Robert Schumann, a versatile, well-educated young artist destined for great things, a man whose music has always amazed with its extent and profundity ... and also a person of delicate psyche, which many a time led him to the very border between life and death.

He composed the Piano Quartet in C minor, his first piece of this ilk, at the age of 18, and although, notwithstanding his original intention, he would never remake it into a symphony, he still had it on his mind some 20 years later: “I vividly recollect a passage in one of my works (1828), which I thought was romantic, with a spirit different to that of old music that appeared to me as though opening up a new poetic life.”

The Piano Quartet in E flat major, Op. 47, already attests to Schumann’s compositional mastery, with its idiom inspired by Bach and Beethoven yet speaking in a clearly singular language. The 1853 Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Tale Narrations), was one of the composer’s last happy creative upswings, written shortly before he attempted suicide by jumping from a bridge into the river Rhine with the aim to put an end to his unbearable mental torment. The Dvorák Piano Quartet’s album spans the entire arch of Schumann’s work: the beginning, the peak and the end. Just like all his music, it shows how immense beauty is often close to pain and suffering. Immense beauty and anguish of the soul in Schumann’s chamber music.

In every way, a superior Brahms chamber release.

Their recording of the American Quartet and String Quartet No. 13, Op. 106 (Gramophone Award – Recording of the Year), elevated the Pavel Haas Quartet among the finest performers of Antonín Dvorák’s music. This position was subsequently confirmed by a recording of the composer’s quintets, made with the violist Pavel Nikl, a founding member of the ensemble, and the pianist Boris Giltburg, winner of the Queen Elisabeth Competition. The album received the most coveted classical music accolades (Gramophone Chamber Award, BBC Radio 3 Record Review Discs of the Year, Diapason d'Or, etc.). While recording the Dvorák quintets, the logical idea of a Brahms album was born. And now it has come to fruition.

Dvorák was encouraged by and ultimately attained global fame owing to the kind support and friendship of his older colleague Brahms, who in his twenties had been just as generously aided by Clara and Robert Schumann. Brahms' relationship with Clara is probably also behind the Piano Quintet in F minor, Op. 34. Originally conceived as a string quintet, in the spring of 1864 Brahms transformed it into a sonata for two pianos, yet Clara voiced her doubts about this version’s sound too. The desired contrast and richness of color was ultimately achieved by combining the strings and the piano. Clara Schumann performed the piano part at the private premiere of the quintet, which she referred to as having “symphonic” proportions. This aspect is clearly foregrounded on the present Pavel Haas Quartet recording. Brahms allegedly intended the String Quintet in G major, Op. 111, to be his last piece of music. In this light, it may come across as a reflection of the music he had cherished during his life – from Beethoven, Schubert, the Viennese waltz, his contemporary Wagner, to his beloved Hungarian dance motifs. From Dvorák to Brahms. A spellbinding “symphonic” chamber music sound.

REVIEW:

The group gets big sonorities, propelled but not overwhelmed by the piano in Op. 34 and by the cello that opens the Op. 111 quintet. The group really shines in the turbulent F minor piano quintet, as dark and intense as anything else Brahms ever wrote, and a work that went through several versions before the composer was satisfied with it. One feature of this ensemble is the variety of timbres offered by the individual players, with the rich tone of violist Luosha Fang an ideal foil for the edgier violinists. The players are aided by superb, almost tactile sound from Prague's Domovina Studio. In every way, a superior Brahms chamber release.

-- AllMusicGuide.com (James Manheim)

Paths – crossing and diverging, those we choose ourselves and those that are predestined and inevitable: through this prism the violinist Josef Špacek and the cellist Tomáš Jamník view the music of four Czech composers written within a mere 35 years of the 20th century. Janácek, enraptured by the idea of Pan-Slavism, was led by desire to Russia, a country where he found inspiration for his string quartet (here in an ambitious arrangement for two instruments), in a novella by Tolstoy. Ervín Schulhoff, an admirer and friend of Janácek’s (to whom he dedicated the duo featured on the present album), invested his hopes in Soviet Russia, yet this did not save him from death in a Nazi concentration camp. A similar fate (incarceration in Theresienstadt and Fürstengrube) befell Gideon Klein, another gifted and promising composer, who was murdered by the Nazis at the age of 25. Just two incomplete movements of his remarkable Duo for Violin and Cello have survived. The paths pursued by Bohuslav Martinu – first driven by thirst for knowledge and then forced to flee the Nazis – led from Prague through Paris to the USA, before returning to Europe; yet circumstances did not allow him to see his beloved country again. Martinu wrote his Duo for Violin and Cello No. 2 towards the very end of his life – and it also concludes the album by two brilliant artists. A virtuoso, profound and forcible recording indeed. Virtuosity, vivid joy and deep sorrow – the stories of four composers as reflected in their music.

