Golden Prague
October 10, 1999

	The Prague Wind Quintet.

The Prague Wind Quintet is an ensemble of Czech origin. Beethoven's onetime colleague, the Czech flutist and composer Antonin Reicha, invented this format and wrote 26 quintets which set the standard. The year 1998 is the 70th anniversary of the Prague Wind Quintet. The original quintet was established in 1928 by the oboist and long-time permanent conductor of the Prague Symphony Orchestra Vaclav Smetacek (1906-1986). The quintet was reorganized in 1968 with new members.

The ensemble has long given concerts throughout Europe and the USA. They have recorded entensively. It has received critical acclaim for its instrumental mastery and unique feeling for style. The quintet gives definitive interpretations of all the classics of the literature, but contemporary music forms a significant part of its repetoire, because composers have written many compositions for them after hearing one of their performances.

October 10 program:
Isa Krejci: Quintet-movements I, II, III
Anton Reicha: Quintet in E flat Major, Op. 88, No. 2
Beethoven/arr. Thomas Widlar: Quartet in c minor, Op. 18, No. 4-I.
Oldrich Flosman: Wind Quintet No. 2

Learn more about Anton Reicha and listen along to Bill McGlaughlin's homemade wind quintet in Anton Reicha and the Wind Quintet.

About the Prague Wind Quintet
Jan Riedlbauch, flute studied at the Prague Conservatory and later at the Prague Academy of Music with Frantisek Cech. He was a member of the National Theater Orchestra for ten years. He is now a professor at the Prague Conservatory. He is active as a solist and with chamber music ensembles Quintette 74, Ensemble Martinu, Grand Duo Concertante (with guitar) with concerts in Europe, USA, and South America. He also writes poetry.

Jurij Likin, oboe was born in 1967 in Minsk, Belorussia. He studied at the Lycee Musical and then the Minsk Conservatory. He later worked with Maurice Bourge in Paris and in Prague during the Mozart Year. He was the solo oboe of the Minsk Philharmonic for six years. Since 1994, he has been solo oboe of the Prague Symphony Orchestra and the new Prague Chamber Philharmonic, Jiri Belohlavek, conductor.

Vlastimil Mares, clarinet studied at the Prague Academy of Music. He has been a winner of several international competitions (Poznan, Markneukirchen, Prague, Paris, Rome). He is solo clarinet with the Prague Symphony Orchestra and also very active in chamber music and as a soloist and conductor. He is a professor at the Prague Academy of Music.

Milos Wichterle, bassoon studied at the Prague Conservatory and later the Academy of Music with Karel Pivonka. He has been a winner of the competitions of Prague Spring, Poznan, and Markneukirchen. He was solo bassoon with the National Theater for several years and is also very active in chamber music and as a soloist.

Vladimira Klanska, horn studied at the Prague Conservatory and later the Academy of Music with Vladimir Kubat. She is a winner of the Munich ARD competition and has been solo horn with the Prague Symphony Orchestra. She is hornist and manager of both the Prague Wind Quintet and the reknowned Czech Nonet. She is very active in chamber music and as a soloist. She has made several recordings as horn soloist.