The band Minach with actress and chanson singer Mariana Chmelařová. Album Out Of The Blue(s) with the Indigo String Quartet. Cooperation with another singer-actress Andrea Buršová. Songs for theatrical performances. New acoustic music for the KK Band (with mandolin player Martin Krajíček). Albums of folk and "speech therapy" songs for children. The book Drakouni. The TV show Hýbánky. Albums for piano solos. This is – by no means exhaustive – a list of activities of the pianist and composer Zdeněk Král from Brno. We met on the occasion of the release of his new piano album, Nahá, but we obviously did not stop there.
Zdeněk, eight years after the album Expectation, you released a new record for solo piano. Does the CD Nahá contain improvisation, or written works?
While I focused on improvisation a lot in the past, this CD is actually written to the last note. I even have them in the notes. If someone wanted to play them according to the notes, I can send them to them. I wrote all the compositions during one week in July when I was staying with my parents. I composed them on the piano which I played as a child.
And what inspired you for the compositions? The home environment? Or the piano?
Neither the piano nor the environment. Inner feelings. They are love songs, small confessions.
This may be, of course, associated with the name Nahá (Naked), but I felt another meaning behind it, the nakedness of the arrangement of the album. You did without widespread arrangements on the whole album, even though I may be able to imagine them there.
Yes, exactly. It is such naked music, something so bare. Anything else would be excessive. It is my opening up: Look, here I am with my feelings. I say this, but I do not use words but music.
You have been writing for solo piano for many years, but your musical prehistory – that was a contrabass, right?
That is truly a musical prehistory (laughs). I come from Nový Bor, where the glass industry is popular, and my parents initially wanted me to be a glassmaker. However, I felt bad near the oven and I wanted to pursue music. I wanted to go to the Conservatory to study the piano, but instead of working hard on scales and chords, I used to play my own songs, soundtracks and songs. Therefore, according to my former teacher, I did not have the necessary technique, and so the only option left for me to stay with music, was signing up to study contrabass, because there were few contrabass players. During the admissions test, they told me I should have gone to study the piano because they had too few male pianists but it was too late. So I studied the contrabass and I was only allowed to transfer to a piano class after four years. However, in the meantime, I did not have much access to the piano at school, I was not able to practise and I did not make much progress. And then I did not have the work ethics and will to make myself acquire the correct technique at the conservatory level. However, eventually, I came back to it myself, considerably improved my technique and today I basically make a living playing the piano. So I studied the contrabass at the Conservatory but right after the graduation concert I sold the contrabass and I have been focusing on playing the piano ever since.
But then you also graduated from the composition programme at JAMU, so you are a trained composer. How do you compose? Do you write down ideas in the notes and they play it, or do you improvise at the piano and then write down the ideas?
It varies. Usually, I think of a motif in my mind, I test it on the piano and write it down. When I have time, I try to think of three motifs that I then work on in detail. The initial idea is important, the details are routine. The initial idea needs some internal tension or inspiration. Recently, I have had inspiration, and therefore I had no problem writing it. Themes were coming along easily.
Are you talking about the motifs that are at the beginning of your compositions? Do you mean melodic or harmonic motifs?
It is a combination of everything, a materialised feeling that can be rhythmic, harmonic and melodic. It may not be an extremely powerful melody, it may be a minimalist theme. Actually, most compositions on the new CD are like that.
So, you composed the album on the piano, which you played as a boy. However, you recorded it on another instrument...
Yes, I wanted the sound to transmit my feelings together with music, and therefore the colour of the piano was important. I tried to find a good instrument. Eventually, I recorded on a Steinway piano and I am very glad that it worked out. An electric piano can be used in a concert, but the Steinway piano has something that cannot be replaced electronically.
Some top players from around the world, who have concerts in the Czech Republic, request the Steinway brand. And then it is sometimes difficult for the concert organisers to find these instruments. Could you express in words why exactly this instrument is so special?
It has depth; its sound is "broad". Maybe it is a matter of feeling, but aliquots are played on it so that the sound is dense, there is a lot of it and it resonates in the person.
When you listen to a piano recording, can you tell the type of instrument?
Sometimes yes. Besides Steinway, I also like Bösendorfer which has a softer and more velvety sound. Petrof is sharper, especially at heights, but for me it is also a good brand, and it suits me. Sometimes, however, I come across, for example, the brand Hlucháň and the name already speaks for itself. It usually does not play very well.
Do you play compositions from the album Nahá live?
We play the musical cabaret Inspektor Kluzó with Tomáš Matonoha and Vendula Příhodová. In this cabaret, I have my segment where I play usually two compositions from the album. I regularly select the composition Nahá 02. I tell the audience that when they turn on the CD, they usually only listen to the first composition. And so I added the second one live...(laughs)
Within the cabaret, these songs get a new dimension...