Two composers. Two bassoonists. Two premieres. One big musical feast. The bassoon as a solo instrument does not appear all that often in the concerto literature, but a concerto for two bassoons is truly rare, being something that could arise only in the environment of an ensemble that possessed two soloists on that instrument. One such double concerto has been played for many years under the name of the important Czech composer Jan Krtitel Vanhal. But what if it had really been composed by someone else? The question has been raised by Ondrej sindelar, a player of the classical bassoon, who has found the same concerto bearing the name of Anton Zimmermann in one of Prague's archives. The two works differ from each other only in the slow movement. Theft? Plagiarism? A copyist's error? Collegial assistance? We are left with the unsolved mysteries of authorship and of whether the two masters may have met. Vanhal's travels took him from Hradec Kralove to Vienna, Italy, Hungary, and Croatia. Having established himself professionally in Hradec Kralove, Zimmermann went on to a successful career in Pressburg (Bratislava) in the service of Archbishop Jozef Batthyany. What is important, however, is that Ondrej sindelar has now joined his former teacher, the bassoon wizard Sergio Azzolini, to record Zimmermann's version of the double concerto in it's world premiere, supplemented by a solo concerto by Zimmermann (another premiere) and one of Vanhal's three preserved concertos. Noteworthy music that is previously undiscovered in the hands of wonderful soloists and orchestra - that's a real musical feast.

Rachmaninoff in the hands of Marek Kozak - mastery without ostentation To this day, Rachmaninoff's four concertos remain a touchstone for pianists around the world. His piano transcriptions of music by other composers (and of two of his own songs) do not attract so much attention, but what they tell us about the composer and his life is just as interesting. His arrangements place him alongside Liszt and Busoni, masters of the genre, whose transcriptions are both tributes to the originals and unique creations with a sonic aesthetic of their own. Rachmaninoff wrote most of his transcriptions between 1921 and 1929, when he was busily performing concerts and making recordings. On the concert stage, they allowed him to demonstrate his phenomenal technique. Among the supreme examples of his transcriptions are Mendelssohn's popular Scherzo from the incidental music to A Midsummer Night's Dream and three movements from Bach's Partita in E major for solo violin, BWV 1006. The 1941 arrangement of Tchaikovsky's Lullaby from the cycle Six Romances brings Rachmaninoff's entire oeuvre to a symbolic conclusion as a remembrance of his revered teacher and of an extraordinary human being. Each transcription bears witness to the humility and profound integrity of the composer's approach to such arrangements. Virtuosity, integrity, and humility are no less characteristic of the performer on this recording. Following his successful debut album featuring neglected Czech piano concertos (Kovarovic, Borkovec, Kapralova - Supraphon 2024), Marek Kozak demonstrates his mastery even in this - only seemingly - unassuming genre.

A look at the great talent of Dvorak's pupils in an original selection of famous and less famous works The present compilation - a sequel to the 3CD set The Many Loves of Antonin Dvorak - is intended as a timely reminder of the wealth and sheer diversity of talented Czech composers who emerged from Dvorak's masterclass at the Prague Conservatoire during the 1890s and early 1900s. Dvorak, approaching fifty and at the height of his fame, had been persuaded to devote some of his time to teaching at the Conservatoire, thereby creating a lasting legacy, an influential "Dvorak School" of composers, several of whom went on to teach at the Conservatoire themselves, passing on the tradition to future generations. Naturally, the most room is given to Josef Suk, the pupil of Dvorak who left the most original legacy of compositions. A separate CD is devoted to Dvorak's lesser-known pupils: the talented melodist Oskar Nedbal won fame for his operettas, and Julius Fucik is celebrated for his witty marches, while the legendary violinist Jaroslav Kocian wrote music for his own instrument, and the Czechoslovak Legionnaire Rudolf Karel was an exemplary patriot. Also of interest are composers who are entirely forgotten apart from a single work of greater significance, like Adolf Piskacek, Vojtech Kuchynka, and Arnost Praus. A third CD belongs to the underappreciated master Vitezslav Novak, whose distinctive modernism builds upon Dvorak in an interesting manner. Once again, there is an excellent selection of music from the Supraphon catalogue with all of the most important names such as the violinist Josef Suk, the pianist Ivan Moravec, and the conductors Vaclav Talich, Karel sejna, and Libor Pesek. Other outstanding performers on this compilation include Igor Ardashev, Jan Panenka, Emil Leichner, Josef Vlach, Josef Veselka, Karla sroubek, Vaclav Snitil, Richard Novak, Beno Blachut, Ivan Kusnjer, and many others. The English music journalist Patrick Lambert, an important expert on Czech music with deep knowledge of the Supraphon catalogue, selected the music and wrote the insightful text in the booklet.

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