“We played sixteen farewell concerts and it was always the same. The program was basically the same, people always said goodbye to us. We experienced sixteen exceptional concerts, which is really unusual in this industry, “singer Jiří Cerha told Práva just after the end of the last performance.
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The almost three-quarter-hour concert marathon with a break dividing it into two parts began with a pictorial recollection of the group’s key groups, as well as the most prominent personalities who went through the Spiritual Quintet. Two members of the band who have left this world in recent months, Dušan Vančura (died last year) and František Nedvěd (died this year), also appeared in the films accompanied by the songs.
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In addition, Jiří Tichota was surprised that his star was set up by a star like Dagmar Pecková.
Photo: Jan Handrejch, Law
“Let me be the last of the first sets to welcome you to the last concert,” said guitarist Jiří Tichota after the opening song. In 1960, he founded a group called the Spiritual Quartet with three other friends from the University Art Choir.
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“The lantern is complete, unfortunately this is not the case on our stage. One microphone, behind which Dušan Vančura was standing, is missing. He won’t be here, but his songs will, “Tichota continued.
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The spiritual quintet played their most famous songs.
Photo: Jan Handrejch, Law
The first two concerts from the entire farewell series took place last year and Vančura was still at the microphone. Last April, during the lockdown, however, he died unexpectedly, so all subsequent concerts were a great memory of him.
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“We are happy that, like our first concert, the last one is taking place at a time of growing hope,” Tichota added, referring to the results of the last parliamentary elections.
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From left Jiří Holoubek, Jiří Cerha and Zdenka Tichotová.
Photo: Jan Handrejch, Law
And then the six-member group offered one song after another, adding interesting stories or funny comments to many of them. Initially, no great farewell sentiment flowed from the stage among the spectators, but rather the joy of music, wonderful polyphonic singing, well-being and the desire to really enjoy the evening.
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About the song Cowboy’s Lament, Tichota revealed that it was the first studio recording of their former member Karel Zicha. And also that they played it in November 1963 at the Na Zábradlí Theater in Prague in honor of US President John Kennedy, when they learned during the concert that he had been shot while visiting Dallas.
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Subsequently, he welcomed opera singer Dagmar Pecková among the audience. At the end of the whole performance, to her surprise, he invited her to the stage to sing two songs with the band. She had met her on the scene in the past, so friendly relations were crowned in this way.
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A pleasant diversification was the so-called poem for three words by František Novotný, a long-time lyricist and collaborator of the Spiritual Quintet. In their shouts, the audience gave him the words “cave, baby, guinea pig and catamaran” and he wrote a poem with them during the next three songs, which he recited to enthusiastic audiences with the final thanks to the band for its existence.
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Jiří Tichota says goodbye to the audience.
Photo: Jan Handrejch, Law
The second part of the evening was broadcast live on Czech Radio. Jiří Tichota welcomed in the hall the music publicist Jiří Černý, who included the songs of the Spiritual Quintet in his radio show Houpačka at the beginning of his career. And then followed a series of unforgettable world traditions, spirituals, folk or bluegrass compositions provided mostly with Czech lyrics, each ending with a long-lasting applause.
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The grand finale began with the songs When the Right Returns to Us, The State Behind Your Truth and Kocábka. “The one who should thank is us,” Silence told the audience at that moment. “Without you, our work would be useless, without you, the song Spiritual Quintet would not be so long.”
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The audience did not want to let the six into the locker room and applauded her several times. “By stopping singing, we won’t stop singing. And if you ever want to just sing for yourself, remember the Spiritual Quintet, which has been here for sixty years, “Tichota said at the end and thanked Veronika Součková, Zdence Tichotová, Jiří Cerh, Jiří Holoubek and Pavel Peroutek, another member of the band.
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Leaving. On the left Jiří Tichota, on the right long-time lyricist of the band František Novotný.
Photo: Jaroslav Špulák, Právo
All the spectators in Lucerna were already standing on their feet and applauding the farewell group that began writing the history of Czechoslovak folk in the 1960s. Each of its members took a bouquet of sixty red roses backstage, and at the end, Fresh Wind was heard.
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“I am convinced that none of us who stood on stage tonight and played in the Spiritual Quintet for ten, fifteen or sixty years will ever experience anything like this in the musician’s life. It is unrepeatable. I once heard that the Spiritual Quintet is not only a band, but also a cultural and social phenomenon. When I was a member, I resisted. Now I can say that I agree, “said guitarist and singer Jiří Holoubek after the concert of Práva.
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Then he sat down with his music colleagues at the tables and the spectators who were interested, signed together for the last time.
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