CD Veršování / CD Versifying

Malé hudební imprese / Small Music Impressions

CD Veršování / CD Versifying

Malé hudební imprese / Small Music Impressions


As listeners we are accustomed to encountering tried and tested, finished pieces, many of which appear time and time again on concert programmes. Yet there is another sphere of music - new, untried works, pieces dedicated to the mood of the moment. I don't mean the onslaughts of the modern, which terrify many music-lovers. I want to invite you to listen to miniatures born out of the art of improvisation. Jiri Pazour and Petr Valasek have created sixteen lyrical excursions, a thematically vivid and diverse landscape, which in the spirit of the CD's title is truly a set of small musical poems.

The Snowdrop is imbued with wintry reflection. Striped World offers a contrast, a little like a dance on tiptoe. The Tenderness of Wings has an air of impressionism, but is not without movement and climax. There is no one who has not meditated On Loneliness. Porcelain Dolls, slightly immobile, even wistful puppets. Black and White naturally exploits the contrasts of the two instruments. In the Mirror of Memories, the clarinet breathes softly, and while the Ice Kingdom is tranquil, it is mysteriously tranquil. Step by Step brings together a whole series of colour and sound effects, while The Rainbow is unusually tender. The Old Castle sometimes rumbles in mysteriously bass registers. Abstract Presence, how otherwise then with technical associations in the regularity of music? In At the Fair we may find a touch of the circus performance, and in Grotesque the musicians very effectively exploit the extreme registers of their instruments. Harmony revives the lyric mood and with Dance, none too wild, we peacefully take our leave.

Both musicians know how to bring out the melody in every number, and make perfect use of all the registers and possibilities of their instruments, the charm of colours in the heights and depths. The small musical creations have a solid form and often very clear gradation even on a small canvas. This is not aggressive music, but works full of abundant imagination, kindly, sometimes with the mystery of fairytale, at other times caressing. It is music for this world of ours, because it is excellent therapy, a shield against the nervousness, hurry and crudity that so often assails us. Naturally it could never have such an effect if the two performers were not masters of their instruments, if they lacked creative invention and wished simply to exhibit their virtuosity.


Jiri Pilka


The Word of Jiri Pazour


I got acquainted with the bass−clarinettist Petr Valasek during my studies at the Music Faculty of the Academy of Performing Arts. From time to time we improvised in a not binding way at the University hostel, where both of us were living. Later on we presented the common performances of duo improvisations. Our programmes had many forms; we improvised for example on the musical themes of folksongs and popular compositions of various styles either from the field of classical music or the popular one. We felt ourselves best in free improvisations whether their mood was - or was not - previously determined. This kind of improvisation led to the origin of certain musical stories which devel− oped themselves in dependence on the musical contribution of both of us. Some time later we got the idea to test in a similar way the creation of recording with a comprehensive line of variable musical impressions - dialogues. This process resulted in our CD under the title Versifying.


CD Versifying - tracklist

01. Snowdrop
02. Striped World
03. Touches of Wings
04. On Solitude
05. Porcelain Dolls
06. Black and White
07. The Mirror of Memories
08. The Ice Kingdom
09. Step by Step
10. Rainbow
11. The Old Castle
12. Abstract Presence
13. At the Fair
14. Grotesque
15. Harmony
16. BONUS: Dance