Štochl Ondřej: Echo fragile

The title Echo fragile, i.e. fragile echo, is characteristic not only for Ondřej Štochl's profile CD, but also for a significant part of his work. Fragility, delicacy or vulnerability are phenomena that Štochl is able to convey in a truly exceptional way. It must be added, however, that the author is just as good at getting right down to the nitty-gritty and stimulating thoughts that lead beyond our comfort zone. Extra-musical contexts contribute to both. We cannot find programmatic compositions in the true sense of the word, but certain themes play an indispensable role in his (artistic) life. On the one hand, these are motifs of calming down and quieting down, in which subtle or even subliminal processes reflect, for example, the principles of philosophical Taoism. On the other hand, serious social issues with emphasis on the life of autistic individuals.
The composer naturally communicates these themes with very characteristic musical means. It elevates the importance of the lower dynamics, in which it can work with an extremely wide range of nuances. He also approaches silence itself with great understanding. But it doesn't mean that he was never expressive: on the contrary, he can time and dose the more excited expressions with surgical precision. The timbre of the music's appeal and a certain trepidation comes from the many articulatory and instrumental details. He often explores the possibilities of individual instruments in a subtle way, which is one of the reasons why performers and their personalities often have a prominent place in his compositions, alongside specific themes.

Ondřej Štochl's work is thus characterised by a special relationship between emotion and ratium, sound and silence, simplicity and complexity, the transcendent and the human. In his compositions, he puts these and many other aspects into unquestionably functional contexts of mutually balancing opposites expressed by the semantics of musical objects. The result are structures whose consistency we would hardly find an analogue in contemporary Czech music.

Year of publication: 2021

Playlist

CD
Advent - version for vibraphone solo (2019) / Spring from the Cave of Powerlessness - for string quartet (2016) / -7. Microludes - I. series - for violin and piano / Living Butterfly - for soprano and chamber ensemble of 12 players / -13. Microludes - II. series - for violin and piano