Yes, in the cabaret, Nahá works so that after a humorous number, the mood calms and offers a counterpoint. But I am preparing - supervised by Tomáš Matonoha – a solo piano recital, in which I want to include, among other things, samples from the CD Nahá. However, there will also be compositions that I wrote earlier, some soundtracks, jazz and classical music.
Besides solo piano and the cabaret, you have plenty of other activities. You worked with a string quartet and several singers. And your missa brevis premiered recently.
There are many projects and sometimes you must leave the old ones for new ones. Unfortunately. Regarding the mass, I received an offer from the choir Kantila from Křtiny under the direction of Lukáš Sotolář to write a missa brevis for baritone, soprano, mixed choir and small orchestra. It was assigned to me about a year ago. I spent about two months writing the composition and it premiered at the Mikulov Château in March. According to the responses, I think it went well. Personally, I am happy with the composition. Some authors take notes after the premiere and start deleting things. I also had the feeling that I would gladly give up a few measures...Sometimes, you only find out during a live performance whether a certain measure is unnecessary. Perhaps it has to do with a particular interpretation.
Did you have any prior experience with spiritual music before?
Not directly with spiritual music, but with children's choirs. I do not know to what extent Carmina burana is spiritual. We took texts from it with my colleague Petr Čenský, other than those written by Carl Orff and we wrote Carmina burana 2 – O lidské duši (About the Human Soul). There were texts of spiritual nature as well as verses about alcohol and other worldly pleasures.
I was especially interested in finding out whether the writing of the missa brevis required a different type of focus and search for inspiration.
I think so. A spiritual text that has some specific content must be approached with respect. That does not mean that I could not use jazz or rock music elements but I cannot cross a certain limit because of that respect. Not a musical or expressive limit, but rather internal.
You have also recorded several song albums for children but you also focus on children in a TV show.
In addition to speech therapy songs Žvaní žabák u louže and several children's folk songbooks, the most visible is my presence on the show Hýbánky, which has been broadcast on TV for two and a half years. It is such a joyful teamwork, in which I participate together with actress, singer and dancer Kristýna Štarhová and director Pavel Šimáš. We write the scripts together. The show has gained a pretty big fan base consisting of children and parents and has very high ratings.
What is closer to your heart – the role of an introverted pianist on a solo album or the role of the clown in Hýbánky?
Both positions are close to my heart and they complement each other. I like the combination of humour and romantic piano. My role model is the late Danish pianist Victor Borge, the pioneer of stand-up comedy at the piano. I really like the path that he showed me. Otherwise, it is easy for me to make humour for children. I myself have children at home and I test it on them. Even writing the scripts is a fun job that I enjoy. Another position in my production for children are arrangements of folk songs. I know them from my mum, who is from Stráně, and she used to sing those songs to me and my bother when we were little.
You are the recipient of several awards. For example, in 2000, you received the organisers' award as a member of the K+K Band at the Zahrada Festival. But you also have other interesting trophies...
Yes, I received some awards for my classical compositions. In 1998, for example, my composition Bariéry was presented in Paris at the Rostrum of Young Composers. Recently, I received one award which I appreciate a lot. For incidental music for the performance The Diary of Anne Frank, I received the Comedians Award in the theatre in Uherské Hradiště.
That was, I assume, also a "serious" matter?
Halfway. The incidental music is really serious, but in addition to it there were also songs.
Are you a competitive creature? Are awards important to you?
Every award makes me happy. But it is very subjective. It depends on who evaluates it and how they see it. Sometimes, I see some competition, I get excited and start writing a composition. But then it passes and I think it is wasted time. You should invest time in what is certain and not waste time by writing for a jury, whose feelings can be subjective. But when you receive an award, you say to yourself that it is probably objectively good. (laughs)
People interested in following your activities can follow you on your Facebook page Romantický klavír Zdeňka Krále and mainly at www.zdenek-kral.cz. But tell me, what makes you currently most artistically alive?
I am still alive with Hýbanky, I am preparing a new piano album, I got an offer to write a new children's book. I am preparing a solo piano recital Čtvero ročních dob (Four Seasons), we are rehearsing and playing with Tomáš Matonoha and Vendula Příhodová in Inspektor Kluzó, I play in the performance Nekorektní skeče created by Luboš Balák, with whom we are also writing a play based on the book Tati, ty mě přivedeš do hrobu. We already have the script and now we are writing songs.
That is a book of your son's quotes, isn't it?
Yes. These are quotes like: "Dad, when's lunch? It hasn't been here for a while." We put together a play consisting of similar pieces of wisdom. It is about a father who wants to raise his children. He is not doing too well and he feels that essentially he will end up in a mental institution or the grave...
