On May 9th 2008, the town of Marienbad (CZ) is beginning a weekend of festivities to celebrate its 200th anniversary. The program for the opening concert will be Dvořák's Czech Suite followed by Dvořák's violin concerto, with Václav Hudeček playing the violin.

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In case Hudeček is unknown to those of you outside the Czech Republic, he is considered the foremost violinist in the country, he is a household name (and face) who would probably be recognized by everyone, classical music listener or not. While certainly there are other fine violinists in the Country, both established (Ženatý, Svěcený) or up-and-coming (Šporcl), no-one can match Hudeček in on-stage charisma and presence in a live performance.

I'm wondering if anyone has heard his recording of the Violin Concerto...

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I for one have not, and unfortunately it's too late for me to pick it up before he arrives, I cannot get to Prague this week and forgot about it over the weekend...

He is a good player, to be sure. This disc has been around for a while, hasn't it? I think I have it on LP (with a very different sleeve) but I don't have any facilities at the moment to play the old scratchies [let's see what comments that term provokes!] so it's been ages since I heard it. From memory it was a good, strong, energetic performance though I'm ashamed to admit that I don't remember much more than that.

It is heartening that a classical player gets such recognition. Here in the UK such acclaim is apparently reserved for nitwits who kick a ball around in a seemingly random fashion for 90 minutes, pull silly faces and pretend to be injured, give a quick and wholly unintelligible TV interview, then go out, drink 30 pints, crash a Ferrari and rape someone. The name of their alleged 'sport' escapes me... (a proper sports game should last up to five days, of course, with no kicking of the ball and plenty of tea breaks).

Andrew B wrote:

... old scratchies [let's see what comments that term provokes!]

dj will be furious

Andrew B wrote:

Here in the UK such acclaim is apparently reserved for nitwits who kick a ball around in a seemingly random fashion for 90 minutes, pull silly faces and pretend to be injured, give a quick and wholly unintelligible TV interview, then go out, drink 30 pints, crash a Ferrari and rape someone.

Oh how I wish that forumup.com hadn't removed my html editing priviledges (in place of the ads), because that is not only a Quote of the Moment, but easily the quote of the year.

As far as Hudecek's name and face is concerned, I would certainly without exaggeration rank him among the most recognizable people/personalities in the Czech Republic, which I would roughly categorize this way:

Politicians
Vaclav Havel, Vaclav Klaus

Actors
Jaroslav Dusek, Miroslav Donutil, Bolek Polivka, Ana Geislerova

Sports
Pavel Nedved, Milan Baros, Petr Cech, Dominik Hasek, Jaromir Jagr, Roman Sebrle, Katerina Neumanova

Pop Music
Karel Gott, Lucie Bila, Helena Vondrackova

Classical Music
Pavel Sprocl, Vaclav Hudecek

While the list is long, and certainly there are many other recognizable personalities that I have left out, the point here is that I believe that in this country, Sporcl and Hudecek are just as easily recognizable among the masses as Havel, Klaus, and all the actors and sports celebrities, which is good... maybe.

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Ana Geislerova

I dont know the Hudecek Sib concerto but I will look out for it.
As regards 'old scratches', I must have around 1000 LP's in my collection and all pretty well scratch-free! I may have touched on this subject elswhere on the forum, but let me repeat. The sound of vinyl [good condition] played on classic running gear is unbeatable. In short it is the closest experience to hearing a live concert.
Sorry Kurki, but the only name I recogized in your list was Vaclav Havel!--kullervopete.