Jakub Hrůša signed his book of essays on Martinů at the Rudolfinum

Jakub Hrůša is not only the chief conductor of the Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, the principal guest conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, and an artist who is in demand internationally all year round, but also the President of the International Martinů Circle. He has written a book of essays, Hrůša on Martinů, for admirers of the Polička-born composer. He presented the bilingual publication at a book-signing event in Prague’s Rudolfinum on 20 September 2021.

“My relationship to Bohuslav Martinů is virtually lifelong, established by ample experience both as a listener and conductor.” says Jakub Hrůša in one of the essays. The relationship became official in 2011, when Hrůša took up the offer to become President of the International Martinů Circle (IMC).

The book launch was organised by the IMC together with the Bohuslav Martinů Institute. The Institute's director, Aleš Březina, who suggested the essays in the first instance, also spoke at the event. Other participants included the economist Pavel Kysilka (the main sponsor of the book) and other benefactors from the Bohemian Heritage Fund.

In his essays, Hrůša examines the life and work of Bohuslav Martinů from several different perspectives – he discusses certain compositions, examines the “limits” of Martinů’s popularity, and shares his experiences of performing Martinů’s works with various orchestras from different parts of the world. The final section is a New Year’s Eve riddle that contains practically all of the 400+ titles in Martinů’s oeuvre. Most of the texts are from 2014, when Hrůša wrote the essays in regular instalments for the IMC. It is thus also something of a conductor’s artistic diary. The publication includes Hrůša’s article on Jiří Bělohlávek, who was his teacher and dear friend.

The book is richly supplemented with photographs, mainly from the archives of the Bohuslav Martinů Centre in Polička, and it uses a bilingual structure with the Czech text in parallel with its English translation.  The fresh typography is the work of Michal Anelt and Kamil Knotek of Sans&Serif, who even made use of some of the doodles that Martinů liked to sketch in the margins of his scores and letters.

Released this spring, the book was well received by critics at home and abroad. “After just a few sentences of Hrůša’s first essay, the thought occurs that if he was not such a superb conductor, the literary community would be tearing its hair out for not having bagged him as a writer,” Markéta Ottová assesses the work’s literary style in her review at KlasikaPlus.cz.

A similarly positive take is provided by Nigel Simeone for the London-based Gramophone: “Highly engaging, with an idiomatic English translation and array of well-reproduced photograhps, this is a book to delight all lovers of Czech music as well as admirers of a vastly gifted conductor who writes with eloquence and compelling enthusiasm.“