When in 1978 the sixty- five years old František Jílek suddenly became the head of the Brno State Philharmonic after the departure of ill Jiří Waldhans, no-one could imagine that under this conductor, non-pompous and rather pragmatic and notoriously famous from opera (a symphonic player is also sensitive to this) – and furthermore at retirement age – the philharmonic would experience the best stage of its existing history. And so it happened – and on one hand it was due to Jílek himself, on the other it was due to the orchestra as well as the chain of historical circumstances; at the moment when František Jílek became the chief conductor of the State Philharmonic, he was the right man, whom the orchestra needed, and on the other hand the philharmonic was the right orchestra for an artist of his calibre and experience.
Two decades after its founding the philharmonic was a different ensemble than in the 1950s. But do not think anything bad about its beginnings: already in the year of its establishment it excelled among the top European orchestras at the Warsaw Autumn 1956 and the results of its other seasons – measured by international conductor and soloist operation, quality of radio and gramophone recordings and then also by multiple tours abroad and their reception – and they corresponded with this classification; due to the fact that it kept its pace with the development of the musical world of the last decades, it found itself – with its possibilities and needs – at a different level that in its beginnings. This change could be also seen in the relation of player – conductor; the shift in this relation corresponded with the general rise in the level of orchestral musicians – not only technical, but mostly mental and of course social. At the beginning of the last century there was an abyss between conductor and musician, which we are unable to imagine today: the conductor did not consider the musician more than a necessary living part of the instrument, which was more important to him; the musician’s ambition was to play the part most perfectly according to the conductor’s orders – and care for nothing else. Let it be said that this attitude existed until recently – even excellent orchestras were full of musicians who played their parts excellently, without the notion of knowing what they were playing, who wrote it and why (an old anecdote about an opera contrabass player, who received as a present for his forty years of service a free ticket to Carmen and the next day he explained to his colleagues that above their hum-hum there are people singing “Toreador, on guard!”, was based on reality and it was related to conditions in symphonic orchestras.
Today top orchestras around the world employ musicians with university degrees and repertoire overview, which is acquired through radio, gramophone, television, computers and scholarship abroad; even an anonymous tutti-musician can become an artistic figure, if he cultivates his individuality and proves himself in chamber or solo performance. The conductor then stands in front of a collective which he cannot govern without limits as before, because only the authority arising from his leading position and especially he does not have the former necessary advantage of musical knowledge; however, he can, if he is able, acquire a concentrated and even creatively greater and complexly equipped artistic potential.
František Jílek underwent his musical education and first experience as a conductor at a time which did not have enough knowledge about this type of modern conductor; however, he managed – unlike many of his contemporaries – to keep pace with the rapid development during his long time activity and he gathered so much new knowledge that he – on the verge of his human and artistic maturity- was truly a representative of this new type of conductor, when he became head of the Philharmonic.
Critical reviews from around the world spoke identically about the moderation and relevance of his conductor performance as an expression of service relation towards the performed piece; they are right in the aspect that in the relationship of orchestra – conductor –Jílek stood on the side of the orchestra as primus inter pares – facing the piece which they produced. If we say it as such, it sounds obvious – but understand how much pretence there is in the conductor’s performance on the stage, expressing the exclusivity of the conductor’s Consorting with the Author far above the heads of the musicians, Jílek’s gesture did not try to illustrate the music, but to anticipate, all in constant functional contact with musician or the group to which it was related; it was more effective than for effect, and at the same time not only “pragmatic”, as often highlighted, because it could interpret or rather encourage a rate of emotive enchantment, necessary for the performers to realize not only the sound form, but also the meaning of the piece.
The conductor’s responsibilities in his orchestra are to know all about the strengths and weaknesses of every musician (even guest conductors try to discover it as quickly as possible); in return he has to accept that his musicians know everything about him: if he comes prepared, what he knows, what he hears (even what he doesn’t want to hear), what and how he can request things, how he asserts it and especially what is he willing to accept. Because at the level of current orchestras the top conductors apply the element of creative cooperation: if the bandmaster can indicate the nature of his approach to the musicians, he can count on the musicians’ stimulus, which corresponds with this concept.
It was true about Jílek that he could perfectly utilize these stimuli: according to musicians the orchestra could enjoy playing under his guidance and none of his requests were against music. Therefore his requests were met with agreement and willingness, to which conductors are not accustomed in their orchestras; it is the question of authority and its source. To the uninitiated it would seem that this authority comes naturally from generally accepted merits, higher status, higher age and honourable titles; it is a mistake, none of these circumstances or their coincidence would prevent unimaginable chaos at rehearsals, if it became apparent that their owner were not at the top of his capacity. But a witness of the critical third part of Jílek’s rehearsal around noon never noticed the usual tiredness or uneasiness in the orchestra: still the same precise and pragmatic instructions presented and carried out without nervousness in an atmosphere full of efficient concentration. Look at him, my colleague said about the actions of a foreign conductor in the same situation: he crawls under the stand, he hisses like a cobra and the orchestra still plays at full blast. Jílek needs only to move the fingers of one hand – and he receives pianissimo.
One of the sources of Jílek’s authority was the feeling that his working method is absolutely efficient, that he does not force someone to play pointlessly (the orchestra notices when the conductor only plays the piece to learn it himself) and that he is reliable – in critical moments, in which a complicated performance of such a large collective is exposed to variable conditions of different environments and mental dispositions of individual members, everyone found support from the conductor, who hears everything, knows what to do, and does not lose his head.
Development of recording technology has erased the differences between “radio”, “concert”, “opera’ or “film” conductors, but it has left some specific features to the work in front of the microphone. It is not necessary to talk about the quality of Jílek’s recordings with the philharmonic; although let us remind ourselves that while recording them the musicians were convinced that their quality was achieved regularly and with the least possible investment of time and effort, recognizing – besides the already mentioned method of study – also Jílek’s exceptional abilities of sound analysis and synthetic sound imagination. During his long years of cooperation with radio Jílek acquired – in accord with his orientation as conductor – the art of utilizing sound recording as a suitable revision, without falling prey to microphone fetishism, which was so common with “radio” conductors. Face to face with sound directors, technicians and their speaker systems he retained his authority, which the orchestra perceived especially beneficial, because they felt protected and they also found that their results have unrepeatable distinctiveness and atmosphere, which could be used to spare the actions of technical personnel, striving for perfection of the recording on their own.
Jílek left the conductor’s podium of the philharmonic for the last time after finishing his Janáček anthology in late summer 1991; although he had prepared other performances, he must have known that they would not happen; after recording one part of Dunaj (The Danube) he fell into reverie and said: No-one knows how to bid a better farewell than Janáček...
At the double anniversary of František Jílek (1913-1993) there will be the František Jílek in Photographs exhibition prepared by the elementary art school which is named after him. The opening is on 25 April at 5pm.
