This recording, although relatively new, is one of the rarest gems in the Supraphon archives. After the initial positive reactions the extraordinary quality of the recording was confirmed by prestigious Gramophone Awards; in addition to winning the chamber music category, the young ensemble also brought home from London the top prize: Recording of the Year. Eight years after the first edition, Supraphon is releasing this delicacy for true audiophiles. Dvorák’s mature works perhaps best mirror the ensemble’s extraordinary qualities: the equilibrium between precision and spontaneity, the remarkable ensemble playing, and the solo potential of all of the individual players. At the end of the draft of his Quartet Op. 96, Antonín Dvorák wrote the comment: “I’m satisfied; it went quickly…” Soon after the “New World Symphony”, he composed one of the most beautiful of all string quartets while still in America – and the critics were unsparing in their praise. For the Pavel Haas Quartet, both the “American” Quartet and the following Quartet Op. 106, the first work composed after the composer’s return home from America, are literally affairs of the heart. According to the Sunday Times: “In this repertoire, they are simply matchless today.” Dvorák might even have written his comment “I’m satisfied” about this recording as well.

When the ORFEO label was established in Munich forty years ago, surely no one with the music scene back then would have predicted that the record company would develop into a firmly established player on the classical music market. One of the label’s main priorities in the early years was vocal music, with opera rarities top of the list and since the mid 1980s the re-use of historic tape recordings. Big names featured on the label’s own productions, while ORFEO also developed into a talent factory by discovering and nurturing young artist. This “ORFEO 40th Anniversary” 2-album sampler well reflects these two sides of the label by combining highlight tracks of historical recordings with today’s global stars.

For its second vinyl release, PHI has chosen to reissue one of Philippe Herreweghe’s most masterly interpretations: Antonín Dvorak’s ineffable Stabat Mater, for which the conductor and his ensembles, the Collegium Vocale Gent and the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, were praised by public and press alike – Editor’s Choice in Gramophone, 4F Telerama, 4 stars in Classica, Le Choix de France Musique, and 10 in Luister and Klara, to name but a few of the distinctions it earned. "With the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, [Philippe Herreweghe and his Collegium Vocale Gent] rid this rarely recorded work of all Romantic excess. The result is a spiritual journey... highlighting the universal greatness of this major work of sacred music.” (CHOIX de France Musique) "All of Herreweghe’s performers clearly love this ravishing music, relishing every detail of this beautifully nuanced score... This new release must be the top choice." (Gramophone Editor’s Choice, Recording of the Month) "The serenity Dvorak succeeded in reclaiming is particularly present in the movements reserved for the choir, and especially so here with the interventions of Collegium Vocale Gent, possibly the only European ensemble . . . that currently offers such purity of timbre, perfection of intonation and accuracy of expression." (4F Teleram)

Seven years after their triumph with quartets by Dvorák, the Pavel Haas Quartet are making a triumphant return to Dvorák’s music. For the recording of the quintets, they have invited two guests: the pianist Boris Giltburg (winner of the 2013 Queen Elisabeth Competition) and Pavel Nikl, a founding member of the Pavel Haas Quartet. Dvorák composed his Second Piano Quintet at his beloved summer residence Vysoká late in the summer of 1887. The famed critic Eduard Hanslick received the work’s performance in Vienna enthusiastically: “It is one of his most beautiful works. It is real Dvorák.” The String Quintet, Op. 97, although younger by just six years, represents an entirely “different Dvorák”. After the New World Symphony and the American Quartet, it is Dvorák’s third work composed while in North America. And what did Hanslick have to say this time? “It is perhaps the simplest, most natural, and happiest music composed since the days of Haydn.” The degree to which the Pavel Haas Quartet feels at home with Dvorák’s music is shown by the many awards their recordings have received (Diapason d’Or, BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month, Gramophone Award nomination). "Another Pavel Haas Quartet [album], another triumph.” (Gramophone)

This collection from the legacy of Jirí Belohlávek was put together during the year after the demise of this outstanding conductor. It is intended mainly as a recollection of this extraordinary musician and person. His life can be briefly described by enumerating the greatest of his achievements (Chief Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, guest conductor with the Berliner Philharmoniker, New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, appearances at the MET, Glyndebourne, etc.; holder of the Commander of the Order of the British Empire /CBE/ title). The Maestro himself may have preferred a sharing of memories to recordings; yet the set of twenty-three pieces taken from the almost three hundred pieces from Supraphon archives and recorded in the years 1971 – 2016 is a wonderful illustration of Belohlávek’s professional maturing. They capture him as a conductor of several leading Czech orchestras, beginning with the Brno Philharmonic Orchestra and concluding by the Czech Philharmonic and Prague Philharmonia. In the very centre of Belohlávek’s repertoire we find compositions by Dvorák (From the New World), Smetana (My Country), Suk, Janácek and, notably, Martinu, whom he introduced to the world. The collection is enriched by several side-steps into other areas of repertoire including Mozart, Ravel, Mahler and Bartók, which documents the amazing scope of the conductor’s focus.

This album is dedicated to Czech composers. The first is Antonin Dvorak, who wrote his Moravian Duets in 1875 and 1876. The original idea was to arrange folk melodies from the collection of Frantisek Susil, but Dvorak eventually decided to use just the folk texts, setting them to music by himself. The resulting work in a way marked the beginning of his worldwide recognition. Although the genre of duets for two women’s voices and piano is well known today thanks chiefly to Dvorak, in its time it was cultivated by other composers too. Among them by Dvorak’s contemporary and friend Karel Bendl, whose “Dvanact dvojzpevu” (Twelve Duets) are settings of mostly lyrical texts by Vitezslav Halek from the collection “V prirode” (In Nature) and were probably written in the second half of the 1870s. The last cycle is The Slovak Duets by one of the most important contemporary Czech composers Sylvie Bodorova. Working with the rhythmic aspect of her music and layering her polyphony are typical features of her approach. She has also found inspiration in Roma, Jewish, and contemporary approach to folk (especially East European and Balkan) music, as well as other areas of the music of our time. The works here are sung by Hana Dobesova and Michaela Rozsa Ruzickova, accompanied by pianist Ladislava Vondrackova, and were recorded live at Martinu Hall, Academy of Performing Arts in Prague.