Organists often express considerable criticism about the organ at the Martinů Hall in Prague, in terms of a rather short reverberation time in comparison with church organ. Thus, slightest imperfections in a smooth slur of individual tones and chords are audible. However, after the second part of the concert performed by Ms. Irena Chřibková, an organist and Ms. Kateřina Jansová, a flautist, I discovered that this organ drawback has also some positive aspects. Ms. Chřibková did not have any of the mentioned technical problems, moreover, her creative and colourful play with stops greatly resound thanks to dry acoustics. Individual layers of music were fully explicit, mainly in polyphonic compositions and in organ pleno in the opening piece – The Toccata and Fugue by Bedřich Antonín Wiedermann and the closing piece – The Passacaglia in C minor by Johann Sebastian Bach. I witnessed only one sound minus in the finest flute stops in the compositions of Josef Klička – Legend in D major and of Jiří Teml – David and Goliath. Their sound colour in church acoustics would be more catching thanks to its defocusing. As I discovered, Ms. Chřibková likes to experiment with her programme conception. That is a positive step forward, compared to an established recital conception, either unified in music style or following a traditional ´excursion´ into centuries of music development. The concert was opened with Wiedermann, a representative of Novák´s line of Czech music of the 1st part of 20th century, followed by a composition by Josef Klička, Wiedermann´s organ teacher. Surprisingly, the piece is rather different in style, of a fantasia character and quite similar to Foerster´s compositional style. A dramatic contrast came with Teml´s David and Goliath accompanied by a flautist Kateřina Jansová. Her convincing intonation and mainly sound colours perfectly expressed a dialog between both instruments in the parts of Invenzione, Corale and Fantasia. Bach´s Passacaglia brought the whole organ display to its right close. The performance was truly remarkable experience.

(František Lukáš, Hudební rozhledy, January 2009)