Amid the well-deserved recognition that Czech musicians, orchestras and composers have garnered globally, it’s easy to overlook the country’s choirs. For a measure of their caliber and renown, look no further than the Bregenz Festspiele in Austria this summer, where the Prague Philharmonic Choir will be in a month-long residency for performances of Tancredi and Der Freischütz. Or the autumn schedule at Carnegie Hall, where the Choir will be performing Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with the Czech Philharmonic. And giving a standalone concert of Czech choral music the next day.
Under the guiding hand of Choirmaster Lukáš Vasilek, the Prague Philharmonic Choir (PPC) has also set new standards for creative programming. A cappella concerts are a regular part of the choir’s seasonal programming, along with ambitious projects like Britten’s War Requiem and Stravinsky’s Les Noces. At Prague Castle this past April, Vasilek stood the standard opera gala on its head with a program that was mostly choruses, strung together by just a few arias. And early next year Vasilek will make his conducting debut with the Czech Philharmonic, leading the orchestra and the choir together with a large supporting cast in Honegger’s oratorio Joan of Arc at the Stake.
“Joan of Arc is a very important project for the choir and for me personally,” Vasilek says. “It’s my dream to conduct this piece. I never imagined that I would reach this level.”
Nor did anyone else when Vasilek joined the choir in 2007. Originally from Hradec Králové, Vasilek, 44, got his start in the Boni Pueri boys’ choir there. Though he enjoyed singing, what intrigued him most was watching the choirmaster at work. “He inspired me very much,” Vasilek says. “I was fascinated by the idea that you could make music with your body, the way you move your hands, even the way you can use your face.”
After studies at Charles University and the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague, Vasilek had brief stints as conductor of the Foerster Female Chamber Choir and second choirmaster of the National Theater Chorus before joining the Prague Philharmonic Choir as assistant choirmaster. At that time the PPC had no choirmaster, and Vasilek did not aspire to the job. “I was too young, I didn’t have a lot of experience, and to be honest, the choir was not in very good shape,” he says. “So I didn’t feel I was the right choice for them.”
But after he worked with the choir for several months, there was a vote for a new choirmaster, and the members elected Vasilek. Even now, he seems a bit nonplussed by their choice. “It was quite strange,” he says with a smile and shrug. “But I’m still here.”
Vasilek brought a rigor to the choir that has made it a preferred partner not just for concerts in the Czech Republic, but for esteemed conductors abroad such as Zubin Mehta, Fabio Luisi and Kirill Petrenko. The quality of the singers was never an issue. “They’re professionals, they know how to sing,” Vasilek says. What he focused on was a unity of sound and purpose.
“If you have 80 singers in an ensemble, then you have 80 opinions about how something should be done, which is normal, because each person feels it in a different way,” Vasilek says. “So you must have a strong opinion about the piece and be the person who says, this is how we are going to do it, and explain why. And you have to be, I would say, quite strict about this.”
How much time does it take to prepare a piece? “Tons of time,” he says. “I would say that two-thirds of the time I spend preparing a piece are before we even start rehearsing. I have to come to rehearsals ready to form the piece according to my intention from the very first second, so they know exactly how we’re going to do it.”
In rehearsals, Vasilek focuses on fine-tuning elements like breathing, phrasing, pronunciation, the colors in the sound and expression. The PPC is noted particularly for the latter, often attaining the same level of expression one hears from solo vocalists. When it’s possible, Vasilek also consults with the conductor in advance to find out what mood he wants to set with the music. “That’s important, because there are a thousand different ways to be dramatic,” he says. “And a choir isn’t like an orchestra, you can’t change what it’s doing spontaneously. Of course, a conductor can change the sound if he doesn’t like it, but the results are usually not good.”
