Release Date: July 8, 2016
Catalog #: NV6021
Format: Digital & Physical
21st Century
Liturgical
Orchestral
Orchestra

Te Deum

Nicolas Kaviani composer

Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra | Petr Vronský conductor
Janáček Opera Choir | Pavel Koranek director
Martina Králíková soprano; Barbora Polášková alto
Juraj Nociar tenor; Jiří Pribyl baritone
Karel Martínek organ
Prague Mixed Chamber Choir | Jiří Petrdlík director

The lineage of Western concert music is one which brims with tradition and history, through teachers and pupils, listeners and performers, spanning centuries and continents alike. But one of the common threads which runs through this lineage is the urge by composers, performers, and audiences to all be part of a transcendent emotional experience through music itself.

“Music saves one note at a time,” says Kaviani. “Not by ending wars but by waging them in the name of beauty, nobility, and humanity against all that lies to, numbs, or crushes the human spirit. It saves not by eliminating hunger but by creating more appetite for enlightenment, transcendence and human civilization.”

Kaviani’s Te Deum, performed by the Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra and the Janáček Opera Choir, conducted by Petr Vronský, is a secular work which uses the original Latin text of the Christian hymn of praise and presents it through the lens of modernity. The piece in many ways exemplifies the composer’s humanistic, emotionally-driven approach in an invigorating celebration of art, life, and the forces beyond our own selves.

A more recent work, Tous les matins du monde, written almost 10 years after the Te Deum, shows Kaviani as he is now, more mature, austere and more sensitive. Kaviani’s a cappella work, performed by the Prague Mixed Chamber Choir, conducted by Jirí Petrdlík, is conceived and executed in a clearly contemporary style, with shifting moments of lamentation and contemplation juxtaposed with a profound sense of transcendence. Concerning this piece Kaviani states, “Above all, this piece is about loss.”

The composer’s facility at vocal writing is on full display, deploying techniques spanning Gregorian chant to 20th-century atonal music, and presenting sections of monophony, homophony, and polyphony – and in the process delivering an experience which invites all listeners to reflect on humanity’s capabilities and aspirations, and on our presence within an indefinable and unfathomable universe.

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An Inside Look

Nicolas Kaviani – Te Deum

Artist Information

Nicolas Kaviani

Composer

American-born composer, Nicolas Kaviani, has been actively composing chamber, orchestral and choral music since the age of 13. Mr. Kaviani received his Bachelor of Arts in Music Composition from the University of California at Santa Cruz in the year 2000, studying under the noted composer David Cope. He then went on to earn his grade de master in composition from the prestigious Conservatoire de Musique Olivier Messiaen in Avignon, France. There Mr. Kaviani was invited multiple times to attend master classes with some of the most prominent composers in France, including on one occasion Pierre Boulez, during the summer of 2005. In 2006 Mr. Kaviani's String quartet #4 was performed in the Festival de Musique Contemporaine in Avignon.

Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra

Orchestra

The Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the foremost and oldest symphony orchestras in the Czech Republic. It is based in the historical capital of Moravia, the city of Olomouc, and has been a leader of music activities in the region for the past 70 years. Its artistic development was directly influenced by distinguished figures from the Czech and international music scene.

Jiří Petrdlík

Conductor

Jiří Petrdlík (b. 1977) is appreciated as one of the most respectable conductors of his generation. He studied piano, trombone, and conducting — 1995–2000 at Prague Conservatory, and 2000–2005 at Academy of Performing Arts Prague — with Hynek Farkač, Miroslav Košler, Miriam Němcová, Radomil Eliška, and Tomáš Koutník, and took part in the masterclasses of the New York Philharmonic Principal Conductor Kurt Masur and the BBC Philharmonic Principal Conductor Jiří Bělohlávek. Petrdlík also successfully took part in several competitions, including the Donatella Flick Conductor Competition in London.

Petr Vronský

Conductor

After successes in several important international competitions for conductors — including the competition in Besancon France in 1971 and the Karajan Competition in Berlin in 1973 — his career began at the opera company in Pilsen. From 1974 to 1978, he was Chief of Opera of the State Theater in Usti nad Labem, Czech Republic. In 1978, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he held until 1991. Vronsky was later appointed Chief Conductor of the Janacek Philharmonic Orchestra Ostrava in 2002.