Lecture by Aleš Březina | From MartinWHO to MartinWOW

Thursday 7 May 2026, 11:00
Blue Salon, Faculty of Arts, University of Ljubljana, Slovenia

From “MartinWHO” to “MartinWOW”
A lecture by Aleš Březina, Director of the Bohuslav Martinů Institute

The Embassy of the Czech Republic in Ljubljana, in cooperation with the Department of Musicology at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Ljubljana, cordially invites you to a guest lecture by the distinguished musicologist and researcher Aleš Březina, Ph.D., director of the Bohuslav Martinů Institute in Prague.

The lecture will focus on the extraordinary success of Bohuslav Martinů’s work during his lifetime and on the reasons that led to the gradual fading of his legacy into the background of the musical scene after the composer’s death. Attention will also be given to the influence of the Cold War on the reception of his music. Furthermore, the lecture will touch on the rise of the postwar avant-garde in the second half of the 20th century, represented by figures such as Pierre Boulez and Karlheinz Stockhausen, and will examine the extent to which this aesthetic shift contributed to the waning interest in Martinů’s work.

The second part of the lecture will focus on the contemporary view of Bohuslav Martinů: why his music is once again appealing to today’s listeners, which aspects of his work appeal to them most, and what his place is in today’s concert repertoire. The lecture will also address the significance of the fall of the Iron Curtain and the role of the Bohuslav Martinů Foundation and Institute in the process of rediscovering and reviving his work.

The lecture will be held in English.

More information here: 
https://mzv.gov.cz/ljubljana/cz/informace_pro_krajany_a_obcany_cr/pozvanka_na_prednasku.html