Hudobný život 6/2025

Hudobný život – English Summary

Disclaimer: The following content is from a magazine published in the Slovak language.

Interviews

• No Culture Has a Nationality (Daniel Raiskin)
• One Lifetime Is Not Enough (Xavier Díaz-Latorre)

Phenomenon

HEVHETIA: The successful story of a truly independent publishing house comes to a close.

Concerts and Festivals

Košice Music Spring – Days of Early Music – Slovak Philharmonic – Organ Plus – Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra – Albrechtina – Viva Musica! Festival – Shostakovich Festival in Gohrisch – Slovak Radio – Summer Gala of the Slovak National Theatre

Musical Theatre

• Rigoletto with Slávka Zámečníková (Opéra Bastille)
• Ostrava's Tribute to Baroque (Moravian-Silesian National Theatre)
• Saul. Or David? (Semperoper Dresden)

Auris Interna

Only Time Is the Arbiter

From the Organ Cockpit

Blackout in Spain – and Its Charm

Jazz

Dialogues T: From Wynton Marsalis to Arve Henriksen (Kornél Fekete-Kovács)

Short Story

V. Rozenbergová: It's Not Yours

CD Reviews “Content creators gained the illusion of unlimited opportunities to be available on the global market, but also the risk of getting lost in the flood of others. The entire burden of costs remained on the shoulders of the creators or the last remnants of independent publishers, who bear the entire process of creating and finalizing a product from their own resources – or more often from public funding.”

– This quote by Ján Sudzina, founder of the Hevhetia label, expresses the skepticism of a professional navigating the current music industry, with all its lures and traps.

Over the course of 25 years, Hevhetia became a cult brand, not only crossing genre boundaries but – uniquely in the post-communist Slovak context – also reaching beyond national borders. Being in the portfolio of Košice-based Hevhetia meant a chance to be featured in influential international media, perform abroad, and be listed alongside artists from Poland, the Czech Republic, Norway, Hungary, the USA... Hevhetia exceeded domestic standards in marketing and communication, and had its own distinctive style. Thank you, Hevhetia!

Slovak Philharmonic’s Chief Conductor Daniel Raiskin is also bidding farewell. After five seasons, he leaves behind over a hundred domestic concerts, opened doors to international venues, and conducted a record number of Slovak works as a foreign conductor:

“When I see how much Slovak music I have performed and recorded – whether for archival streams or on CD – I am truly proud.”

Raiskin's principled stance on the war in Ukraine and his close relationship with the audience also stood out. While the chief conductor role is now vacant, Raiskin has confirmed that he will continue working closely with the orchestra in the next season. Encouraging news!

Concert life in Bratislava recently featured historical plucked string specialist Xavier Díaz-Latorre, whose insights on the vast repertoire for early guitars and vihuela were captured in Hudobný život:

“There’s so much to learn, so many styles and possibilities. One lifetime is not enough...”

We also covered two top-tier concerts celebrating Arvo Pärt’s 90th birthday – performances in Slovakia by the Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir and another Estonian ensemble, Vox Clamantis.

Jazz fans (and others) will appreciate the closing commentary in the Dialogues T series from Hungarian trumpeter Kornél Fekete-Kovács, reflecting on three decades of trumpet jazz history.

And of course, much more than fits into an editorial – opera reviews, concert coverage, regular columns by Monika Melcová and Jakub Filip, and an original short story for Hudobný život.

Enjoy – by the water, in the mountains, or just at home in your armchair...

Andrea Serečinová