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A festival in defiance of circumstance new music marathon 14th - 17th November 2002.

Article Excerpt
Kratochvil, Matej

There is a certain group of people who ask the same question every year: Will there be a Marathon this year? Although the New Music Marathon has become a major event, giving us the opportunity to hear many important works and greatly raising the level of musical education in the local public, every year its life seems to be in the balance. As yet no patron offering generous and above all stable sponsorship is in sight, and this year the financial problems were exacerbated by the fact that the Archa Theatre, the usual home of the festival, had been closed after the summer floods. Nonetheless, even this year there were inspiring and interesting moments in abundance. A replacement venue was provided by the Ponec Dance Theatre, which may not have ideal acoustic conditions but is at least close to a railway track, so that the sounds of the trains mingled tastefully with the tones of the music (in some pieces this was not in fact distracting). The only missing element were the traditional meetings with composers.

The number of seats occupied (the auditorium was slightly smaller than at the Archa) was a good reflection of the interests of the public today. The Thursday evening offered contemporary classical music in its more academic form, but without well-known names -- the theatre was...

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