Czech Philharmonic Wind Ensemble Blog

The bohemian allure and fairytale features of Prague make it a perfect destination for culture vultures who want to immerse themselves in history, art, music and architecture. This is my story of a musical love affair with the city and its premier orchestra – the Czech Philharmonic.

by Shea Lolin March 2023

Prague is a fascinating maze of cobbled lanes and hidden courtyards. It is a paradise for the aimless wanderer, and the atmosphere beckons you to explore a little further. Musty shops selling marionettes, traditional dolls, darkened alleyways with all manner of establishments coexist with ancient castles, Gothic churches and Soviet structures.

A view from the Strahov Monastery looking east towards the city of Prague

The Historic Charles Bridge, Prague

And when your feet won’t go any further, you might find yourself in a thousand-year-old bar serving some of the best beer in Europe.

Prague has just as much of an intriguing musical history. It is the city Mozart cherished the most and it inspired Smetana and Janáček to write some of their most powerful works.

Shea & Chris in 2015

Prague is also the city where Antonin Dvořák launched his career. I wanted to write something in a blog style for all the many stakeholders of this crowdfunding project. It almost seemed as though Mozart were haunting me – so many of the ‘themes’ of what I wanted to write had references to the great composer. So come with me on a charming Czech journey in rondo form – with Mozart as our guide. We’re in good company.

I first visited Prague in 2013 with my colleague Christopher Hussey to tour all the recording venue options for making a recording with the Czech Philharmonic. Several orchestras exist in the city,

Recording in Smecky Studios, 2014

recording scores for film, game and TV along with the classical repertoire. Walking into the main recording studio in Prague – Smecky Studios – is an education in itself. Highly prized the world over by composers, producers and musicians for its unique, top class acoustic qualities, it is also home to The City of Prague Philharmonic Orchestra. The walls to the entrance of the studio are plastered with signed photos, albums and memorabilia. The list of musicians on display is a roll call of the who’s who of the world’s finest musicians and producers. Because of its state-of-the-art equipment, we decided to record our first album, Twisted Skyscape, there in 2014. The ultra-dry acoustic

meant we could have complete control over the mastered audio. Given this was the first commercially released album of the woodwind orchestra, we needed to think very hard about what it was we wanted. It was so important at that time to set the benchmark for any other recordings that might have followed in this genre.

As I write this piece in March 2023, the recording sessions have been completed and I’m contemplating all this culture and contrasting it with the devastating, much criticised funding cuts in the UK. These started with the Arts Council England back in the autumn of 2022, and the BBC intended scrap the BBC Singers and

cut salaried posts in the BBC Symphony, Concert and Philharmonic Orchestras by 20%. These situations focus the mind of the musician, drawing out why this is so important and perhaps crucially, what the future holds for us. It’s all very unsettling and reminds me of the dark days of the pandemic. Having managed to tread water throughout the pandemic, my personal journey has been one of exploring new ways of working, embracing the moment and adapting, but it’s been far from easy. It really is incredible that with this cultural backdrop, cost of living crisis, and war, I should launch and be successful with a funding campaign of this scale.

Crowdfunding is not a new concept. Mozart lacked funds in the early 1780s to go on tour to perform his three new piano concertos. The funding campaign was a disaster and so he tried again with a better strategy – to help his supporters to feel valued for their contribution. 176 people gave enough the second time around to support his tour, this time with their names and his personal thanks in the manuscripts. The lesson for Mozart was that crowdfunding isn’t about collecting money.

It’s about making something happen with a crowd of people who believe in something. My own personal objective has

always been one of creating something musically interesting and exciting. If I’m interested in something and make it appealing, then others will want to be part of that. I also love the idea of equality in crowdfunding.

Interesting projects get funded on their merit rather than the power, status and wealth of both creator and backers. It also demonstrates the public hunger for new music – a stark contrast to the message that large grantmakers and institutions are giving out in the UK right now.

Although it’s a hard concept to come to terms with, perhaps crowdfunding is the future of classical music projects. But one thing’s for sure: music (and indeed all the arts) is far from dead. It’s very much alive and the notion that everyday people like you and I can make incredible things happen is really empowering when you think about it like that.

And as I think about Mozart in

Mozart in Prague, 1787

Jan Machat playing the final solo in Mozart’s Pets

the context of crowdfunding, there is also a reference to the music that has been recorded.

