At the last stop, the performers performed both individually and joined forces in joint compositions and presented those created especially for concerts and are published for the first time.
Tichota: At the beginning there were five concerts for the 55th birthday of the Spiritual Quintet in Prague's Lucerna in 2015. We thought we would like to invite opera singer Dagmar to them Peckova. We selected it as the one that can be assumed to be highly tolerant.
To go on stage as a world-renowned singer to a group of musicians with two guitars and a bass requires tolerance and courage. We agreed that Mrs. Peck had them, which was also confirmed.
We met her in a pub and she asked if she could listen to us somewhere. I invited her to a performance, and since she probably liked it, five concerts followed in Lucerne. And because people who belong together meet, she also met the Hradišťany group, who were also our guests. She made a big impression on her.
Pavlica: I dare say it was Dagmar. In other words, she was the first to say out loud what we all suspected and wished for in our conversation. The collaboration between the Spirituál quintet and Hradišťan has been going on for many years, we often met and performed together. But since only a tripod gives a sense of stability, word got around and in 2018 we also went to concerts with Dagmar. They stretched until 2019.
Tichota: We each played our own songs, Hradišťan learned something for the Spiritual quintet, Spiritual quintet for Hradišťan, Dagmar Pecková came with compositions from her repertoire and joined the others as well.
Pavlica: We recorded the concert in Švand's theater that took place on October 30, 2019. It was the initiative of David Burda, a member of Hradišťan, who is also a music director. The selection is now based on the three-hour performance. Everything didn't fit on two albums.
Tichota: Yes, it has always been a part of our concerts. Fans of the Spiritual quintet know that the second time they come to the show, it will be a little different. Even our joint concerts took place more or less freely, so that we could change a lot during them. Hradišťan also did it, and I have to say that Dagmar Pecková also reacted to it brilliantly and naturally.
Pavlica: Sometimes it was a wink, sometimes the language of the eyes. But usually we didn't have to give one, because we always knew what was going to happen thanks to some elusive musician communication.
Pavlica: Both I and Jiří Tichota were initially reluctant to release it. But David Burda did the work and chose the material for the recording according to his best conscience. It wasn't until he sent it to me and I listened to it in its entirety that I started to entertain the idea of releasing it. The more I listened to it, the more I thought it was good that it was created. We prepared it for release in the time of the coronavirus.
Pavlica: We have known each other for many years. We recorded our first joint album with the Spirituál quintet in 1999. We also collaborated with his court lyricist František Novotný, Jiří Tichota and the recently deceased Dušan Vančura. When people are on the same musical and human wavelength, they like to meet on stage and in private.
The spiritual quintet has been playing for sixty years, and I'm only forty-five. It is therefore a symbol and a challenge for me. I would also like to last that long and write a few more good things.
Tichota: It was always a pleasure for the Spirituál quintet to meet Hradišťan. Music plays an important role in people's lives, and the music performed by Hradišťan is the music of decent people who have achieved something. It works great between us on a personal level as well.
And Dagmar Pecková joined us in a way that disarmed us. She is a great artist and extremely human. For the third rehearsal, the Spiritual quintet arrived with a car full of food that she had cooked herself. She went out of her way to make us feel comfortable.
She behaved perfectly from the first moment, even though she met musicians from another floor. Real personalities don't need to keep their distance, they don't pretend because they really are. Within a minute, she was Daša from the legendary Dagmar Pecková.
Pavlica: I remember the concert at the Congress Center in Zlín. It is very nice, but the entrance from the dressing rooms to the stage is not easy. There are a series of doors and you have to hit the right ones or you won't get to the stage.
The spiritual quintet was playing an overture, and Dagmar Pecková was trying to find the door through which she could reach the stage behind him. I could hear her interjections of relief when she found the right ones at the last minute. She floated into the last chord of the prelude and pretended everything was fine.
Pavlica: It is not excluded. If Dagmar is interested in her, we will definitely come to an agreement. But this year and next year I have a busy schedule and I have to focus on the projects I have committed to.
Tichota: Yes, if the situation surrounding the coronavirus allows it, we will complete it without Dušan. Life also brings death, and we have already encountered it several times in the Spiritual quintet.
Our supporters are very tolerant, and we already know from experience: they always want to show us that they have their fingers crossed for us. And we will try not to owe anything.
Of course, Dušan will be missed by them and us, but we believe that the memories of everyone who brought something to the Quintet will be a decoration of remembrance.
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