Mařatka Kryštof
“Space“ and “elsewhere“ are keywords to the poetic world of Kryštof Mařatka. “Space“ understood as remoteness from the “here and now“ towards an “elsewhere“ far away.
Born in Prague in 1972, Kryštof Mařatka studied piano and chamber music, and then style, analysis and composition at the Prague Conservatoire with Bohuslav Řehoř and Petr Eben. With a grant from the Institut Français in Prague, he moved to Paris and continued his studies with Jean-Claude Pennetier and then at the IRCAM in the field of computer music. Encouraged by the positive attitude of French institutions and performers towards new music, he permanently settled in Paris in 1994. In 1999 he received the Fondation Banque Populaire award.
His work is commissioned by the leading musicians, ensembles, orchestras and international festivals. In his music, Kryštof Mařatka reflects his personal fascination with the traditional music of many countries, the birth of human language, prehistoric art and Palaeolithic musical instruments, as well as personal experiences such as dreams, contemplations, and memories, occasionally becoming an allegory of his childhood spent in a totalitarian country. As well as composing, orchestral conducting is a major part of Mařatka’s work; he has performed with many renowned orchestras including the Prague Philharmonic, Polish Radio National Symphony Orchestra, Nederlands Kamerorkest, Orchestre Colonne in Paris, National Theatre Orchestra in Prague, Irkutsk Philharmonic Orchestra, La Follia in Strasbourg, Academy Orchestra of Saint Cézaire, Jyväskyla Orchestra (Finland), Nordenwest Philharmonie Herford (Germany), Pomeranian Philharmonic in Bydgoszcz (Poland), Ensemble Calliopée in Paris, Talich Chamber Orchestra (Czech Republic).
Kryštof Mařatka has won numerous prizes including the 1st Prize at the Shanghai Spring Festival for his piece Chant G’haï in 2007 (also performed during the 2010 Expo in Shanghai by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France within the framework of the Présences festival), Main Prize and Audience Prize at the 2006 Aleksander Tansman Competition in Łódź (Poland) for his clarinet concerto Luminarium, and the Pierre Cardin Prize from the Académie des Beaux-Arts in France in 2007.
A monographic CD dedicated to his work was published in 2012 by Dux, featuring Ensemble Calliopée within a project of the European Krzysztof Penderecki Music Centre. European culture TV channel Mezzo dedicated a documentary, Naissance d’un imaginaire, to the composer.
Currently Kryštof Mařatka is working on a large-scale work titled Vabeni, rituel des fossiles préhistoriques de l’Homme for choir and orchestra (55 mins.), which will be performed on 9th September 2012 in Łódź during the Festival of Aleksander Tansman’s Music by Sinfonia Varsovia conducted by the composer, on 7th March 2012 in Toronto by the Toronto Symphony Orchestra, 7th May 2013 in Paris’ Salle Pleyel by the Orchestra Philharmonique et Chœur de Radio France, and 14th May 2013 at Prague’s Rudolfinum during the Prague Spring festival. His works are published by Éditions Jobert Paris.
S e l e c t e d w o r k s: Poèmes for violin and cello or viola (1994), Trois Mouvements concertantsfor four cellos (1995, also version for cello and orchestra), Cinq petites énigmes for cello and piano (1995), Fables for string quartet (1996), Perludia for alto flute, violin and cello (1996), Karelian Dumka, concerto for flute and orchestra (1997), Exaltum, piano quartet (1998), Astrophonia, concerto for viola and strings (1998–2002), Voja Cellofor cello (1999), Sylinx for clarinet (2000), Labyrinthefor viola (2000), Six Sonatas for cello (2001), La T-Riomphante for piano (2001), Vakerkeïnea for string trio (2001), Horoscope for piano trio (2001), Anthologie des rêvesfor piano trio (2002), Batalion for piano, clarinet, cello and electronic piano, music to Přemysl Pražsky’s silent film The Battalion (2002), Luminarium, concerto for clarinet and orchestra (2002), Otisk, “Palaeolithic base of pre-instrumental music” for symphony orchestra (2004), Kuznetsov, melodrama for male voice and piano (2005), Le corbeau à quatre pattes, melodramatic farce for two male voices and ensemble, to words by Daniil Harms (2006), Hypnoses for wind quintet (2006), Nids de cigognes, “babillo-drama” for viola and taped children’s voices (2007), Chant G’haïfor suona and symphony orchestra (2007), Zverohra, collection of anthropoid songs for soprano and orchestra (2008), Melopa for harpsichord (2009), Praharphona, “music of the old and new Prague” for harp, string quartet and percussion (2009, also version for harp and orchestra), Dolmen for cello (2011), Le chaudron au diable, melodrama for actor and pianist after an old Corsican legend (2011), numerous transcriptions of older works.
