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Forfest puts the emphasis on the individual testimony of the composer.

Article Excerpt
Zdenka and Viclav Vaculovic are the husband and wife team that has headed the Forfest's organisational committee since the festival's birth fourteen years ago. The future paths that might be taken not just by the Forfest but by contemporary music in general in the future are the subject of this interview.

What do you see as the greatest success of this year's Forfest? And what didn't work so well, what caused you problems?

It would probably be impossible to imagine a festival of contemporary art without problems, Usually there are so many that we don't even want to talk about them ... So I prefer to talk about the good sides, and the performance of Zemek's 2nd Symphony "the Passion "was--you could say--a satisfaction not just for the composer but for us as well. Of course, with such a monumental work, which in its uncut form represents ninety minutes of music for large orchestra, choir and soloists, you could hardly expect there to be no problems at all putting it on, but all the performers and listeners felt that it was a great idea, and that's no small achievement.

Forfest is characterised as a festival of contemporary art with a spiritual focus. But from a certain perspective any kind of artistic work is spiritual, if it springs up from the spirit of the author ... How would you define spirituality in art and what are your criteria, from this point of view, for the choice of works for the festival?

You're right. Every creation arising from the spirit can be considered spiritual, but contemporary art is dominated by anything but the spirit. Of course we don't want to play at being referees who "unerringly" separate the wheat from the chaff. To put it...

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