Ilja Hurník’s highly acclaimed recordings of Debussy and Ravel are released here for the first time on CD in a carefully remastered version. When listening to these recordings one will indeed be hard pressed to believe that they were made a full half-century ago. Hurník’s ninetieth birthday is an appropriate opportunity to recall them.

Musica Bohemica are celebrating their 40th anniversary, which is a fitting occasion to look back. The very first recording the ensemble made for Supraphon, the LP Drevo se hudbou odívá (Wood Attired in Music), released back in 1979, features several forcible folk texts (Vandrovali hudci, Horelo srdécko, etc.), to which the artistic director, Jaroslav Krcek, composed music with such sensitivity that many a listener still considers it folk tunes. The next Musica Bohemica album, Ceské a moravské lidové balady (Czech and Moravian Folk Ballads), includes traditional melodies in Krcek's arrangements, imbued with his singular signature and colourful instrumentation. Jaroslav Krcek also proved to be sure-footed when selecting the soloists; one would be hard pressed indeed to imagine better delivery. The anniversary album features pieces selected from the two early recordings, with some of them being released on CD for the very first time. The songs that have enchanted generations of Musica Bohemica listeners now come across in their full beauty. Musica Bohemica's anniversary commemorated with early recordings - a spell that does not wear off.

Antonín Dvořák’s op. 53 is now part of the repertoire for all the world’s great violinists. Josef Suk’s G minor Fantasy For Violin and Orchestra is a kind of virtuoso, rhapsodic symphonic poem. Janáček’s late, concise Violin Concerto, ‘The Wandering of the Soul’, combines great energy and urgency. Josef Špaček, the youthful concertmaster of the Czech Philharmonic, recorded these concerts live with “his” orchestra under its principal conductor Jiří Bělohlávek. The Forbes Magazine in the Czech Republic included Josef Špaček in their 2014 list of most influential “30 under 30” people.

Jirí Belohlávek (1946-2017) was an important worldwide ambassador of Bohuslav Martinu's music. For the Supraphon label alone he recorded nearly forty of Martinu's symphonic compositions, concertos, and stage works, and many of these were world premiere recordings. Despite large-scale plans, this recording also represents both the highpoint and the conclusion of Belohlávek's noteworthy discography of Martinu's works. The premiere recording of the opera-pastoral What Men Live By was made from three concert performances in December 2014. Martinu composed it to his own libretto in America at the turn of 1951-52, and he had a clear idea concerning it's performance: "It must not be played 'pathetically', but joyfully... The text strongly tempts one to come up with a very serious, 'deep' conception, but that is not what I had in mind. To me, it is a rather joyful work, and what the listener must feel is not some sort of religious moral (lesson), but instead joy. The moral is in fact in the joy." This recording of the Symphony No. 1 was made in January 2016, and it joins the earlier releases of Symphonies Nos. 3-6. It was part of a planned but unfortunately unfinished complete set of Martinu's late orchestral works. Belohlávek's tenure with the Czech Philharmonic during the last five years of his life was a very happy time for both parties, and it led to the development of new qualities in the orchestra's sound. This recording shall endure as living proof of what was a very special constellation of humanity and artistry.