Chapter 07
Twenty-Four Performances across Slovakia
8 min
These recordings, archive performances and credited productions are arranged for contrast rather than ranking or a march from old to new. Credits and historical setting remain part of what each performance means.
1. Jozef Peško: “Detvianska festivalová fanfára”
Peško’s fujara gives Svetozár Stračina’s composed fanfare its physical centre. Begin with the low tone, then follow breath pressure into overtone cascades. The work joins a Podpoľanie player and instrument to twentieth-century festival composition without pretending to be an unedited shepherd performance.
2. Sima: “Sorry”
Sima’s 2025 single puts a woman’s current voice near the beginning instead of reserving rap for an urban appendix. She wrote the lyrics and sings; Dávid Hodek and Tomáš Gajlik composed and produced. Hear how the clipped vocal phrasing works against the compact rap-pop construction.
3. Terchovská muzika Pupov: “Boli chlapci, boli okolo Pupova – Horičky zelené – Boli chlapci, boli”
Pupov makes Terchová’s collective style immediate. Hear the compact string attack, small-ensemble lift and the way three linked songs maintain dance momentum. The locality matters: this is Terchová music, not a template for every northern Slovak band.
4. Marika Gombitová: “Vyznanie”
Gombitová shapes a large pop melody with controlled breath, dynamic rise and emotional restraint. The 1979 song belongs to Slovak television and recording culture inside the federal state. Her vocal authorship is the focus, not nostalgia for a generic Czechoslovak golden age.
5. Dievčenská spevácka skupina zo Šumiaca: “Nebudem tak robiť”
The girls’ singing group from Šumiac gives Horehronie multipart singing a village, named ensemble and specific song. Follow the opening cue into the collective answer, then hear how parallel lines thicken without becoming one fixed national harmony. The 2008 radio recording also preserves the relation between community singing and documented studio work.
6. B-Complex: “Beautiful Lies”
Matia Lenická’s drum-and-bass track pairs rushing breakbeats and bass force with a broad melodic arc. Its international label life shows Bratislava production entering a global club system through craft. Lenická’s later public life as a trans woman should be described with her current name and pronouns.
7. Pokošovci with Viera Pokošová: “Joj, mamo, joj, mamo”
This 2019 track places Viera Pokošová’s voice with a Roma family ensemble rooted in Horehronie. Violin, viola function, accordion, bass and cimbalom create a working regional texture. Listen for personal vocal address inside the band’s precise support.
8. Vladimír Godár, Iva Bittová and Solamente Naturali: Mater
The 2006 ECM recording makes collaboration its correct identity: Godár composed, Iva Bittová sings and plays violin, Marek Štryncl conducts Solamente Naturali, and the Bratislava Conservatory Choir joins the ensemble. Hear Bittová’s changing vocal grain against the spacious devotional writing without transferring either artist across a border.
9. Bernard Garaj Sr: “Hra na gajdách 002-01”
This 2007 Traditional Folk Culture Fund film documents Garaj in Veľká Lehota on three-voice gajdy. Hear the chanter’s melody against the continuing drones and notice how arm pressure steadies the reeds. Locality and performer make the bagpipe’s chanter and drones tangible.
10. Štefan Štec: “Dze še podzel”
Štec brings Rusyn language and north-eastern identity into contemporary recording. Follow his projection and diction before the arrangement around him. The work belongs to a living Rusyn public in Slovakia and wider Carpathian circulation; neither side cancels the other.
11. Sisa Michalidesová: Expresie
Michalidesová leads as composer, flautist and project maker. The album’s jazz language is organized through arrangement, instrumental colour and a sense of journey. It expands Slovak jazz beyond a parade of male soloists while remaining valuable on its own musical terms.
12. Ghymes: “Tánc a hóban”
The Nitra-formed Hungarian minority ensemble expands folk-rooted material into a concert-scale world-music texture. Bowed strings, pulse and Hungarian text carry the piece. Its Czechoslovak beginnings and later Slovak career show how a minority language can occupy several cultural markets at once.
