CAPPELLA MARIANA: SMOLKA

Prominent Czech composer Martin Smolka wrote a composition commissioned by the Easter Festival directly for the renowned vocal ensemble Cappella Mariana.
The multi-part Sunday Morning will be heard together with Easter liturgical compositions from the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. The individual parts of the composition emerge during the concert and together they represent a certain outline not unlike a mass with diverse types of chants, which are united by the mass ordinarium. Smolko's work is complemented by a colorful mosaic of liturgical compositions, including the oldest organ of the Notre Dame era, a composition associated with the name of the legendary master Perotino from approximately the first half of the 13th century. Most of the other compositions then come from the 15th century, which concerns both the three-part liturgical compositions from the so-called Tridentine manuscripts and, above all, the multi-text motet of Petr Wilhelmi de Grudencz. It is his works that are abundantly preserved in Czech sources, so even though he was not born and apparently did not work in our territory, he can be included in the imaginary pantheon of creators celebrated in the year of Czech music. Probably the youngest of the older works on the program is the five-voice arrangement of a spiritual song from the Benešovský chantry, a work by Jan Trojan Turnovský (1530 – ca. 1606).
Hallelujah. Laudate Dominum, chant
MARTIN SMOLKA Niedzielne rano I. (Sunday morning), composition commissioned by the festival, premiere
ANONYMOUS Kyrie paschale à 3
HEINRICH ISAAC Haec dies à 4
MARTIN SMOLKA Niedzielne rano II.
MAGISTER PEROTINUS Alleluia Pascha nostrum immolatus, organum à 3
MARTIN SMOLKA Niedzielne rano III.
ANONYMOUS Victimae paschali laudes à 3
PETRUS WILHELMI DE GRUDENCZ Veni, vere – Pneuma eucaristiarum – Paraclito tripudia – Dator eia graciarum, moteto à 4
JAN TROJAN OF TURNOVSKY Almighty Creator, heaven and earth, glorious king from the Benešovský cantional à 5
MARTIN SMOLKA Niedzielne morning IV.

Cappella Mariana:
Barbora Kabátková soprano
Daniela Čermáková alto
Vojtěch Semerád, Tomáš Lajtkep tenor
Tomáš Šelc baritone
artistic director Vojtěch Semerád