Though it regularly ventures into Baroque and 20th-century music, the core of the choir’s repertoire lies in the Romantic era, with choral masterworks like Dvořák’s Requiem and Stabat Mater, both of which the PPC has recorded (with the Czech Philharmonic). Vasilek considers those to be the mainstays of the Czech choral repertoire, along with the Moravian Choruses by Janáček and his Glagolitic Mass, which the PPC has also recorded. Martinů’s Epic of Gilgamesh would seem a less obvious choice both for a choral masterwork and a recording, but Vasilek is an unabashed Martinů fan.
“An absolutely great man and a brilliant composer,” he says. “His music is special, but like Janáček, it can be difficult to understand, especially if you’re not from here. For us it’s easier, because we can hear the folk melodies and understand the context.”
Eager to explore Martinů’s music further, in 2010 Vasilek established Martinů Voices, a 13-member vocal ensemble that specializes in chamber works by their namesake along with other 20th-century Czech composers. Complementing a recording of Martinů cantatas by the PPC, Martinů Voices released a sparkling CD of the composer’s madrigals and songs in 2018 that was named an “Editor’s Choice” by Gramophone magazine. Vasilek finds his work with Martinů Voices artistically rewarding, allowing him to do things he could not with a large ensemble, though he realizes its commercial limitations.
“It’s probably not good to admit this, but programming Martinů usually does not bring big success at concerts,” he says. “And you have to sing it perfectly, or it’s not worth hearing. But I knew that Martinů offered a large repertoire for a chamber ensemble. And I hope it doesn’t sound arrogant to say this, but I think Martinů’s music fits me. And I think I fit Martinů’s music.”
All of which fits squarely into a longstanding choral tradition in the Czech lands that reaches back centuries. Early choral music was largely church-based, with many of the finest Czech composers working abroad – Jan Dismas Zelenka in Dresden, Josef Mysliveček in Italy, and others in France, Germany and Austria. The 19th century brought secular choral music to the fore, put to effective use first by Smetana and then in the monumental cantatas of Dvořák. The professionalization of choirs in the early 20th century paved the way for the complex work of Janáček, Martinů and more recent choral composers like Jan Novák, Petr Eben and Zdeněk Lukáš.
Today there are hundreds of amateur choirs throughout the Czech Republic, professional choirs at every opera house and two premier concert choirs: the Prague Philharmonic Choir and the Czech Philharmonic Choir of Brno. Still, the best-known vocal ensembles may be the children’s choirs, which have won awards around the world. Among the most prominent are the aforementioned Boni Pueri, Kühn Children’s Choir and Pueri Gaudentes. Many orchestras, as well as the PPC, also sponsor their own children’s choir.
“Considering our size, I think we are a very rich country for choruses,” Vasilek says. Yet he feels that the best years of Czech choral music may be in the past – ironically, during the communist regime. “I think it was stronger during the 60s, 70s and 80s, mainly because people had more time,” he says. “They weren’t allowed to travel, and had very few choices about how to spend their free time. I’m not complaining, choral music is still very strong in the Czech Republic. I just think the golden age of choral music is past.”
It certainly doesn’t sound like it when the PPC is at the Rudolfinum or in Smetana Hall at the Municipal House, raising the roof with another electrifying performance. Offstage, Vasilek is a familiar figure walking the streets of Old Town near the choir’s offices in Prague, usually accompanied by his “best friend,” a German shepherd/retriever mix named Čert (Devil) for his coal-black color. Vasilek rarely goes anywhere without him, including rehearsals.
As for goals, he professes not to have any – at least not in the usual sense. “Of course, I have some things I want to do with both choruses, but I’m not aiming for some position or function,” he says. “I’m happy that I’m here, and that I’ve had the opportunity to reach this level. I never thought I could reach it, but somehow I did. And not by pursuing goals, I don’t think that way. I do my best to make every concert perfect, and we’ll see what happens in the future.”
See listings of upcoming performances from Lukáš Vasilek and the Prague Philharmonic Choir
This article was sponsored by the Czech Philharmonic.
