The programme of the 2009 "Heritage of the March" CD will include two previously unrecorded pieces by FRANTIŠEK KMOCH. These are the marches POZDRAV Z KONVIKTU and HEJTMAN Z KOPENICKU. The disc is expected to be available early in 2010.
ALOIS SCHÖPF, organiser of the Innsbruck Promenade Concerts, has recently published a book which may be of interest to those with a medium knowledge of German. Entitled "Platzkonzert: Essay mit Erinnerung", the 150-page volume is published by Limbus Verlag (www.limbusverlag.at), 2009, with ISBN 978-3-902534-26-2.
Following a recent court decision, the KMOCH BAND KOLÍN (Kmochova hudba Kolín) has now been forced to change its title to HARMONIE 1872 KOLÍN. The band continues to be directed by Petr Stríška. Meanwhile the FRANTIŠEK KMOCH TOWN BAND KOLÍN (Mestská hudba Františka Kmocha Kolín), now the only band legally permitted to include the name "Kmoch" in their title, has obtained MILOSLAV BULÍN (formerly chief conductor of the Prague Garrison Band) as their artistic director.
The latest news regarding CZECH MILITARY BANDS makes very sad reading. The Garrison Bands of Hradec Králové and Tábor will be disbanded on 31st December 2009. (The Prague Garrison Band ceased to exist at the end of June 2008.) This will leave only the Army Central Band (in Prague) and the Olomouc Garrison Band remaining, but the future of even these two units appears to be in doubt. How a country with such a long, rich and glorious history in the field of military music can be reduced to such an appalling state is beyond belief. Not only have internationally recognized bandmaster-composers such as Julius Fucík, Karel Komzák, Jindrich Pravecek, among others, left many works of exceptional quality for posterity, but during the nineteenth and early 20th century Czech musicians constituted the majority of military band personnel in the vast Austro-Hungarian Empire. The people making these draconian decisions appear to have no knowledge of these facts. Furthermore they are ignoring the considerable presentday demands for Czech military bands both internationally (tattoos, festivals and parades) and their ever-increasing domestic workload due to the drastic reduction of bands in recent years. The unfortunate absence of a Czech band from the great military music festival in Moscow in September 2009 will regretably become a feature of many such prestigious international events. The miniscule budgetary savings compared with the total military expenditure surely does not justify the wholesale demolition of a major national cultural institution. In contrast to this dismal situation, in Austria (an adjacent country of similar size) there are presently nine military bands, each based in one of the country's provinces. It is a matter for considerable regret that the Czech Republic is unable to follow this laudible practice.
The RUNDFUNK BLASORCHESTER LEIPZIG started a 19-day tour of China on 30th September 2009. Founded in 1950, the band became independent of the radio station on German Reunification in 1990, and has since earned a reputation as one of the world's most outstanding wind bands. The 34 musicians will directed by the Dutch conductor and clarinetist Jan Cober (born 1951), who was the band's chief conductor from 2002 to 2008 (the position is currently vacant). Shanghai and Beijing are among the eight cities to be visited. Nine concerts in all are envisaged.
SIEGFRIED RUNDEL, founder of the renowned Rundel Musikverlag, died on 9th April 2009 at Memmingen. Not only a notable composer of marches and other popular pieces, band enthusiasts of the traditional repertoire will be ever-grateful to him for his many (true to the original) arrangements and published recordings of numerous hitherto forgotten marches. Details of the latest CD of this type (by Militärmusik Salzburg) will be found in the Recordings section of this website.
OBITUARY - Composer Manfred Schneider died on 18th November 2008. Born on 3rd May 1953 at Kestert on the Rhine, he composed a number of approachable works for wind band, most notably the atmospheric "Mountain Panorama" which was recorded by the Harmonie St. Caecilia Simpelveld on the Rundel CD MVSR 002-2.
OBITUARY - Antonín Votava, composer, bandleader and long-time drummer in the FOK Prague Symphony Orchestra, died on 3rd June 2009. He was one of the last-surviving members of the historic Prague Castle Guard Band under Rudolf Urbanec (1945-51), and for many years led his own small band, making several LP records.