Czech Radio mourns Vladimír Válek, longtime conductor of its symphony orchestra

Czech Radio is mourning one of its prominent music personalities – conductor of the Czech Radio Sympohony Orchestra Vladimír Válek, who led the ensemble for an incredible 26 years.   

Born on September 2, 1935 in Nový Jičín, Válek studied trombone and viola at the conservatory in Kroměříž and later conducting at the Academy of Performing Arts in Bratislava and at the Academy of Performing Arts in Prague. He said in one interview that his great advantage as a conductor was that  he himself played the violin, piano, and trombone. "I can't imagine standing in front of an orchestra and not knowing the issues or the technique," he noted.

Vladimír Válek|Photo: SOČR

In the course of a career spanning over half a century he led the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, was a guest conductor of the Osaka Symphony Orchestra in Japan, and in the new millennium, he was also chief conductor of the Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra for several years. His longest tenure was with the Czech Radio Symphony Orchestra, which he led for over twenty-six years between 1985 and 2011.

He collaborated with leading recording studios around the world and was a recipient of many prestigious awards among others the Classic Prague Award for Lifetime Achievement and a Medal for Merit in the field of culture. In 2014 he was inducted into the Czech Radio Hall of Fame.

Vladimír Valek died last week at the age of 89.

Symphony No. 1 in C minor The Bells of Zlonice, sine Op. (B.9) - (Allegro)

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Quotes from Valek’s Czech Radio interviews:

"It used to be that the chief conductor's job was more than to walk in and conduct -the chief conductor lived and breathed with the orchestra. In the present day and age, the chief conductor is somewhere for three years and off to a new post. That’s not good. It's the same as with a football coach. If he is to form a top team, he can't be there for one season. Nowadays, conductors fly from place to place, from one lucrative post to another. A lot of times the conductor doesn't even live in the same city with the players."

Vladimír Válek|Photo: SOČR

“I don't believe conductors who say they don't listen to other people's recordings and only work with the score. Why shouldn't I listen to a recording of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring conducted by Stravinsky? It’s one of the worst, by the way. Because a composer is simply not a performer. We're the ones who bring the piece to life and put it out into the world when it's brand new. It's up to us how it turns out.”

"When I became conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and conducted Smetana's My Country at the Prague Spring Festival, I thought about my father, who was a musician at heart. He would have been so delighted to see me. His heart would have been bursting with pride."