Receiving great acclaim worldwide along with the most noteworthy triumphs, the Czech Chamber Orchestra, revived by Jozef Vlach, brings us Legendary Recordings. Josef Vlach is far from being as well known as he deserves to be. Vlach co-founded the orchestra at the age of 23 after Vaclav Talich was falsey accused of collaborating with the Nazis and was banned from working with the Czech Philharmonic. The maestro was known for requiring the utmost artistic quality, diligence and engagement from his musicians. Under his supervision, the orchestra performed in Osaka in 1960, the Salzburger Festpiele in 1962, toured in USA, Germany, the UK and many other countries.

Janácek was one of the most distinguished composers of the 20th century, with his operas enjoying particular renown all over the world. Yet he has bequeathed us precious few pieces for independent symphony orchestra. Hence, a number of conductors have striven to expand this limited repertoire by creating suites from his operas. This album features such treatments of his three major musical dramas. Jenufa was the first opera to be set to a prose text. The globally celebrated piece reflected the sorrow Janácek felt after the death of his two beloved children and gave rise to a deep person crisis. Similarly to Jenufa, it too met with rejection and would only be premiered thirty years after the composer's death. Katya Kabanova is one of the greatest Janácek works and one of the most beautiful lyric operas of the twentieth century and beyond.

Classical Music

Twenty-six year old violinist Josef Špaček is fast emerging as one of the most talented virtuosos of his generation, and for his Supraphon debut he’s chosen works by Slavonic composers. The pianist Miroslav Sekera is a wonderful partner to Špaček on the recording, as are the superb and inspiring acoustics of the Dvořák Hall of Prague’s Rudolfinum.

Shostakovich - his music is a challenge each and every quartet sooner or later has to face up to. Yet when it comes to the Pavel Haas Quartet, it seems to be in their very DNA. The ensemble's unbridled, impulsive and, now and then, frenetic energy, sense for extreme contrast, ability to bring to bear gradation from breath-taking subtlety and tenderness to symphonic drama are facets essentially incident to Shostakovich's music. Although composed in safety, away from the horrors of World War II, String Quartet No. 2 (1944) reflects the suffering, uncertainty and anxiety of living at the time (the lyrical Recitative of the second movement, as performed by Veronika Jaru�kov�, the first violin). Both dating from 1960, String Quartets Nos. 7 and 8 are truly intimate confessions. While Shostakovich dedicated the former (the shortest piece of the cycle) to the memory of his first wife, he most likely intended the latter as his own epitaph, at the time when be hovered on the thin line between life and death. Attesting to the autobiographical nature of String Quartet No. 8 is the opening DSCH motif, Shostakovich's musical signature, which reoccurs throughout the piece. The Pavel Haas Quartet surpass the abyss of time, as well as the barrier of personal physical existence, delving into the very centre of Shostakovich's music and reflecting the full scale of emotions with airiness, as if the music were their own. The Pavel Haas Quartet and (in truth) their Shostakovich. At long last!

When Beethoven assigned the opus number one to his three piano trios, it was evident that the then 22-year-old composer would explore, advance and co-create the composition rules, and that he would very nearly transcend that which was comprehensible to his contemporaries. Upon hearing the first private performance of Op. 1, Joseph Haydn purportedly voiced his doubts as to whether the ordinary listener would be able to understand No. 3. Beethoven experimented with this combination of instruments too – with the form, harmonies and other facets. The Piano Trio in D major, Op. 70 No. 1 may have had its roots in sketches for an opera based on Shakespeare’s drama Macbeth that Beethoven was contemplating at the time. The spectral music of the slow movement, featuring strange modulations and said to be a reworking of the Witches Chorus intended for the opera, earned the piece the nickname “Ghost Trio”. In the “Archduke Trio”, Op. 97, Beethoven emancipated all the instruments, providing each equal scope to apply their technical qualities and possibilities of expression. Its first performance, in April 1814, was the penultimate public concert Beethoven, at the time almost deaf, gave as a pianist. The 250th anniversary of one of the greatest composers of all time was an irresistible impulse for the Smetana Trio. Their new addition to the Beethoven discography possesses all the parameters of the ensemble’s previous, highly acclaimed recordings and will undoubtedly cause quite a stir- Beethoven’s chamber music through the lens of the Smetana Trio.

