"Of course, they had to stop meeting because they had their own problems, because those workers and those communists started going around those villages and luring them into that cooperative, into that JZD. Always after working hours, when they were the most tired, these workers would come in and walk into their houses and persuade them to go to that JZD. Those who didn't have land went there, those who had land tried not to go there. And they gave them such huge compulsory rations that they had to fulfil. Like mostly my grandpa was not able to fulfil it, so the result was always, if he didn't fulfil it, he got a fine and he could choose. Either go to jail or pay the fine. Well, my grandpa chose to go to jail. So, they locked him up for a few days. But what they did was they paraded him around town in that uniform so that people would see, just to scare people. It ended up that eventually grandpa had to go to that JZD, that was in the fifty-ninth year. When they got there, he was afraid he was going to do something unforeseen, so he ran away. My grandma, she was kneeling there in front of those communists as they were dragging those cows to that JZD. So, the result was that all the cattle were taken away, all the tools that were there, even the machinery, so they took that away too, and grandpa a member of the JZD. But they didn't even have enough money for wages at first. They eked out a living."
"He was an anaesthetist there and of course he missed playing there too, so he started a cimbalom band. And they toured all over the world with that cimbalom music. When there was some meeting of those Czechs who were emigrants, they invited them, and the cimbalom music came there and Jura Holásek played with them. They were in Switzerland, and in the Technik cimbalom band there was a cimbalom player who had emigrated and escaped, and they were playing in Switzerland, and the cimbalom player ran among the musicians and said: 'Guys, damn, I haven't heard this for so long!´ And now they were looking at him, and Jura said: 'Man, you can’t make yourself understood with them.´ He said: 'How come I can’t make myself understood?´ Because they were all Swedes. That it's not possible that they're playing our songs. He says: 'They play them, because I taught them.' – 'I wouldn't know.'"
"Well, I think that was completely out of the question, because I know that Břeclavánek, Jara Švach was in charge at that time. Jara Švach is a lifelong dancer of Břeclavan and an excellent singer, an impeccable dancer. But he was leading the Břeclavánek and at Christmas they were singing some carols and my mother came to him and said: 'Jara, please, can't you sing a proper carol?ʻ And Jara says: ʻMrs. Kůrečková, go to hell with your baby Jesus.ʻ And then the 1990 year came, and the children were singing carols and singing about baby Jesus and about the Lord God and about angels and she said: ʻSo, Jara, what? About baby Jesus, you still…?ʻ – ʻMrs. Kůrečková, it’s a different time.ʻ But other than that, Jara still is, he has been, in that ethnography and he’s a huge practitioner nowadays, yeah."
Folk musician Oldřich Kůrečka was born on 8 October 1950 in Brno. He comes from a peasant family in which folklore was an integral part of life. His grandfather, František Kůrečka, who came from the village of Znorovy (now Vnorovy), was personally acquainted with Leoš Janáček and also with Hynek Bím, who also collected folk songs. His parents, who were also involved in folklore, probably contributed to the awakening of his interest. His father Oldřich Kůrečka was the mayor of the Slovácký krúžek Stará Břeclav. The aforementioned club had great existential problems connected with the policies implemented after February 1948, when the communists decided that folklore would also become part of political propaganda. The group returned on stage several times over the next 20 years, but after 1968 it was definitively closed down. It was not until the 1990s that the Krúžek in Břeclav was restored. Oldřich Kůrečka’s narrative also focused on the ethnography itself and a considerable number of folk music personalities, such as Jura Holásek, who founded cimbalom music in emigration, Jožka Kobzík, the founder of Břeclavan, and the controversial Anežka Gorlová, whose lyrics, among other things, celebrated the building of agricultural cooperatives. Oldřich Kůrečka worked in many ensembles, for example after 1990 in Břeclavan. He was interested in the history of ethnography, but at the time of the interview he was also still active in folklore. In 2021 he lived in Opava.
Cimbalom music of Matěj Kůrečka, from left Oldřich Kůrečka, František Šulák, Juraj Peško, Eva Janovská, Libor Svačina and lead violinist - son Matěj Kůrečka, 2020
Cimbalom music of Matěj Kůrečka, from left Oldřich Kůrečka, František Šulák, Juraj Peško, Eva Janovská, Libor Svačina and lead violinist - son Matěj Kůrečka, 2020
