Lapšanský in Stoka

The idea of bringing classical music and its performers to a young audience that had not yet found its way into concert halls arose in conversations among the members of the ensemble. In 1997 we approached Marian Lapšanský, one of the most distinguished Slovak pianists (and Marek’s neighbour), who liked the idea. The Stoka association and the Small-Town Educational Agency hosted the events, supported by the Music Information Centre of the Music Fund. In the spirit of Schönberg’s idea of bringing “serious music” to the working class we called the concerts a subscription series, and Lapšanský became the “chief supplier” of soloists.

The programming had several lines: Concerto-Aria (the soloist plays a famous concerto or aria accompanied by Požoň: Grieg’s Piano Concerto, Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto, the Romance from Mozart’s D minor Concerto, Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos, Rusalka’s aria), Solo (the star plays a “master’s trifle”: Flight of the Bumblebee, Fibich’s Moods, a Chopin mazurka), Heritage of Symphonic Music in middle-class arrangement (Also sprach Zarathustra, Beethoven’s Fifth, Janáček’s Sinfonietta, Carmina burana, Bruckner’s Scherzo), Hungarian Dances four hands, and Greatest Hits – film and pop arrangements (Mission: Impossible, X-Files, Dallas, Eurovision, The Munsters, Tomorrow Never Dies). When the Slovak Philharmonic played Poulenc’s Concerto for Two Pianos at the Reduta, Požoň with Indjić and Lapšanský played it the next day a few hundred metres away – on two uprights.

Five concerts

• I · 3 Dec 1997 – Marian Lapšanský; Grieg, Erkel (Hazám, hazám from Bánk bán), Fibich; Ilja Zeljenka on the drum. Stormy audience response and a polemic in Hudobný život: Tomáš Horkay wrote Lapšanský in Stoka, or the Triumph of Nothingness (“Grieg’s concerto does not deserve the cruel punishment of being performed as a parody”; “I will certainly not go to the 2nd subscription concert”), Meška Puškášová answered with Stoka – or a Bitter Tear about Music. We gratefully borrowed the title Triumph of Nothingness for all further concerts.
• II · 10 June 1998 – Bárta and Lapšanský in Stoka (Evenings of New Music): Jiří Bárta – cello; Saint-Saëns, Dvořák, Rimsky-Korsakov, Beethoven, Brahms, Suite alla Požoň. “It was a seriously meant joke, but I liked it,” Bárta told Hudobný život.
• III · 13 Dec 1998 – Hajóssyová and Lapšanský in Stoka: Magdaléna Hajóssyová – soprano, conductor Adrian Rajter; Janáček, Schubert, Britten, Mozart, Suchoň, Smetana, Dvořák (Song to the Moon), La Monte Young: Composition 1960 #7.
• IV · 10 April 1999 – Eugen Indjić and Marian Lapšanský in Stoka, benefit for the theatre, conductor Marián Lejava; Bruckner, Fibich, Dvořák, Glass, Brahms, Bartók, Chopin, Sting, Poulenc. Listen to the recording below.
• V · 6 Dec 2002 – Mikuláš in Stoka: the Fifth Triumph of Nothingness – Peter Mikuláš and Stanislav Beňačka – bass, Marian Lapšanský; Greatest Hits: Vltava, Façades, Creation, Music, Model, Across the Universe, Piano Concerto, Waltz, Granada, Finale.

Inviting guests meant giving up control, and that was also the end of the series: in Piaček’s view the best humour came from straightforward, serious playing – Indjić’s Chopin mazurka on the upright was very effective – while the clichés of classical music always ran the risk of making the joke too cheap.