Photo by Zdeněk Chrapek
Zdenek Macal
(8 January 1936 Brno – 25 October 2023 Prague)
World-renowned conductor, chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic in 2003-2007.
He inherited the musical genes from his father. He played and conducted in his jazz band from the age of fifteen. In the band, he learned improvisation and craftsmanship, which he also applied to orchestras. He gradually began to fulfill his lifelong dream – conducting – by studying at music schools in Brno. He first studied at the Brno Conservatory, then at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts.
In 1968, shortly after emigration in Hamburg. Photo Mon Musée Musical /here/
He first attracted attention when he became the winner of two major music competitions: the Besançon International Conducting Competition in 1965 and the Dmitri Mitropoulos Competition in New York in 1966, where the jury was chaired by Leonard Bernstein. Together with Pavel Štěpán and the Czech Philharmonic, he won the Wiener Flötenuhr prize in 1971 for the recording of two Mozart piano concertos from 1968. After the Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia, he went into exile. He left for West Germany with two suitcases, his wife and eight-year-old daughter. He was then “lost” to the Czech music public for almost 30 years.
In 1973 in Paris while conducting the ORTF orchestra. Photo Mon Musée Musical /here/
He became music director of the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra and Hanover Radio Orchestra, chief conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, music director of the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra and chief conductor of Chicago’s Grant Park Summer Festival. He conducted 160 orchestras on four continents. He loved a hectic life and traveling the world, and he and his wife Jiřina, whom he called Ginny, moved eighteen times. They lived in Geneva, New York, California and Florida. He became an American citizen in 1992.
North Hills Records, 1977. Repro archiv
In Bamberg, Germany in 1982. Photo by Reinhold Möller
From 1993 to 2002, he headed the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. In 1996 and 1997, he conducted the Czech Philharmonic during the Prague Spring International Festival. From the 2003–2004 season, he assumed the position of chief conductor of the Czech Philharmonic. In September 2007, he announced his departure from the Czech Philharmonic. In addition to the ČF, FOK also renewed cooperation with the Symphony Orchestra of the Capital City of Prague. /More about his career here/.
In his conducting work, he focused on Gustav Mahler, Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvořák. However, he was also accompanied by the work of Leoš Janáček, of whom he was an admirer. That is why in 2010 he accepted the position of president of the International Music Festival Janáček’s Maywhich he performed until 2015.
In Prague’s Rudolfinum on December 2, 2011, while conducting the celebratory concert of the Czech Philharmonic for his 75th birthday. Photo by Michal Krumphanzl
In 1999, director Martin Vadas made a documentary about him for CT Travels of Zdenek Mácal /here/, in 2002 documentary filmmaker Martin Dostál prepared his portrait as part of the ČT series Gen /here/ and in June 2005 he performed – together with the violinist Jan Hrubý – on the Czech TV program Michal Prokop A beautiful loss /here/.
The Czech music community is losing an important personality who left a significant artistic and human mark not only in the Czech Philharmonic, but also in other orchestras. The Czech Philharmonic experienced its most intense period together with Zdenek Mácal between 2003 and 2007, when he was its chief conductor. In his work with the orchestra, he utilized both his deep relationship with Czech music and the experience he gained with a number of foreign orchestras. However, he also devoted himself to the music of Gustav Mahler or Johannes Brahms. On behalf of the Czech Philharmonic, I express my sincere condolences to the family and all loved onesits director wrote on the website of the Czech Philharmonic David Mareček /here/.
He died after a short illness. Filip Wágner informed about his death on behalf of the family.
/He prepared for iDN from several sources their/
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2023-10-28 14:15:52
#Zdeněk #Mácal #died #Divadelní #noviny