13. Ján Kovalčík, Marcela Gajdošová and Jozef Novotný: “Čardáš z Margecian”
The 2006 archive film from Margecany credits a dancing pair and Novotný on heligónka. Watch the held positions, turns, release of momentum and musician-dancer timing. Beside SĽUK, it supplies the social half of a comparison that staged theatre alone cannot make.
14. Pressburger Klezmer Big Band: “Shabes in polecko”
This 2025 live track is contemporary Bratislava klezmer, research and arrangement in a large ensemble. Hear violin and clarinet language against added brass and rhythmic weight. The performance honours Jewish musical routes while making no claim to be an untouched pre-Holocaust document.
15. Eugen Suchoň, Ondrej Lenárd and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra: Krútňava
Use the complete Opus recording with Peter Dvorský, Gabriela Beňačková, the Slovak Philharmonic Choir and the Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra under Ondrej Lenárd. Suchoň’s village setting, guilt and moral conflict become sustained music drama; folk-derived thinking enters motive and harmony without turning the opera into a field document.
16. Barbora Botošová: Roshambo
Botošová’s 2023 album presents a Roma Slovak violinist, producer and arranger shaping her own fusion field. Romani lyrics, guest voices and detailed ensemble writing resist the idea of one fixed Roma sound. Her instrumental lineage supports experimentation instead of confining it.
17. Prúdy: “Zvoňte, zvonky”
The 1969 Slovak-language work catches beat music stretching toward richer studio and keyboard design. Pavol Hammel and Marián Varga are central to its identity. It is specifically Slovak music made and circulated in Czechoslovakia, a distinction the sound deserves.
18. Rytmus: “Cigánsky sen”
Rytmus addresses Roma identity through Slovak hip-hop’s beat, flow and public persona. Attend to how the verses control emphasis and social argument. The track is self-authored modern speech, not folklore repackaged for an urban audience.
19. SĽUK: “Tanec s valaškami”
The professional ensemble turns shepherd-associated male dance and the valaška into frontal theatre. Foot impact, orchestral timing and choreographic unison are the subject. Hear it after the Margecany čardáš: stage design and social dance organize bodies, repetition and space differently.
20. Ľubica Čekovská, Christopher Ward and the Bregenz cast: Impresario Dotcom
At the Bregenz Festival premiere on 20 and 21 August 2020, Christopher Ward conducted the Vorarlberg Symphony Orchestra, with Zeynep Buyraç as Dotcom and a named international cast. Čekovská’s shortened Bregenz version uses speed, comic interruption and operatic quotation without depending on national symbols.
21. Dežo Ursiny and Ivan Štrpka: “Modrý vrch”
Ursiny’s music and Štrpka’s Slovak text form one close collaboration. The arrangement gives poetic images time to accumulate, avoiding the quick resolution of a standard single. Hear how band colour follows language and how repetition deepens ambiguity.
22. Richard Hronský: Pohreb
Hronský’s 2025 album brings fujara, family recordings and field sound into electroacoustic memory work. Begin with “Pohreb (pt. I),” then compare the album’s frame with Peško’s opening fanfare. The inherited instrument remains audible while the studio changes its scale, proximity and social meaning.
23. Adela Mede: “Háromszorra Jövök Össze”
Mede opens Szabadság in Hungarian with layered voice, restrained repetition and tactile electronic space. Recorded near the Slovak-Hungarian border, the work holds family, language and place without turning them into a slogan. It is a present Slovak-Hungarian interior voice.
24. Jana Kirschner and Nina Kohout: “Malá Zem”
The 2026 Večer Trojkráľový performance closes the sequence with an intergenerational collaboration. Kirschner and Kohout share a long-form song instead of passing a symbolic baton from one generation to another. Voices, arrangement and attentive exchange carry the work without any obligation to quote a heritage instrument.
