizerou
The Christnmas concert took place on December 5, 1989 in the Smetana
Hall of the Prague Municipal Building. The program included D.
Buxtehude’s Cantate Domino, J.S.Bach’s Cantata No.
57 and Suite No. 2
in H-Minor, and J.J.Ryba’s Czech Christmas Carol.
The very successful term of professor Jan Kasal was followed in 1992 by
the no less successful term of professor Zdeněk Šulc. The
latter
achieved recognition of the Hlahol Singers’ Society abroad,
as proven
by the following quote:
Article
in Meridional, Journal de Marseille, on the Hlahol concert in Malaucene
(France) on August 11,1995.
Malaucene
hosted the Prague choir of the Hlahol Singers’ Society
founded almost
140 years ago and deemed one of the most prestigious choirs in the
Czech Republic. It was a moving experience to find that the choir
singers are continuing a long tradition of emitting the shining light
of each performed composition.
The
concert program consisted of 15 works. Some very short, like the
"Audite, silete" by Praetorius or Orff’s "Odi et amo". Others
were
longer, like Saint Saens’s "Ave verum" or
Dvořák’s "Moravian Duets" as
arranged by Janáček - a series of beautiful Moravian songs,
or Zdeněk
Lukáš’s “Salute to
Artists”. All the compositions are marked by their
extraordinary emotiveness, purity and depth.
The
audience were invited to meditate, moved by the noble influence of
singing, or to participate in the exultation of the voices expressing,
with evident spontaneity, a fervent passion.
The
choirmaster Zdeněk Šulc has the ability to evoke naturally
all the
emotions inspired by the music. With an inherent feeling for the most
refined details he guides the choir as needed, with spontaneity. His
direction is never forced, it streamlines the dynamics, awakens the
taste of beauty and guides the choir singers towards greater heights,
as if the brilliant sound of the singing required even more radiance.
Zdeněk
Šulc does not look into the score in front of him. He
prefers immediate
contact with the singers and streamlines the fusion of the most
beautiful voices in the choir with the accuracy of a disciplined and
unique interpretation.
The orchestra enters the scene.
Two
surprises were prepared for the intermission. The first was the
production of Chopin’s Polonaise in F sharp Minor by Karel
Martínek.
The young pianist was endowed with a passion that at times concealed
the distinctness of notes, never however the sensitivity of expression.
And
Michaela Havlíčková, the choir’s
charming soprano, with a notable
expression of emotion, performed Schubert’s "Ave Maria".
Another
instrument of the concert, the flute, added an extraordinary radiance
of joy as emitted by Fibich’s "Beatus vir".
The
two encores demanded by the enthusiastic audience culminated in a
fervent “Alleluyah” to mark the end of a wonderful
concert.
Claude
TAELMAN
During his time as artistic head of Hlahol, professor Zdeněk
Šulc
renewed the collaboration with a symphonic orchestra composed of mainly
young musicians (members of the Czech Philharmonic, FOK, SOČR). Thus
the repertoire was broadened by cantatas, masses and oratoria performed
both in the Prague
Hlahol Hall,
and in the Smetana Hall, the Rudolfinum and in churches and cathedrals
both at home and abroad. The Hlahol repertoire also includes a large
number of compositions and capellas by domestic and foreign composers.
Currently, the choir has 60 members; the average age of the choir is 35
years.
Since 2001 the singing society has been headed by choirmaster
Roman
Z.
Novák.
Since 2006
she has been working as the assistant choirmistress
Klára
Ježková.
Compiled by Drahoslav Čítek from the following sources:
- the Smetana journal (ca. 1930)
- Hlaholské jubileum (1941) [The Hlahol Jubilee] by Milada Lejsková-Smetáčková
- translation of article from the French periodical into Czech (1995), provided kindly by friar Věk