Section Archive Witness
Petr Vlha: in praise of Zdenek Macal's magic wand at the Czech Philharmonic
You may remember an interview we broadcast last year with Zdenek Macal,
when he was appointed chief conductor of the greatest of all Czech
orchestras, the Czech Philharmonic. Despite a huge international
reputation after many years with top orchestras abroad, Macal was not
particularly well known in his native Prague. The Czech Philharmonic had
been going through a difficult few years, with financial problems,
internal disputes and even fears that its artistic standards were
suffering. So Zdenek Macal inherited a difficult job. Today, just a few
months later, critics are united in praising his work with the orchestra.
Not least among them is Petr Vlha, the secretary of the Year of Czech
Music, who sees the changes at the Czech Philharmonic as little short of
miraculous:
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Jan Flemr - buying an unusual site with game show winnings
In recent years Czech versions of hit television programmes from the West
have proved hugely popular. Among them are "The Weakest Link"
and the latest big success, the Czech version of "Pop Idol". But
the first of this wave of international programmes to make a big impact in
the Czech Republic was "Milionar", which you may know as
"Who Wants to Be a Millionaire?". Jan Flemr appeared on
"Milionar" three years ago, stalling at the final question but
still taking home half a million crowns. Here he recalls the experience,
and the question which stumped him.
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Franta Kocourek - courage in the face of occupation in March 1939
We don't usually use archive recordings for Witness, but today we'll make
an exception. This year is the 65th anniversary of the tragic day in March
1939, when German troops marched into Prague, beginning six years of Nazi
occupation. At the time, Franta Kocourek was one of Czechoslovak Radio's
star reporters. Four days after Bohemia and Moravia had been declared a
"Protectorate of the German Reich", he reported live on the huge
military parade that the Germans had organized on Prague's Wenceslas
Square. He made no attempt to conceal his sense of horror at this show of
Nazi military might. This was the first of many acts of defiance that soon
led to Franta Kocourek being arrested. He died in Auschwitz in 1942, at
the age of forty. Part of his live report from the balcony of the Hotel
Sroubek on Wenceslas Square, on the 19th March 1939, survives to this day,
and has become legendary in the history of Czech broadcasting.
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Maxim Velcovsky: famous for 15 minutes thanks to huge ad campaign
Maxim Velcovsky is one of the Czech Republic's best young artists, though
it wasn't his work but his appearance in a massive advertising campaign
for mobile phones which brought him to widespread public attention. Maxim
has a very distinctive look: he is tall with huge "afro"-style
hair and was, while the ad campaign was at its height in 2001, one of the
best-known faces in the country. He has also appeared in TV ads made in
the Czech Republic for other markets around the world. Here Maxim
Velcovsky describes the experience of having his face all over the Czech
media, at the height of his "fame".
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Dagmar Havlova: the purity of the Antarctic
It is exactly 75 years since the first Czech set foot on the Antarctic. His
name was Vaclav Vojtech, and he travelled with an expedition organized by
the American Richard Byrd. Vojtech returned a national hero. To this day
there is a Czech presence on the White Continent, with a research station
on Nelson Island in the South Shetlands; later this year a new Czech polar
station is to be shipped to James Ross Island in the same area. One person
who has become obsessed with the Antarctic is Dagmar Havlova, the one-time
dissident and sister-in-law of the former Czech President Vaclav Havel.
She was one of the initiators of the station on Nelson Island, and this
year is planning her fifth visit. Here she talks about what draws her back
to the Antarctic again and again.
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Pavel Theiner - memories of my grandfather from a lost world
Pavel Theiner was eleven when his family left Prague in 1968. From his
London exile Pavel's father became one of the most prominent figures in
the Czech émigré literary community, and Pavel grew up unable to return to
the country where he had spent his childhood. But today he is back in his
native Prague with his wife and four-year-old daughter, working as a media
researcher. Here he remembers his grandfather, a man who has remained
important in Pavel's life, even though he died when Pavel was still small.
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Zbynek Svehla: a race against time in the hot sun of Hawaii
Ever since he was a teenager Zbynek Svehla has been a passionate
triathlete. Triathlon is possibly the most grueling sports discipline of
all, combining swimming, cycling and running, and the sport's greatest
challenge is the annual Ironman Triathlon in Hawaii. When Zbynek broke his
back ten years ago, losing the use of his legs, he didn't give up his
dream of completing Ironman. He was at last able to take part in 2001 -
using a handcycle for the cycling section, and an adapted wheelchair for
the marathon. He went home disappointed, after failing to complete the
cycle section within the cut-off time. Last October, Zbynek had a second
try, and became the first ever European wheelchair athlete to complete the
event. It was an extraordinary achievement. But, as Zbynek remembers,
there was a moment, in the heat of the Hawaiian sun, when he thought the
cycle section would once again thwart his dream.
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Geoffrey Chew and the benevolent police informer
In the days of the Cold War people who came into regular contact with
foreigners were kept under close police scrutiny and were put under
intense pressure to report on details of their meetings. In the early
1960s the South African musicologist Geoffrey Chew spent a year studying
in the city of Brno. His landlady was a highly cultivated woman, who spoke
several languages. She was also a reluctant police informer, but she got
round this rather distasteful problem in a neat and elegant way. On a
recent trip back to Brno, Geoffrey Chew remembered the time.
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Jiri Vejvoda - learning to interpret Vaclav Havel's coughs
At the end of January it will be exactly a year since Vaclav Havel stepped
down after thirteen years as president, first of Czechoslovakia and then
the Czech Republic. One person who spent a lot of time with Havel during
his early days as president just after the fall of communism, is the
journalist Jiri Vejvoda, now Czech Radio's chief producer of arts
programmes. Here he remembers some of the insights he gained at the time.
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Juraj Szanto: teenage memories of Raoul Wallenberg in Budapest
Juraj Szanto is a medical journalist, and has had a long career in Prague
as a dentist. He originally comes from the part of southern Slovakia that
was annexed by Hungary just before the Second World War. When the war
broke out, his father was sent to the Russian Front and his mother was
imprisoned in Budapest for her links with the resistance. Juraj was
fifteen when his mother was released in 1944, but this was just the time
when the Nazis began to transport Hungarian Jews to the death camps in the
east. Juraj and his mother were among thousands of people in the city who
found refuge in the Swedish Embassy, under the protection of the now
legendary Raoul Wallenberg. Here Juraj remembers not just Wallenberg, but
also other Swedish diplomats in Budapest, who helped to save tens of
thousands of lives, including his own:
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