Special Concert. Cage, Feldman, Kotík: A New Starting Point
The Švanda Theatre in Smíchov is a stage of the capital city of Prague and is supported by the Municipality of Prague 5. The theatre can seat 300 visitors in its Main Performance Hall and between 44 and 100 visitors in the lower-basement variable Studio depending on the current need or stage/auditorium set-up.
Standard ticket: CZK 500 | Senior ticket (65+): CZK 400 | Student ticket: CZK 100
Petr Kotík — conductor, flute
Ivo Kahánek — piano
Members of the Prague Philharmonia and their guests
John Cage
Concert for Piano and Orchestra (1958)
Morton Feldman
Structures for String Quartet (1951)
Petr Kotík
Concept and Gravity for Flute, Violin, Trumpet, Soprano, and Spoken Word (2026, world premiere)
John Cage
Cheap Imitation (version for solo flute, dedicated to Petr Kotík), 1st movement (1987)
Intermission
Morton Feldman
For Samuel Beckett for 23 instruments (1987)
We will present two of the most prominent composers of the 20th-century in New York, two friends – John Cage (1912–1992) and Morton Feldman (1926–1987). Their music will be discussed by their friend Petr Kotík at an extra special concert. Kotík will lead an expert discussion about their works as a long-time collaborator of both composers, in particular of John Cage (continuous collaboration in the years 1964–1992).
On 18 December 1950, John Cage wrote in a letter to Pierre Boulez: “Feldman’s music is extremely beautiful now. It changes with each piece, I find him my closest friend now among the composers here.”
John Cage – a leading figure of the New York School of music, composer, admirer of visual and dance art, avid mycologist, creator of audiovisual art, whose leading musical principles include indeterminacy and chance.
Morton Feldman – created his own system of musical notation (including scores written on square paper). His compositions are characterized by a quiet dynamic range and extended duration. The compositions written toward the end of his life are extremely long, such as String Quartet II (1983), which lasts several hours without a break.