The greatest Czech composers – Dvorák, Smetana, Janácek, Suk, Martinu ... And anyone else? Yes, Vítezslav Novák! Who was he? A pupil of Dvorák’s, later on one of the most distinguished music creators and teachers on the domestic scene. A Post-Romantic and the first of the generation of Modernists profoundly inspired by Moravian folk music. This year’s 150th anniversary of Novák’s birth affords the opportunity to take a closer look at his oeuvre – and to rediscover that which has been overlooked. The idea of making the first studio recording of the Piano Concerto, a remarkable early work by the 25-year-old Novák, was enthusiastically endorsed by the superb Czech pianist Jan Bartoš. Due to its intimate nature, At Dusk, Op. 13, a cycle of miniatures for solo piano, inspired by J. S. Machar’s poetry, stands in contrast to the concerto’s virtuosic stylization. The tone poem Toman and the Wood Nymph may be deemed the most ambitious of Novák’s symphonic works. As the composer himself put it, he strove to express an “uncontrollable torrent of wild passion”, referring to the piece as an “orgy of sound” and the ballad as a “depiction of woman’s demonic power over man”. Jakub Hruša, a globally renowned contemporary conductor, invites us to rediscover Novák’s music: “We are obliged to perform it. His music is so profound and far-reaching that we simply cannot ignore it and let it gather dust in archives and remain buried in music history textbooks.”

In their native repertoire they are well nigh incomparable. I have not heard an account of “From My Life” that prepares us so starkly, in its turbulent opening Allegro vivo appassionato, for its tragic outcome. And it’s hard to imagine a more compelling or harrowing take on the less frequently programmed D minor quartet.

– Sunday Times

The quartet understand absolutely the plasticity of Smetana’s vision and convey it unerringly, unshrinkingly – and in some ways even more convincingly than the Talich, which is saying something. This is extraordinarily bold playing – and they truly capture the sense that Smetana is writing symphonic quartet music.

– Gramophone

The Czech Republic can boast of a Christmas repertoire both ample and colorful, dating from at least the Baroque era. + A notable composer then active was Josef Antonín Sehling (1710-56), who in his day was Kapellmeister of several Prague churches, including the Church of Our Lady under the Chain, where the present world premiere recording was made. + This album features pieces intended for the period from Advent to Epiphany. + Sehling’s music contains the magic of Adam Michna’s 17th c. songs yet concurrently opens upon a world familiar from Jakub Ryba’s most famous late 18thc. Christmas Mass.

Classical Music

Classical Music

The highly valued discography of Ivan Moravec (1930-2015), one of the 20th century’s piano legends, comes to a great extent from recording studios. However, thanks to radio microphones some of his remarkable concert performances in Prague concert halls could be retrieved as well. From 1962 on, he performed twenty times at the Prague Spring festival alone. He played Prokofiev’s first concerto at the festival in May 1967 and the recording captures one of the top – and also one of the last – performances of Karel Ancerl with the Czech Philharmonics before his leaving for Toronto. The Ravel recording from May 1974 represents another unforgettable musical experience and no doubt also one of the best Ravel creations ever performed by Moravec. What is more, the recording of the Grieg concert played in December 1984 is the only recording made public by the virtuoso pianist. Microphones have captured Ivan Moravec in his top shape, his play possessing romantic flight, ferocity and a wide range of timbre nuances on the one hand, and remarkable preciseness on the other. At every moment, Moravec is deeply sunk in the substance of the work he performs. By this threesome of recordings, Supraphon supplements the pianist’s existing discography by unexpected gems found in the radio archives, undoubtedly pleasing all of his admirers.

REVIEW:

These three performances, recorded live with applause retained, do not lack brilliance. But there is an enviable solidity of tone, a seriousness of view, and evident care taken over pacing, balance, and style. These are all features of the Moravec manner that appeal to his admirers.

