Personalities: Vítězslava Kaprálová (1915-1940)
Issue of the commemorative postage stamp
PERSONALITIES: VÍTĚZSLAVA KAPRÁLOVÁ (1915-1940)
Vítězslava Kaprálová was a Czech composer and conductor whose life was short but dramatic. She was born on the 24th January, 1915 in Brno and died on the 16th June, 1940 in Montpellier, France. Although she had only a few years as an artist, she was able to create more than fifty compositions including orchestral music. She had also chosen an opera libretto, but was unable to compose the opera due to her terminal illness.
She was born into a family of musicians, which had a major influence on her life as an artist. Her father Václav, who studied with Leoš Janáček, was a composer and founder of a private music school in Brno. Her mother Viktorie was a soprano singer and music teacher. Vítězslava composed her first piano compositions at the age of nine to twelve years. Against her father’s will, she passed the entrance examination to the conservatory in Brno after finishing the primary school. She was the first girl who selected the study course of composition and conducting. Her graduation composition “A Concerto for Piano and Orchestra” caused a sensation in Brno. It was premiered by herself, and the sight of a young woman conducting an orchestra was absolutely unique at that time. Following her triumf in Brno, Kaprálová, aged twenty, continued her studies at the master school of Prague Conservatory. Her “Military Sinfonietta”, composed by her after two years of study, was performed by the symphony orchestra of the Czech Philharmonic at Lucerna Hall in Prague; the orchestra was energetically conducted by herself.
In the early April of 1937, she incidentally met Bohuslav Martinů. This was to become the key moment of her life as an artist. Martinů discovered her extraordinary talent as a composer and invited her to Paris to study composition with him and conducting with Charles Munch. In June 1938, Kaprálová went to London to perform her Military Sinfonietta at the International Festival of the International Society for Contemporary Music Festival. Aged only twenty-three, she conducted the world famous BBC Symphony Orchestra.
At the time when Paris was already threatened by German troops, Kaprálová was diagnosed with the then incurable tuberculosis. On the 16th June, 1940, the composer, aged twenty-five, died in Montpellier in southern France where she had been evacuated by her husband.
In 1946, she received membership in memoriam from the Czech Academy of Sciences. At that time, only 10 out of the total 648 members of the Academy were women. Despite the short time she had as a composer, Kaprálová created more than forty extraordinary compositions. She received many awards and prizes already during her life for her highly appreciated music.
Her music is an expression of a unique talent cultivated by her knowledge of many contemporary trends. Her method displays elements of her Moravian origin and Slavic warmth.
The author of the design of the issue is the academic painter and graphic artist Marina Richterová, the linear drawing and engraving of FDC are the work of the graphic artist and engraver Miloš Ondráček.
The stamp, sized 40x23 mm has been printed by the Post Printing House in Prague by multicoloured offset with linear drawing in printing sheets of 50 pcs.
There will be 1 First Day Cover incl. commemorative cancellation. In the picture part of the cover is bindweed on a piano keyboard as a symbol of her dedication to music. The contrast of the pliant lines of bindweed and the strict geometry of the keyboard and the stamp refers to the composer’s character combining her unique determination to push ahead with her work and her ability to remain, in certain moments of her private life, vulnerable, soft and, eventually, to succumb to her fate. The cover is printed by offset in dark-brown. On the postmark is a musical staff with bindweed, referring to the composer’s dedication to composition and the text: Brno, 20.1.2015
The stamp is valid from 20th January, 2015.
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Issue of the commemorative postage stamp
PERSONALITIES: VÍTĚZSLAVA KAPRÁLOVÁ (1915-1940)
Date of issue: 20th January, 2015
Graphic arrangement: Marina Richterová
Engraver of the linear drawing and engraving of FDC: Miloš Ondráček
Picture size: 40 x 23 mm
Face value: 17 CZK
Method of the printing of the stamp: multicoloured offset with linear drawing
Method of the printing of the FDC: offset in dark-brown
Number of stamps in the printing sheet: 50 pcs
Number of the FDC´s: 1 pc
Subject of the stamp: a portrait of Vítězslava Kaprálová
Subject of the FDC: bindweed on a piano keyboard as a symbol of her dedication to music
Editor: Ministry of Industry and Trade of the Czech Republic
Producer: Post Printing House, Ortenovo nám. 16, CZ-170 04 Praha 7
Supplier: PostFila, Export Department, Ortenovo nám. 16, CZ-170 24 Praha 7
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