CLARINETTIST MAREK ŠVEJKAR

Bach – Berio – Boulez. Three names, three musical worlds, and one instrument. The clarinettist Marek Švejkar is coming out with a daring debut album that links the music of the Baroque master Johann Sebastian Bach to the revolutionary language of Luciano Berio and Pierre Boulez – two icons of musical modernism in this year of the 100th anniversary of their birth.

The album, which was released by Supraphon on 22 August 2025 on CD and in digital formats, presents the complete music for solo clarinet by both composers. The jubilee seemed to me like the ideal opportunity to immerse myself fully in their legacy and to transform my experience into the form of this album”, says Marek Švejkar.

Besides technically demanding compositions like Boulez’s Dialogue de l’ombre double, which combines live playing with a pre-recorded track, the album will also feature Bach’s Partita in A minor as a contrasting counterpart and as the inspiration that led Berio to the idea of “polyphonic music for a monophonic instrument”.

“I had not originally planned to record the Berio, but in the end I decided to throw myself into his solo music as well. That was a step into the unknown that greatly advanced me as a player. I wanted my album to have real content; it wasn’t just about technical showmanship”, Švejkar added.

Marek Švejkar is a laureate of the Premier Prix of the Conservatoire National Supérieur in Paris, a winner of international competitions, and a member of Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. In the past he has appeared as a soloist with the Czech Philharmonic conducted by Jiří Bělohlávek, and he took part in the Karajan-Akademie of the Berlin Philharmonic.