Press

Director: Jules Roux

Music: Michael Andrew Burt

Sound: Mikuláš Pekárek

(Stay: On the Weight of Being – reprise at Venus in Švehlovka)

"The composition was inspired, among other things, by the sounds of trees being cut down or glaciers breaking...Thematically, the production works with existentialism, with feelings of helplessness and loneliness."

(How is composition done at HAMU? Four orchestral compositions by students of the Department of Composition)

"The author (M.A. Burt) builds tectonically on quite striking contrasts, blocks of large, symphonic gestures alternate with those that are rarer and more fragmentary in texture. In terms of expression, the composition sometimes reminded me of expressionist aesthetics. I really appreciated how the author worked with the orchestration. He was able to create really sonorous (unfortunately sometimes a bit blurred in the given acoustics) masses of sound. At the same time, he worked with effective details, for example smooth transitions from one articulation to another, interesting were the shrill high tones of the flute and piccolo, which rang alarmingly over the entire orchestra several times during the composition. Overall, the composition has an effective tone, although it may be a bit borderline in terms of the degree of contrast (but that may be my personal preference)."