The moving and powerful Mozart’s Pets by Judith Bingham is both intriguing and mystical. The intensity of the score is born out of the programmatic nature. Mozart first came to Prague in January 1787 to perform his “Prague” symphony (Symphony No 38

in D major). The impresario Pasquale Bondini liked it enough to want to commission Don Giovanni. Mozart returned later that year to premiere the opera at the Prague Estates Theatre Opera. Mozart’s Pets is a set of five vignettes, taking the listener on a whimsical journey through a curious menagerie as we encounter Miss Bimperl, Mozart’s beloved terrier, a lugubrious London cat, a skittish grasshopper, and an enchanting dawn chorus. The piece concludes with a plaintive deathbed recitation voiced by his pet canary, narrated by a solo piccolo. With such a vivid narrative, you can’t help but be drawn in on this poignant and powerful conclusion of the work.

The pipe organ in the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, Strahov Monastery, Prague

Strahov Monastery, Prague

Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, Strahov Monastery (exterior)

Church of the Assumption of Our Lady, Strahov Monastery (interior)

Strahov Monastery Brewery

The Rudolfinum

City of Prague from Strahov Monastery

As an organist my story wouldn’t be complete without a mention of the extraordinary pipe organs in Prague, especially one in particular that Mozart improvised on during his visit in 1787. Within the monastic enclosure of the Strahov Monastery, the Church of the Assumption of Our Lady is surely one of the most spectacular buildings in Prague. Its stunning Baroque interior is decorated with frescos and boasts 15 altars to serve the needs of The Premonstratensians, an order of canons regular founded in 1120

by St Norbert. The pipe organ was built in 1774 by one of the Norbertines, Lohel Oehlschlaegl.

The organ is the largest and most historic instrument in Prague. This location is also key to our story as it is where we have always stayed on our visits to Prague. It is a beautifully historic and peaceful place to stay. High up in the north-west part of the city, grand crested gateways bring you into the monastic grounds. Even the hotel and restaurants are part of the monastery, brewing their own St Norbert beer!

“At eleven o’clock at night I was treated to a serenade performed by two clarinets, two horns and two bassoons – and that of my own composition.

These musicians asked that the street door might be opened and, placing themselves in

the centre of the courtyard, surprised me, just as I was about to undress, in the most pleasant fashion imaginable with the first chord in E-flat.”

In a letter to his father, we hear those words from Mozart in 1781. I often wonder what Mozart heard and how it made him feel. The conundrum has something of the flavour behind my passion for the woodwind orchestra – indeed all wind music. This sense of exploration is what keeps me searching. So what is the sound of a woodwind orchestra? I hear you ask! Is it a modern-day Harmonie, swapping horns for saxophones? Or a larger version of a decet? An instrumentation many woodwind sections are used to playing in. For me the point of this is less about trying to reference pre-existing collections of instruments, but more on focusing all my attention on the combinations of sounds, textures and timbre, not by itself, but through the repertoire. Given very little repertoire exists for woodwind orchestra, the storytelling must be done with a good story. And central to this narrative is my friend and colleague Chris. We are both aligned in our vision for a multi-timbral, rich and sonorous soundworld. Take for example the idea of strings in the orchestra. Such a texture would need a full family of, say, clarinets from Bb to Contrabass to emulate this idea. Is the

sound second-rate or just different? Is it better? From a musician’s point of view, it requires more thought, more effort to emulate that, but the result when played sensitively and with conviction is pure magic. And to that end, it is no different in my mind to say a set of 8’ pipes perfectly paired with a 16’ Bourdon on a pipe organ – that sound can be achieved through mechanically blown pipes so, why can’t it be the same – perhaps even better – with live musicians?

Let’s get back to Prague.

From the Strahov Monastery the views looking east over the city of Prague are truly breathtaking. As a commercial drone operator, I simply could not resist taking an aircraft with me on the trip to be able to capture those views to illustrate my story. Aside from my own desire to capture some aerial imagery, it is a spot to pause and take stock and imagine Smetana’s

The Rudolfinum

Dvořák Hall

Dvořák Hall

Vltava as you look towards the Old Town and the mighty river.

Bedřich Smetana was not from Prague but lived and studied in the city. Works including Má Vlast came to personify Czech nationalism in an age in which the old empires were waning, and the population was looking for a more independent future.

Few cities have been celebrated so lovingly by a composer.

