3rd place at the International Forum of Young Composers in Minsk, Belarus / Yekaterinburg, Russia, 2023.

Programme notes:

Tereza Jaďuďová (b. 2001)
Orol vták, Op. 41
Written in 2020

Tereza Jaďuďová’s symphonic poem Orol vták was born from an inner impulse to set another poem of the Slovak national revival movement, the Štúrovci. For the first time, she turned to the work of Janko Kráľ—often considered the most revolutionary of the Štúrovci poets.

The piece is inspired both by the folk elements present in Kráľ’s language and by the majestic atmosphere of the High Tatras, which the poem mentions explicitly. In the music, serenity and breadth of nature are suddenly disrupted by a storm, which just as swiftly subsides.

Scored for tenor soloist and full orchestra, the work treats Kráľ’s text with respect for its imagery and with careful attention to the natural declamation of the Slovak language. The choral-like orchestral textures, folk-inflected motifs, and vivid dynamic contrasts bring to life the poem’s flight of the eagle, its battle with storms, and its unbroken striving toward freedom.

Instrumentation:

picc, 2fl, 2ob, corA, 2cl, 2bn, 4hn, 2tpt, 3trbn, tba, timp, 2perc [BD, cyms], hp, vv [ten], str [16vln I, 14vln II, 12vla, 10vc, 8db]