This concert gives listeners the opportunity to contrast the Křížkovský and Dvořák traditions of choral music associated with folksong. The music of Pavel Křížkovský (1820–1885), Janáček’s teacher and musical mentor from the time of his studies in Brno’s Augustinian Monastery, developed during the National Revival, which was spread at the Brno seminary by, among others, the tireless collector of folk songs, František Sušil. Křížkovský’s secular choruses are drawn from Sušil’s monumental song collections, such as Headscarf, Renegade Heart, The Drowned Woman and Enchantment, which were mainly written during the revolutionary years of 1848-1849. Křížkovský’s style of writing choral music certainly influenced Janáček’s work, and these influences can be heard in Janácek’s earlier compositions set to folk texts such as True Love (1876), The Warning, O Love and Ah, The War for four male-voice choruses (1885), and Our Birch Tree, which were composed for the Brno Beseda and the Svatopluk Řemeslnická Beseda – organizations of which Janáček was choirmaster. From a later period are his impressive male choruses set to Haná folk poetry If You Only Knew and The Evening Witch (1900). More incidental pieces from Janáček’s choral works include the graceful mixed-voice chorus The Wild Duck (1885) and the modest Ukvaldy Songs (1899), dedicated to an amateur choir from Janáček’s home town of Hukvaldy.  The popular tradition of Antonín Dvořák’s Moravian Duets is embodied in Ten Songs for Women’s Chorus with Piano Four-Hands Accompaniment op. 15 (1899) by Dvořák’s pupil and son-in-law, Josef Suk (1874–1935). The texts from various Slavonic nations were collected by the composer’s wife, Dvořák’s daughter Otilka.

Josef Pančík is one of the most recognised and highly regarded Czech choirmasters. He studied choral conducting at the Janáček Academy of Performing Arts, where he was a pupil of Josef Veselka. During his studies he began working with the Brno Academic Choir and founded a new choral ensemble, the Brno Madrigals, with whom he worked until 1992, achieving international success both in the performance of old music as well as classical and modern music. In 1965 he began working for what was then the State Theatre in Brno as choirmaster, and he still works there today. Under his guidance the Chorus of the Brno Opera has become one of the best in Europe, as can be seen from their numerous engagements in European countries and in Japan. We should also remember his activities as choirmaster at the Prague Chamber Choir (1992-2006) and their concerts in many countries (including Italy, Spain, France, Sweden, Finland, Australia, Brazil and Israel), as well as his work as a teacher at JAMU at the department of choral conducting (since 1980), where he has been instrumental in the artistic development of many talented choir leaders. He has been choirmaster on many recordings (e.g. Rachmaninov, Dvořák, Janáček, Suk and Eben). In 1998 he received the Brno City Award for his contribution to Brno musical life and the promotion of the city of Brno abroad.