Rudolfinum will be the setting as Prague Sounds pays its respects to Karel Kryl, the uncompromising critic and tender poet of his native Czechoslovakia. David Koller and Richard Müller, two icons of Czech and Slovak music, will come together on stage to pay intimate tribute to Kryl  in this cathedral of Czech culture.

We'll hear twenty of Kryl's songs in acoustic versions and chamber arrangements, all specially prepared for this unique concert. Koller and Müller have chosen songs taking in all of Kryl's major creative periods: from his early days  (Strejček strach a teta obava), through his iconic 1960s songs  (Bratříčku zavírej vrátka, Salome, Veličenstvo kat, Anděl, Pieta), songs written in exile (Karavana mraků, Děkuji), to songs from the period of the Velvet Revolution in 1989 to Kryl's death in 1994 (Ukolébavka, Od Čadce k Dunaju, Babylon, Monology).

'If we think of folk songs not as artefacts from another time but as a continual process by which succeeding generations pass on the most valuable things in the nation's cultural memory, then the best recommendation for a songwriter is that his songs live on freely, independently of his own person. When they're sung around campfires by people who perhaps don't even know Kryl by name, but prove that his work is immortal. Karel Kryl is one of the few Czechoslovak artists this can be said about. '

Petr Dorůžka

This unique tribute takes place during the Year of Czech Music, celebrated traditionally in years ending in 4, since so many important Czech artists (from Dvořák to Smetana, Martinů to Janáček) were either born or died in years ending in this number. Karel Kryl richly deserves his place among these big names – though far from only because of the dates of his birth and death (1944 - 1994).

At at time when an increasing number of people are recognising Kryl's enormous influence, and a time of war and unrest in our European backyard,  the prophetic message in the songs of the bard with the guitar are sure to take on renewed power on stage at Rudolfinum.

Line-up

David Koller - voice, guitar

Richard Müller - voice