Andreas Scholl will perform motets by composer F. I. Tůma

The Czech Ensemble Baroque will present a Czech program today at the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul, the last concert of the 11th season of the Bach to Mozart series! The main guest of the evening will be the world-renowned countertenor Andreas Scholl. The motets by the Czech conductor František Ignác Tůma, whose work will be performed by Scholl for the first time in his career, will be showcased in a modern world premiere.

The Czech Ensemble Baroque and conductor Roman Válek will perform compositions by the Czech Baroque master in a stylish interpretation on period instruments the day after the ensemble’s debut at the Prague Spring Festival. Afterwards, all the works will also be recorded for the prestigious French label Evidence Classic. The concert is announced for tonight, 1 June 2023, at 7 pm in the Cathedral of St Peter and St Paul.

The conducting engagement at the Viennese court of Queen Elisabeth Christina of Brunswick, mother of Maria Theresa and widow of Emperor Charles VI, was a golden period in the work of the Czech Baroque composer František Ignác Tůma (1704-1774). The great spiritual motets for solo voices and large ensemble stand out among the hundreds of compositions, both sacred and secular. A prominent position in Tůma’s motets is occupied by compositions for solo alto. The rediscovered compositions show Tůma as the supreme master of High Baroque church music. The sheet music for his works has been newly compiled by a team of musicologists from the materials of libraries and archives in Vienna, Berlin, Prague and Dresden. Thus, the music can come alive once again on the concert stage. The alto part will be taken on by Andreas Scholl, who has been one of the world’s most highly regarded countertenors of the last twenty years. “Our project sets itself an immense task: to present Tůma to the musical and professional public as a composer who came from a Czech background, but was fully integrated in Vienna, the epicentre of Austro-German music under Italian influence, without suppressing the uniqueness of his Czech roots. In the context of the composers of his time, we would like to clearly demonstrate the distinctiveness of Tůma’s temple music, which, thanks to his exceptional talent, bears comparison with J. D. Zelenka, or even with J. S. Bach, for example,” said conductor Roman Válek about the extraordinary composer.