Essential Sixth-tones II

Traduzione in italiano…

Inaugural concert of the new harmonium Miroslav Beinhauer, sixth-tone harmonium Vojtěch Semerád, tenor Ostravská banda Petr Kotík, conductor Bruno Ferrandis, conductor Programme Alois Hába III. Adagio, op. 37 (1928) Marc Sabat Fleeting flight sleeping woke (2021, rev. 2026) Klaus Lang QVIS EST (2021, rev. 2026) Ian Mikyska Out (2026) Miya Masaoka The Mercurial Flow of Energy (2026) Martin Smolka Three Songs on Reynek (2026) The concert sixth-tone harmonium was commissioned by the visionary composer Alois Hába for his opera Thy Kingdom Come (1939–42). The work was not premiered until 2018, when it was staged in Ostrava at the NODO festival, and the instrument was heard in public for the very first time. Pianist Miroslav Beinhauer learned to play it specifically for this occasion. The historic August Förster harmonium immediately sparked enormous interest among composers and audiences alike and soon began travelling internationally. The story of this unique microtonal instrument from the 1930s is now entering a new chapter: with the support of the Czech Ministry of Culture, instrument maker Martin Poláček has built a new instrument – a replica of Hába’s sixth-tone harmonium. This one-of-a-kind instrument, preserved in the collection of the Czech Museum of Music in Prague, together with the virtuoso performances of Miroslav Beinhauer, has inspired dozens of composers to create new works. The inauguration of the new instrument will take place in Prague on two separate concerts at different venues, on November 5 & 12, 2026.