Artist talk:
An evening with composer Petr Bakla.
Petr Bakla (born 1980) dedicates himself to composing notated music for acoustic instruments. In his compositions, he often employs basic pitch material, typically chromatic and whole-tone scales. He is interested in constructing situations and structural contexts in which these frugal musical elements can acquire a unique expressiveness and energy. A frequent feature of Bakla’s work is a simultaneous course of two musical/sound layers which, although usually markedly differing in dynamics to allow for a sense of “figure and background”, are not mutually subordinating – they are of equal importance, their “friction” creating specific tension and ambiguity. Petr Bakla composes orchestral, chamber and solo pieces. He has cooperated with performers such as Ostravská banda, esemble recherche, Quatuor Diotima, PHACE Ensemble, soloists Daan Vandewalle, Mike Svoboda, Uli Fussenegger and Emanuele Torquati. He lives in Prague.