-- MusicWeb International

Nearly 1,000 kilometres separate Hole�ov, Moravia, from Strasbourg. Franz Xaver Richter's professional journey started in Count Rottal's court orchestra in Hole�ov and ended in the prestigious post of Kapellmeister at the Cath�drale Notre-Dame in Strasbourg. He is primarily known as one of the major representatives of the renowned Mannheim School, with his "trumpet" Sinfonia No. 52 in D being a typical example of the late Mannheim form. The grandiose Te Deum, featured on the present album, is Richter's second setting of the hymn and was first performed in 1781 in Strasbourg, during the celebrations marking the centenary of the city's coming under French administration. Along with the motet Exsultate Deo, the piece falls within the composer's vocal-instrumental oeuvre, which has yet to be explored (and, just as in the case of Jan Dismas Zelenka's music, contains many unexpected twists and turns). The virtuoso, engrossing and masterfully balanced Oboe Concerto with the original cadenzas represents Richter's concertante style. Following their premiere recordings of Richter's Requiem and the Passion oratorio La Deposizione dalla croce di Ges� Cristo, the present Czech Ensemble Baroque album maps another part of the remarkable 18th-century composer's work. Newly discovered gems from Franz Xaver Richter's undeservedly overlooked oeuvre.

After more than eighty years, Supraphon has revived it's historical sublabel bearing the name of ARTONA and released it's first title: PRAGUE CLASSICS - a musical souvenir from Prague. Originally, ARTONA was a sublabel of the ULTRAPHON gramophone company, predecessor of today's SUPRAPHON publishing house. For the first time this label appeared in the spring of 1932 bearing the supplementary characteristics of "local product". The main reason for establishing the side label was Ultraphon's effort to come up with recordings that might appeal to the general public both by their contents and price. Supraphon now re-introduces this sublabel with the aim of publishing compilations that will please the lovers of the most famous and popular melodies offered by classical music. On the present release, A Musical Souvenir from Prague, experience the magic atmosphere of Prague through the works of classical music written by composers who were in one way or other connected with Prague. We offer you here a musical walkthrough with Anton�n Dvor�k, Bedrich Smetana, Leo� Jan�cek, Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Gustav Mahler as well as leading Czech orchestras and ensembles. Quite rightly, Prague is considered to be one of most beautiful European cities. It's monuments including the Prague Castle, the Charles Bridge, the astronomical clock of the Old Town City Hall or the Old Jewish Cemetery make the "golden city" one of the most frequently visited tourist destinations in Europe. Prague's unique charm also attracts artists from all over the world and it's "genius loci" has inspired a number of composers both locally and internationally. Allow the city and it's music to charm you too!

Josef Myslivecek has most frequently been mentioned in connection with W. A. Mozart (who, for a certain time, viewed him as a model and inspiration) and is best known for his operas. At the age of 26, he left Prague for Italy, where four years later, in Naples, he celebrated his first triumph, with the opera Il Bellerofonte (1767). A prolific and gifted composer, Myslivecek also wrote instrumental music, including symphonies and chamber pieces. His first cycle of string quartets was published in Paris in 1768, the final one in Amsterdam, shortly after his death. These works were often performed in extended formations as symphonies. Myslivecek's quartets are characterized by wonderfully refined slow middle movements. Even more unique are his oboe quintets. For a long time, they were only known owing to Leopold Mozart's reference to them in a letter to his son Wolfgang, dated October 1777 - Myslivecek wanted Leopold Mozart to offer his quintets and other pieces to the Archbishop of Salzburg. Only due to the initiative of the performers featured on this album, primarily the oboist Michaela Hrab�nkov� and V�clav Dvor�k, the first violinist of the Dole�al Quartet, have the missing oboe parts for three of the six quintets been retrieved in private collections across Europe. The CD thus contains world premiere recordings of rediscovered Myslivecek works, whose significance is further enhanced by a stylistically sensitive interpretation. Our picture of "Il divino Boemo", whom the renowned music historian Charles Burney ranked alongside such masters as Hasse, Gluck and Haydn, is now more complete - and more beautiful. Previously unheard Myslivecek: newly rediscovered oboe quintets

