Interview with chief conductor Ondrej Lenárd

Musicologists are still speculating about what led the 49-year-old Dvořák to write the Requiem being performed today. Do you have a private theory?

In my opinion, Dvořák was carried away by the success that his oratorios enjoyed in England, while without doubt another possible impulse was an inquiry from the famous English publisher Alfred Henry Littleton. It was he who steered Dvořák toward considering composing the Requiem next. It seems that inducement came at an opportune time – six months later Dvořák got started on his masterwork.

Which passage do you find particularly moving (though there are surely several)?

Yes, incidentally even the very title Requiem by one of the greatest of musical geniuses evokes absolute humility in me… From as early as my student years I recall how our professor of aesthetics spoke to us about the huge tension between a semitone and a whole tone. And that’s the opening motif of Dvořák’s Requiem, which of course sounds to us like an agonising prayer. But the tension is huge.

When did you first study and perform the piece?

At the end of the 1980s in Tokyo.

With Japanese people? Did they accommodate your ideas unreservedly?

You know, this piece evokes everything in you. They interpreted it with love and devotion, which was inspiring to me and the four Slovak soloists. The elan and enthusiasm of the Shinsei Nihon Symphony and the Shinsei Nikkyo completely wowed us back then.

Today you have entrusted the solo parts to a starry quartet of exclusively Slovak singers. A little provocation – don’t Czech singers have your confidence?

I don’t like to hear talk of the Czech school of singing versus the Slovak one; I detest such comparisons. I select the type of voices that I find suitable in terms of expression and colour for every performance of an oratorio or operatic piece… I have worked with Czechs; but you know I’ve conducted many vocal concerts and opera performances with Czech soloists. However, since the new management of the National Theatre and State Opera broke off contact with me, I no longer have an overview of the standard of contemporary soloists.

Three more concerts with the PRSO await you in the “Classics with Refinement” season-ticket holders’ series – inside, which fills you with the most expectation?

I can only repeat that I look forward to every concert with the outstanding PRSO. The inspiration between us works in an almost exemplary manner. Awaiting me are, for example, Janáček’s Taras Bulba, Tchaikovsky’s Francesca da Rimini, Korsakov’s Scheherazade – one treat after the other. The pinnacle will likely be Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. We’re playing it on 4 April.

You will also perform Mahler at this year’s Smetana’s Litomyšl. It will be a monumental affair, held on the occasion of our orchestra’s 90th birthday.

Yes, the “Symphony of a Thousand”, an essential piece in world music for three soprano and two alto soloists, tenor, baritone and bass solo, a children’s choir, two mixed choirs and a large orchestras – my word, just this takes the breath away! The names of the singers (Maida Hundeling, Eva Hornyáková, Kateřina Kněžíková, Terézia Kružliaková, Veronika Hajnová, Daniel Frank, Jakub Kettner, Peter Mikuláš, the Czech Philharmonic Choir Brno, the Bratislava City Choir, the Czech Philharmonic Children’s Choir) and the setting of the chateau courtyard itself also guarantee a tremendous experience. It’s a huge machine for which finding financing is most arduous. I am happy that a number of bodies, including our domestic Czech Radio, will help us perform Mahler’s Eighth in Litomyšl for the first time. It will be, I hope, first rate.

Away from music, what has given you pleasure recently?

It’ll be hard to find an extra-musical pleasure; I’ll “slide” into the love of my life, music… but it’s come to me spontaneously: The fact that my contract with the PRSO has been extended to 2017. That’s my biggest joy.