Nadežda Földváriová, rod. Pavlíková

"Then people from the publishing house told me ... there we were a large group of young people that “What are you worried about, you want to die here, come to our academy " there you choose a topic and you are yourself ... so I decided and went to the academy as an ear, also as a beginner ... a much lower salary, but it was freedom, it was freedom. In what year did you go to the academy? I could ...I was thirty-two years old. I know it seemed to me that I was starting late, but which year it was. Sixty-fourth, I think so. It was just the beginning of the sixties, and that's when I started writing a lot at the composers' union. I also became friends with that group of new music. I was also friend with Peter Faltín, maybe you know the name. Very good ... also from the Jewish community and a very talented guy, unfortunately he died quite young. We went together to Warsaw with such Czech youth for the "Warsaw Autumn", there was a variety of contemporary music, it really caught us. I came and started writing about it and stuff ... but the sixty-eighth year came, I was banned from writing, and Kornel was no longer allowed to write for twenty years. His name was not allowed to appear at all, later also mine then, but also because of Kornel ... apparently the name was very unwanted. So what… And when did you actually get together with Kornel? It was still in that… That was before, we were already married. I ... we used to live in Štrkovec at that time. And in what year did you get together? At fifty-eight ... at fifty-nine we got married. So how was the birth of this beautiful relationship ... How did you get together with Kornel? Kornel was older than you… In a year only, we are peers. Yes, it is now ... when he died the first or second year, the book about himself was published, he wrote about it all there. This ... Krištúfek, who then unfortunately also tragically died, put it together, what and how, but these are already very old Kornel stories. It wasn't quite a dialogue. "

“Did you feel as a child a fear, at that time? Yes, well, yes. They must have been like that, especially when we saw ... Štefániková street was very important at this time, such an artery. They went from that ... from the station... they went to the city here ... they went to all those processions, I know. So, when the Germans came to Bratislava, for example, they marched there, I remember that. And then, when your father joined the Slovak National Uprising, you knew that he was actually part of the Slovak National Uprising when you moved to Zvolenská Slatina. Yes, we knew ... yes we went to the middle part of Slovakia, but with everything possible ... We just moved there. The headquarters, too, those people ... that headquarters was such a whole group there ... but you know, I don't know the details, I don't know. But I know, but for us it was a beautiful experience that year, because we were in the village. It was very nice there, but it was all in the hands of the parents then. That's the dramatic journey from there, I remember. Because it was like ... it was really scary. Because the death portended to us, actually the whole family, especially to father, but… And so do you remember how long the journey from… actually back to Bratislava from that Zvolenská Slatina took at this time… Well, basically day and night. It wasn't like today...just because we went by that toy car. We've gone in between ... Those partisans have taken us. We went up into the mountains, when the uprising was really creeping up, so we went up the Hrochotská valley with them, and I still remember that. That was also so threatening, really. Only they, themselves ... those partisans said to our father, "you better go back to the village, it doesn't look good anymore, here we go…" they basically go to those bunkers and so on. So then we came back, only there it rolled over, that is who we are. Because at that time there were just Germans ... somehow, but I do not know, I do not know where they were actually accommodated, because so… And when you returned to Bratislava to the original apartment? To Trnava to my grandmother ... to Trnava. We didn't go to Bratislava to ... so that ...In fact, in a way, we hid there. They knew in Bratislava, in fact they knew that we were from Bratislava, but it was already a really big disorganization, the end of the war was approaching. They were actually... they were not Russians, they were Romanians or something like this. There was quite a lot of chaus between the soldiers and the army that was coming, so they also had a lot of chaus in it, you could work there in anyway. Well, the first thing they did to Zeta, the poor little car, was taken from our yard, and I don't know if ten or fifteen of them came in, and we just found a car wreck around the corner. ”

“Well, in the meantime I went to the Academy. However, I didn't work there under my own name since I had a ban on activity. Besides my husband Kornel, I was also in a group active in music sphere, which was in blossom. New music started to pierce. We got to a bus with our friend and we traveled to Warsaw Autumn, where was new world music presented. We were touched. There were other composers aware of this and they were friends with the Polish people. Back then the Polish were leaders in such art. In the group were Roman Berger, Zeljenka, Malovec, who were personalities, writers, composers, thinkers. It was an amazing movement in thinking back then. I was thrilled by it and I also tried to compose. I wanted to reach deeper, what was prohibited back then. Well, I was among those being excluded from the Union, so my name was also cast aside. Well, in the end, it is not just about the name.”

“They deprived the man of the most productive years. Years, when the man began to work, found success, discovered something new, had a great zeal, and suddenly, got a ban on activity. It was awful regime. It truly struck those, who were able to set up something new. All of this was stopped. Very strange era. And yet after those years are gone, the man realizes how it really was. In the meantime, the line goes on and the creativity doesn't stop in a man. It is an amazing gift, such creativity. Creativity is that a human can participate on something like is the creation of the world. And when one has it rooted inside, it drives him forward, since he feels to owe that. When I can compose and I know how to do it, I simply have to do it. Talent is not only a gift, but also a curse, as it still holds the man in tautness. So it doesn't depend on the form, but on the fact it actually exists. This way it may never perish and whenever possible, it shall be revealed again.”

“Partisans sent us back as it began to be too dangerous. We went down to the village. However, there were Germans already, and they found out that our father wasn't quite kosher. One German used to come to our house to play piano. Not for long. Just for a week or two after they came. The Germans were everywhere. This was such an interesting man, though. He told us: 'Well, we have already lost the war; I have also two beautiful daughters at home, so maybe I could just play the piano to make myself happy for a while.' This way he used to come every evening and play the piano. Once he came and said to my father: 'Go away from here immediately. You are on the morning list.' The Germans were about to shoot him. They wanted to shoot all partisans in the village. 'You know, I shouldn't tell you this, but you shall save your life, if you manage to escape until the morning.' We had a small car, so we got on wearing just sweatpants, not taking anything with us. My mom just took some suitcase. Nothing else was in it, but old photographs. And with those pictures and in sweatpants we went through the front line, because the fight was on already. We had to run down to the trench every time the planes flew above us.”