FULL Criminalista newinný (Koutnik) Kuks 2023 Helena Kalambová, Hana Holodňáková, Kristina Kubová, Ondřej Benek, Michal Marhold
Information on the Performance
- Work Title: Criminalista newinný
- Composer: Koutnik Tomas Norbert
- Libretto:
- Venue & Opera Company: Kostel Nejsvětější Trojice, Hospitál Kuks, Czech Republic
- Recorded: August 26, 2023
- Type: Concert Live
- Singers: Helena Kalambová, Hana Holodňáková, Kristina Kubová, Ondřej Benek, Michal Marhold
- Conductor: Tomáš Hanzlík
- Orchestra: Ensemble Damian
- Stage Director:
- Costume Designer:
Information about the Recording
- Published by: Ensemble Damian
- Date Published: 2023
- Format: Streaming
- Quality Video: 4 Audio:4
- Subtitles: nosubs
- Video Recording from: YouTube FULL VIDEO
ADDITIONAL INFORMATION ON THIS PERFORMANCE
When presenting both old and contemporary music, Ensemble Damian mainly focuses on unknown works. The forgotten category also includes the composer’s legacy of the Czech cantor Tomáš Norbert Koutník (1698 – 1775), on whose anniversary last year we organized a number of concerts and tried to introduce the audience to this intelligent and witty composer. TN Koutník was born into a weaver’s family in Chocna in eastern Bohemia. He studied at the Piarist grammar school first in nearby Litomyšl (1716-1719) and then in Kroměříž in Moravia (1719-1720). In the years 1720 – 1729 he worked as a cantor in Chroustovice and Kostelec nad Orlicí. From 1729 until his death, he was cantor, organist and elder of the literary brotherhood in his native Chocna. The Chocena composer Adolf Kramenič (1889-1953) and the historian Jaroslav Vaniš (1923-1993) were the most responsible for the recognition of his work in the 20th century. Between 1943-1950, Adolf Kramenič collected and cataloged Koutník’s compositions. Today Spartace is stored with Kramenič’s extensive music collection in the AV Šembery Museum in Vysoké Mýt.
The Pobielohorská cantor’s activity was closely related to an older tradition, which in close connection built both a school and a literary choir. The cantor continued to enjoy respectability and could eventually hold even higher political positions. Therefore, the influence of members of the nobility is not so unexpected, as it was in the case of Adam Michna from Otradovice, or Václav Karl Holan Rovenský, who was elevated to noble status. Close cooperation with Catholic clergy was also typical for these cantors, but in this we can see more a manifestation of kinship in intention and conviction than an existential necessity. TN Koutník himself did not hold any proper political position, his workload was already large enough, but his father and older brother worked as burgomasters in Chocna. Two other siblings studied theology and worked as pastors in various parts of eastern Bohemia, with whom Tomáš Norbert kept in touch. Brother František Tobiáš recommended František Matějka to him as a teacher’s assistant and thus directed another important family of cantors to Chocna. In the choir of the church in Petrovice near Nové Bydžov, where brother Václav Koutník worked as a parish priest, a copy of the sepolcra Criminalist nevinný has been preserved .
It is a pity that the only surviving Easter oratorio by Koutnik is a pasticcio of Pergolesi’s arias. The third and fourth arias are taken from Pergolesi’s cantata Orfeo, for the others I have not yet been able to identify the original. The first and fifth carry unmistakable elements of Pergolesi’s handwriting, the fifth even uses the same melodic ostinato that appears in the second half of the concert in the seventh movement of the Stabat mater. All the arias in the sepulchre Criminalist innocent are in the form of aria da capo with the middle part in the parallel minor key. Koutník did not change their musical material in any way, he only transposed them and added recitatives, ariettas and the final chorus to them. It is difficult to decide on the authorship of the Introduction and the second aria of Injustice. Adopting foreign material is a completely legitimate procedure in the 18th century, which was used even by the greatest masters – Handel and Bach, and therefore there is not the slightest reason for any outrage.
Tonally, the sepolcro Criminalist innocent played during the Easter period at one of the altars decorated as the Holy Sepulcher is very varied. The choice of keys from G major to F minor was made possible by the continuo, probably performed on the clavichord or harpsichord. The description of the sepolcra made by a certain JG Matátek contains almost no numbering in the Fondamento part, so it is possible that the use of the chordal instrument was completely abandoned in the performance of this composition. For our implementation, the numbering of the bass was reconstructed based on Adolf Kramenič’s spartan.
From contemporary sources, we know about the existence and popularity of the musical form of oratorio, which was widespread in the Czech lands, but most of the music of this type was taken by fire and water. The presented sepolcro is proof of the high level of interpretation of Chocen musicians or boys in Piarist colleges, for whom Koutník could compile this oratorio, because his son František was a member of the order and worked in a number of places in Bohemia as a music teacher. Most recently as the regent of the Piaristic music seminar in Kroměříž.
Tomas Hanzlik