BEDRICH SMETANA: Gabriela Benackova; Peter Dvorsky; Richard Novak; Miroslav Kopp;Marie Vesela; Jindrich Jindrak; Marie Mrazova; Jaroslav Horacek;Jana Jonasova; Alfred Hampl; Prague National Theatre Ballet; Prague National theatre Opera Chorus; Czech Philharmonic/Zdenek Kosle BEDRICH SMETANA: the Bartered Bride, opera in 3 acts.NTSC All Region 4:3; Color; Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitled in Czech, English, German, French; Approx 137 mins.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Trotschel/Ludwig/Holm/Stern/Elmendorff/Sinfonie Orchester Des Hessischen Rundfunks.

After the success of their Janacek album, the Energie Nove quartet presents a new release featuring works by Bedrich Smetana. "An exceptional [album] and one any admirer of this composer should hear. " (Nick Barnard, Musicweb International) Energie Nove is a string quartet based in Lugano, Switzerland. The quartet takes it's name from a radical early 20th century Italian political and literary magazine created by Piero Gobetti. Like the periodical, Energie Nove seeks to express the dynamism and the energy of the new. The four musicians are of diverse background and have each won numerous competitions and performed at the highest level. They have come together to animate the music through new and creative interpretations. The four members of Energie Nove are Hans Liviabella, Barbara Ciannamea, Ivan Vukcevic and Felix Vogelsang. Respectively, they play on the violins by A. Stradivari (1708) and L. Ventapane, a viola by C. F. Landolfi (1753) and a cello by Don Nicol� Amati (1730).

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This DVD includes a documentary on the renown Smetana Quartet and also includes performance footage by the quartet of Smetana's String Quartet #1 in E Minor and Quartet #2 in D Minor, along with Dvorak's Sextet in a Major, Op. 48.

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The characters and mainly their inner life was so autonomous and convincing that it made his final work timeless. He transformed the medieval subject matter of love at first sight into a hymn about defiance and freedom. He equipped the opera with well-arranged leitmotifs and made his characters musically vivid far beyond what the text had offered.

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The recording captures the quartet as if they were in your living room... This is the kind of album that makes record reviewing the best job in the world. (Gramophone Awards) "These performances set a new standard and reveal so much of what makes these quartets unique." (BBC Music Magazine) "This is extraordinarily bold playing - and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music." (Gramophone) "In their native repertoire they are�well-nigh�incomparable." (The Sunday Times) When the most prominent critics across the board concur in the opinion that an album is extraordinary, it certainly deserves to be released on vinyl. Although Smetana's chamber pieces are�few in number, each of them - personal, many a time harboring a bold autobiographical statement - constitutes one of the cornerstones of Czech chamber music. Smetana wrote his two quartets in the twilight of his life, when he was afflicted by deafness. String Quartet No. 1, "From My Life", is a�programme�work: "My aim was to depict in tones the course of my life... The piece is of an intimate nature; therefore I deliberately wrote it for 4 instruments, which should converse as though within a close circle of friends..." Owing to it's being composed in an unconventional manner, String Quartet No. 2 comes across as a 20th-century work. The Pavel Haas Quartet's award-winning album has been released by�Supraphon�for vinyl fans and lovers of perfect sound on a top-quality LP, supplemented by a Hi-Res digital version. Smetana's intimate and timeless music, as performed by the Pavel Haas Quartet - for the first time on vinyl

The recording of the concert performance in Nazi-occupied Prague of Bedrich Smetana’s My Country (SU 4065-2) conducted by Václav Talich, which took place on 5 July 1939, drew considerable attention worldwide (Special Historic Gramophone Award 2012). It seemed that Talich’s discography had thus been rounded off for good. Yet the personal effects of the late soprano Marie Podvalová, renowned for her outstanding portrayal of Princess Libuše, provided yet another gem. A week prior to the mentioned performance of My Country, on 29 May 1939 a recording was made at the National Theatre of Talich’s account of Smetana’s opera Libuše. Fragments of Act 3 have been reconstructed from the miraculously surviving foils (the present album also contains the 1940 recording of the Overture). In 1939, Libuše’s prophecy in Act 3 of Smetana’s opera must have sounded to Czech ears like an immensely bold declaration of national pride and courage. Although incomplete and far from being perfect in terms of the quality of sound, the recording’s value is truly immense. It is the one and only recording of an opera conducted by Talich, the oldest surviving transmission of an opera performance from the National Theatre in Prague, and the last staging of Libuše during the Nazi occupation before its performances were strictly banned. The audience’s long tumultuous applause and spontaneous singing of the national anthem attest to the moment’s enormous emotional gravity, imbuing the recording with exceptional energy. Talich’s unique account of Libuše – a bold manifestation of national pride and bravery in 1939 in Nazi-occupied Prague