Traditional Czech and Moravian carols, Christmas canticles from Czech Baroque hymnbooks, old European Advent and Christmas songs, and Jaroslav Krcek's original songs. The highly acclaimed Christmas album Nativitas is now joined by a new festive album, bearing the title Exaltatio. While in Colloquial Latin the word means "exaltation" and "elation", in Christian theology it has a more profound connotation: "elevation". The mezzo-soprano Dagmar Peckov� has recorded yet another Christmas-themed album, featuring Czech and other European carols and folk songs hailing the Nativity. At Christmas, people feel much closer to one another than at any other time of the year, and it has been so for centuries. The special seasonal atmosphere is what French, German, English and Polish songs have in common. Peckov� has again reached for Baroque hymnbooks, in which piety combines with a majestic sublime mood. The album also encompasses much more high-spirited and poetic folk carols. Jaroslav Krcek has made stylistic arrangements, whose singular signature relates to Musica Bohemica. The release features several Baroque-inspired pieces he himself has composed. The magic of Christmas evidently continues to be celebrated by contemporary creators. Dagmar Peckov�'s new Christmas album: 30 carols and songs from Bohemia, Moravia and other European regions

Starring Pavel Sporcl.

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

Antonín Dvorák needs no introduction – neither in his homeland nor anywhere else in the world. But how widely known are his piano works? The Piano Concerto in G minor has recently enjoyed a degree of revived interest, yet Dvorák’s pieces for solo piano are in the main an unexplored landscape even for many pianists and musicologists. More’s the pity! They do not possess Chopin’s sway and finely nuanced emotionality, or Liszt’s ostentatious virtuosity. Just as he did in his entire oeuvre, in his piano works Dvorák eschewed flashiness, focusing instead on tender intimate lyricism, teeming with ideas, and shaping even his miniatures with the sensibility of a genius. Such music is certainly worthy of a new complete recording. The challenge was undertaken by Ivo Kahánek, an artist whose recording of Dvorák’s difficult Piano Concerto made with the Bamberger Symphoniker conducted by Jakub Hruša has deservedly gained critical acclaim and even won the coveted BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award. The present 4-album set encompasses cycles (Silhouettes, Poetic Moods and the Suite in A major, composed in the US, which Dvorák himself valued greatly), occasional pieces, as well as several little-known works, recorded for the very first time. One such is the polka Forget-me-not, Dvorák’s first surviving miniature, written when he was 14 years of age. The recording of piano works provides yet another precious insight into the abundant world of the composer’s soul. Dvorák’s rich inner world expressed through the piano.

On their previous Supraphon recordings, harpist Katerina Englichova and oboist Vilem Veverka sufficiently proved their outstanding performance qualities as well as informed interest in such mutually remote music worlds as the Baroque and the 20th century modernism. The present recording - their first made in dues - reflects more than twelve years of their performing together in concerts. The not-so-common combination of oboe and harp provides an endless scale of timres and the resulting impression is marked both by frailness and confident virtuosity. Ravel's "Le Tombeau de Couperin" is the crucial piece on the album and represents the composer's memories of his friends lost in the First World War. Little musical gems written by Ravel and Debussy resound here in sensitive arrangements which have enriched the compositions by new timbre qualities. "Primavera" composed by Lubos Sluka was composed explicitly for the Englichova - Veverka duo and appears here in premiere recording.

To mark the 180th anniversary of Antonín Dvorák’s birth, Supraphon has released a special 3-album set. Presenting a wide selection of the composer’s chamber, orchestral and vocal works, it contains recordings made by superb musicians in the second half of the 20th century that are still exemplary and unrivalled in many a respect. Dvorák is paid tribute to by renowned Czech Philharmonic conductors (Talich, Ancerl, Neumann, Belohlávek, Sawallisch, Mackerras, and others), instrumentalists (Rostropovich, May, Suk and Panenka), singers (Soukupová, Benacková, Urbanová, Blachut, Novák), choirmasters (Jan and Pavel Kühn), as well as the Prague, Dvorák, Smetana and Panocha Quartets. The album’s repertoire was compiled by Patrick Lambert, a former long-time music editor and BBC Radio 3 producer, a great lover and connoisseur of Czech music, who focused on the themes to which Antonín Dvorák had a strong, passionate affinity: the Nation and Homeland, the Slavonic Soul, Nature, God and Religion, Family and Humour. Besides widely known opuses (yet in lesser-known recordings), the album features many beautiful Dvorák pieces that are not performed overly often, including the cycles In Nature’s Realm, Love Songs and Poetic Moods, the Serenade for Wind Instruments, and scenes from the operas Dimitrij and The Jacobin. As Patrick Lambert puts it: “The new album is for everyone who wants to revel in the sheer diversity and profundity of Dvorák’s music.” Antonín Dvorák at his most beautiful – through the eyes of a great connoisseur and lover of his music

