Five Star Clarinet Quartet: Parade - CD

This album is dedicated to all those who have devoted their destiny, time, energy and talent to the clarinet. And also to the listeners who have recognised its extraordinary musical soul.

Special guest: Jitka Molavcová
Poems: Jiří Hlaváč

Czech musicologist and composer Jiří Berkovec wrote a statement that is the leitmotif of this entire musical genesis. “Music is like a woman, for from the charm of a child's first steps it matures into beauty, and with age gains respectability”.

This spirit also informs the dramaturgy of the compact disc Defilé, in which a quartet of outstanding clarinettists, complemented by an extraordinary acting performance, offers a wide range of stylistic moods and genre expression.
The creative spectrum features clarinettist-arrangers and a clarinettist-composer. In the spoken-word section, the author of all the texts is also a clarinettist. The recordings alternate between arrangements of compositions for other instrumental ensembles (Bach, Vaňhal, Mozart) and original works (Kučera, Hlaváč), with these pieces having been written specifically for the Five Star Clarinet Quartet and premiered by them.
The text was also created especially for this CD, with the intention of creating a unified link between the musical works presented. The author deliberately evokes his former founding activities within the legendary Barock Jazz Quintet, which performed both at home and abroad under his artistic direction from 1975–2009.

FIVE STAR CLARINET QUARTET:
Jiří Hlaváč - clarinettist, saxophonist, composer, professor at AMU in Prague
Vlastimil Mareš - clarinettist, member of the Prague Symphony Orchestra (FOK), professor at AMU in Prague
Irvin Venyš - clarinettist, organiser of Prague Clarinet Days, professor at AMU in Prague
Jan Mach - clarinettist, member of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, professor at AMU in Prague