From that Strahov Monastery viewpoint, the musical apex of the city stands proud on the east side of the Vltava, and this brings me to the next stop in my journey, the Rudolfinum.

Home of the Czech Philharmonic, the Rudolfinum also hosts the Prague Spring International Music Festival.

The Czech Philharmonic gave their first performance in the Dvořák Hall in 1896 under the baton of Antonín Dvořák. The impressive neo-renaissance building was, at least initially, a sticking point for Dvořák, who

refused to return after that first performance because he disliked the acoustics so much. Seating 1,100 people, the hall is not one of the largest concert halls in the world, but with its age, architectural heritage and eventually, revised acoustics, it is now revered to be one of the finest concert halls in Europe. The acoustic is beautifully warm and resonant.

Since 2014, both Chris and I have built a good relationship with the Czech Philharmonic and have worked in several of the recording venue locations.

Above all the others there was one which absolutely stuck out as being the best choice for the new album – the Dvořák Hall. Recording with a group of 19 wind players gave plenty of space for a mature and developed finish.

In the recording sessions we used a Decca Tree taking the overall mellifluous sound, complemented with individual

The final recording session

close mics and, to catch that beautiful reverb tail, some ambient mics high up in the gallery. This allowed us to get ever closer to a rich, deep and sonorous, orchestral sound.

In creating the idea for the second woodwind orchestra album, we wanted to explore and demonstrate a full spectrum of colours, moods and musical landscapes. We always knew that repertoire would be key to this so we have curated a diverse set of pieces with something for everyone. We have also widened the timbre by including instruments such as Eb Clarinet, Cor-Anglais and Soprano Saxophone.

When I am tired, I sometimes get a little emotional. Not in any sort of sentimental way, but perhaps a moment where I feel a disconnection from myself and my mind wanders. The recording sessions were long and hard. We had made many

demands of the orchestra, who were then faced with “another take please”. As we neared the end of the day, concentration was waning. We are only humans after all. But from this moment came something really very special. We had already spent around an hour on Chris’s piece and whilst we had some clean takes, the piece hadn’t quite managed to gel in the way we wanted it to. I have worked with Chris for 16 years now, and we’ve grown up with and developed the idea of what we want from the woodwind orchestra. Chris’s writing has become more detailed, not just in a technical sense but with a desire to become more complex in the textures and musical nuances that can be achieved.

Trying to communicate these things in a short space of time is demanding. We took a break and after returning to the stage, we only had a quarter of an hour left. I communicated The control room with Jonas Persson, Charlotte Harding & Chris Hussey

Discussing what we needed to achieve in the last session.

some ideas with the orchestra and told them that it was really important to me to finish the recording sessions with Chris’s piece how we wanted it. Maybe it seemed like an emotional plea – but one which was clearly understood. The playing on the last take was incredible and really quite moving. Despite the fatigue, I found every last ounce of energy in me to communicate all the shapes and mood that I knew we could achieve together. It was an emotional moment for me. Chris told me later that in the last take, he was turning the pages of the score but was focused on the screen in the control room displaying the conductor’s rostrum. I think we all knew that this was an important moment. The players made something magical happen. There were a few tears.

One of the players came to me

after that final session and said: “that was emotional, there is something special between you and the producer”. It was a proud moment to hear those words from one of the members of the orchestra because I knew I had done my job on the platform and in turn, the players rose to the occasion. After a couple of photos, it was time to finish and relax with a few of Tired and emotional–the last take.

those Norbertine beers, a meal and some much needed rest.

So as I end my musical journey with you, I can safely say the members of the Czech Philharmonic are in a super league. The allure of their colourful and passionate playing could be tempered with a couple of British guys on a

mission to support this littleknown genre of the woodwind orchestra. With our “a little more like this” and a “little more like that”, there was always grace in their responses. Indeed it is now the Czech Philharmonic and Prague which is intrinsically part of the woodwind orchestra story.

A very proud moment with all the team and the woodwind section of the Czech Philharmonic

“The ancient splendour and beauty of Prague, a city beyond compare, left an impression on my imagination that will never fade” – Richard Wagner

© Shea Lolin Limited, March 2023. Document design and content by Shea Lolin. All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted at any time or by means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. All information is correct at time of going to press and is subject to change. Czech Philharmonic imagery © Big Heart Media, under exclusive license.