“And the sculptor fixes the likeness of a face in clay. And you walked by and passed before his work, and you glanced at the face and then walked on your way. And then it happened that you were not quite the same. Slightly changed, but changed.” The motto Bohuslav Martinů chose from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry’s Citadelle for one of his Parables also poetically defines the transformational power of his final orchestral opuses. Following the six symphonies composed in the USA, he wrote them in Europe, much closer to his homeland. The orchestral triptych Les Fresques de Piero della Francesca was inspired by the work of the Italian Renaissance master. As Martinů himself put it: “The frescoes harbor a peculiar kind of solemn and rigid tranquility, abounding in strange, serene and moving poetry; it is the darkened colored atmosphere I strove to express in music.” The Parables is another piece in which Martinů reflected his philosophical ideas, with each of its three movements treating an allegory of life and human quest in the world. The symphonic prelude The Rock refers to the landing place of the English settlers who came to North America in 1619, as well as Martinů’s own fate as a homeless pilgrim. Martinů’s very last symphonic work, Estampes, comes across more as a fine drawing interwoven with silence than an impasto, as is the case of his previous orchestral pieces. These brilliant, extraordinary Martinů works are yet to gain the recognition they so richly deserve. The new Supraphon recording, made by the Prague Radio Symphony Orchestra under the renowned conductor Tomáš Netopil, affords hope that this will be set right. It would be a pity to miss out on such beauty. Bohuslav Martinů’s late pinnacles – beauty and profundity yet to be discovered.

REVIEW:

Supraphon has very good recordings of all of this music, and their lack of availability hitherto was concerning; but if the idea is to replace those older versions with excellent new ones such as this, we should be fine. This release features the lion’s share of Martinů’s last major orchestral works, all composed between 1953 and his death in 1959. The brief, neo-baroque Overture was written in 1953, after which the composer forgot about it completely. He literally had no recollection of it at all, and it’s delightful, but it’s the four bigger works that really seal the deal.

The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca, The Rock (as in Plymouth and the Pilgrims), The Parables and the Estampes (“Prints”) are all cut from the same cloth. It doesn’t matter what the alleged “program” is. They are by turns dreamy, rhythmically energetic, lyrical and somehow disturbing. Just listen to them as pure music. Martinů had a gift at writing in a style that features a mesmerizing, hallucinatory quality that nevertheless moves with a kind of hypnotic, irresistible energy. All four of these pieces share this special atmosphere.

Happily, they are all splendidly played and recorded here. The Frescoes, in particular, has been recorded numerous times, but this version stands with the best. Netopil takes his time over the first movement, only to permit us to revel in its lush proliferation of tiny coloristic details, but the finale has plenty of excitement. In other words, Netopil charts a knowing and confident path through these haunting and evocative pieces; and as a perfect introduction to music of the composer’s last decade, this release is tough to beat.

– ClassicsToday.com (David Hurwitz)

Classical Music

This is a recoupling made even more desirable than on its original issue by the inclusion of The Specter's Bride, Martinu's retelling of the same story set by Dvorák about a young girl who runs away with her dead lover's ghost, only to be rescued at the last minute from the cemetery by the arrival of dawn. It's a wonderful piece, as fine in its own way as Dvorák's setting, and, at half an hour, much shorter. Including it in this two-disc set makes a perfect program organized around settings of Czech folk poetry, the Dandelion Romance and The Primrose being two much shorter but very charming further examples.

The main attraction, however, is Špalícek, a ballet with songs in which each of the three acts incorporates the telling of a fairy tale, enhanced by plenty of additional dancing and commentary framing the main stories. The music is invariably appealing and rhythmically vivacious, Martinu in his most bubbly folk/neo-classical mode--and if you enjoy the suite (recorded by Mackerras on Conifer) then you will surely find the complete work equally enchanting.

All of the performances here are excellent in every respect. None of the soloists, save bass Richard Novák, are at all well known, but it doesn't matter a bit, while the conductors are veterans who can be counted on to deliver consistently idiomatic and persuasive results. Given the wide variety of forces--from full orchestra with chorus and soloists in The Specter's Bride and Špalícek to solo violin, piano, and a small group of sopranos and altos in The Primrose--the engineering is quite good. A major Martinu release, for sure.

--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com