What joins Three moments for two clarinets and bass clarinet into one unit is a work with similar melodical and rhythmical models. It has allowed me to experiment with form.

01 Preludium - Moderato

My Trombone concerto is a piece in two movements, dim, ominous first and vivid, lively second. The soloist together with strings and later percussion goes through many colourful episodes to reach certain symbiosis in the end.

Jiří Slabihoudek - Concerto for trombone, strings and percussion

Concerto for trombone, strings and percussion (2014)

Short composition for clarinet and piano was dedicated to a young lady, who has in a sort of way both names you see in the titles of movements. "Monica" is designed as a graphic notation, visible just in the score, "Elizabeth" is projected into Morse alphabet.

Pour e(M) for clarinet and piano (2014)

I took funky 5/16 model and had a lot of fun with it. From those 5 notes i created harmony, modal hierarchy, metrorhythmical structures. But in the end, you always get back to that little twitchy theme of 5 sixtienth notes.

Terka Novotná - Sax, Jan Bubák - Conductor, Orchestra from Mariánské Lázně

Sax Concerto (2015) first recording

Melting. This natural process has many assosiations to me. Longing for winter, but also promise of spring. Fragility, joy, hope. Sentiment of those feelings is coordinated through the work on an intuitive basis. Its sometimes naive, but not stupid. Simple, yet sincere.

Melting for violin and piano (2016)

"Standing by a tomb of R L Stevenson in Samoa. Its windy" is a very long title for a song. Its more story then a song. Robert Louis Stevenson was an enthusiastic traveler. Europe and North america wasn't enough for him and eventually he found himself in Samoa in South Pacific. In the age of 44 he died and was buried on this island. There are several pictures of Samoan citizens standing by his grave, genueniely sad about death of their unconventional European friend. You can read his own poem, Requiem, written on his tomb.
I imagined a person sitting there by his grave, thinking about him, art, life. Suddenly, the wind arises and brings with it two poems from "A child's garden of verses", Stevenson's book of poems for children. Two beautiful poems about wind.

Standing by a tomb of R L Stevenson in Samoa. Its windy (2017)

When you drop something, there is a reaction of sorts. "Aw sh*t" might be one of them, but generally speaking, there is a series of events which are partially out of control. I ve chosen a musical material for an impulse and then I let it go - release it, drop it, exhale it.

Natalie Harris (bassclarinet), Fei Nie (piano)

Drop, Release, Exhale for bass clarinet and piano (2017)

I took funky 5/16 model and had a lot of fun with it. From those 5 notes i created harmony, modal hierarchy, metrorhythmical structures. But in the end, you always get back to that little twitchy theme of 5 sixtienth notes.

Terka Novotná - Sax, Robert Ferrer - Conductor, Moravian Philharmonic Orchestra

Sax Concerto (2015) second recording

It starts with very basic pulse in viola. But this provokes the other instruments. Suddenly, tensions arise between them and it is not easy to find a balance. Especially when oboe has its dangerous multiphonics, viola its dangerous natural harmonics and harmonies and piano so many keys that can be played simultanously!

Bára Trnčíková (oboe), Adam Pechočiak (viola), Kateřina Donovalová (piano)

Tensions for oboe, viola and piano (2018)

Pater Noster is a contemplative piece. I use few passages from the prayer in different languages, underlining the fact, that we are all as vulnerable in an intimate prayer as any other person.

Ludmila Pavlová (violin), Quartet Nachtigal

Pater Noster for solo violin and vocal quartet (2019)

Petrichor is a neologism from 60s and it is a word for specific earthy smell, which occurs after a heavy rain falls on dry soil.
The situation which leads to petrichor inspired me for a Cello Concerto. You have the dry, unfriendly soil yearning for to be rained upon. its static music full of harsch sounds of winds and percussion. And then the rain comes with its flickering drops; it brings the long awaited salvation. Petrichor itself, the specific smell, is actually a catarsis of those two elements counterweighting each other. 

Kateřina Blahová (cello), The Czech Chamber Philharmonic Orchestra Pardubice, cond. Jan Bubák

Jiří Slabihoudek

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