A Practical Listening Sequence
Begin with Peško, Sima, Pupov and Gombitová; the quick changes prevent any one frame from posing as the whole country. Then move through the Šumiac singers, B-Complex, Pokošovci and Mater. Group entry, studio pressure, family ensemble work and composed space organize attention in very different ways.
Continue with Garaj’s gajdy, Štec, Michalidesová and Ghymes. The Margecany dance, contemporary Bratislava klezmer, the complete Krútňava recording and Botošová’s authored fusion form another set of contrasts. Prúdy, Rytmus, SĽUK and Čekovská’s documented Bregenz production lead toward Ursiny and Štrpka, Hronský, Mede and the Kirschner/Kohout collaboration. Locality, language, medium and scale keep changing instead of placing heritage, minorities, classical music and the present in sealed blocks.
When visiting, build pairs. In Bratislava, join an archive or museum appointment to a current concert. In Košice, combine the State Philharmonic or regional radio history with a local club bill. At Detva, Východná or a village festival, read every ensemble credit and make room for workshops and social dance alongside the main stage. In Prešov, look for Rusyn/Ukrainian theatre and Roma cultural work. Never promise yourself that one weekend will complete the map.
Frequently Asked Questions
Questions about Twenty-Four Performances across Slovakia
1. What is the best first listen for traditional Slovak music?
Start with Jozef Peško’s “Detvianska festivalová fanfára,” then Terchovská muzika Pupov and Pokošovci. The three reveal fujara breath, Terchová strings and a Horehronie Roma family band. No single recording has to impersonate the whole country.
2. How can a fujara play so many notes with three holes?
The player changes breath pressure to excite different harmonics in a very long air column. The three holes alter effective length and pitch options. Overblowing, fingering and ornament work together, producing low fundamentals and brilliant high partials.
3. Was the fujara added to UNESCO in 2005 or 2008?
Both dates describe different stages. Fujara and its music was proclaimed in 2005 and incorporated into the Representative List in 2008. Neither date marks the practice’s origin.
4. Are Terchová music and Horehronie singing the same tradition?
No. Terchová is known for a local system of compact string ensembles, small bass or button accordion, singing and dance. Horehronie multipart singing uses pre-singing and group answers with village-specific two- or three-part voicing.
5. Is the cimbalom uniquely Slovak?
No. Struck-string cimbalom traditions cross Hungarian, Slovak, Roma, Romanian, Ukrainian and other musical worlds. In Slovakia, its role depends on band, region and occasion. Listen for rhythmic fill, harmony, melody doubling and ringing sustain.
6. Why are Roma musicians central to Slovak music history?
Roma violinists, cimbalom players, singers, arrangers and bands helped build wedding, restaurant, radio, stage and concert music across Slovakia. Naming Pokošovci, Ján Berky-Mrenica, Barbora Botošová and Rytmus reveals distinct careers instead of an ethnic stereotype.
7. Why include Hungarian and Rusyn-language music in Slovakia’s musical history?
Hungarian and Rusyn communities are part of Slovakia’s present and history. Language does not place Ghymes, Adela Mede or Štefan Štec outside the country. Their work also travels through cross-border cultural networks, and both facts can remain audible.
8. Is Slovak music from before 1993 Czech music?
No. Slovak artists and institutions made specifically Slovak work inside Czechoslovakia. State, language, artist identity and production location should all be named. “Vyznanie” is Slovak pop from a Czechoslovak media system, not Czech ownership.
9. Where should I look for archives and live music?
Use SĽUK’s Traditional Folk Culture Fund, the Slovak National Museum Music Museum and Music Centre Slovakia for documented material. Follow Slovak Radio and regional services, then check credited programmes in Bratislava, Košice, Prešov, Banská Bystrica and regional festivals.
10. What should I hear after these twenty-four performances?
Follow one relationship outward. Compare another village within Horehronie, a different Rusyn singer, a Hungarian-language band from southern Slovakia, a woman composer, a Košice jazz group or a Mappa experimental release. Keep names, dates and places beside every discovery.
