Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

Zuzana Růžičková’s supreme musicality makes these recordings more than a document; her accounts allow this precious music to dazzle in fine shades of colour and light. These sublime recordings are being released on CD for the very first time.

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.

Classical Music

Classical Music

Classical Music

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

Jir� Belohl�vek (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 Belohl�vek'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. Belohl�vek'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.

We cannot approach opera from the position of snobbish dismissal. We cannot write operas while at the same time lamenting the deficiencies of the genre. We must fulfil our own ideal by making use of that which the stage has to offer, so wrote Kurt Weill in 1926. At the time, he had just begun seeking a new musical genre, one that would supersede the conventional opera. The resounding success of Die Greigroschenoper proved that the path he had taken was the right one; the new genre emerged at an appropriate time, and it seemed that the audience had been waiting for opera's resurgence too. The adventurous journey Weill pursued for half a century, led from Germany to Paris and finally to New York City. The result of his efforts were considerable simplification of the musical idiom, inspiration by pop and jazz, and the assignment of the vocal parts to actors without traditional professional vocie training. It was a true revolution. And that represented a challenge for the mezzo-soprano Dagmar Peckova, who throughout her illustrious career has appeared on the world's most prominent stages as an artist acclaimed as a refined performer of music by Mozart, Mahler, Bizet...

Classical Music

Classical Music

When at the age of 15 Andre Navarra (1911-1988) completed his studies at the Paris Conservatoire, he ceased taking lessons and set out on his own path, honing his skills on, among other things, sevcik’s virtuoso violin etudes, which he himself arranged for the cello. He drew inspiration from the finest instrumentalists of his time. Victory in the prestigious competition in Vienna (1937) launched his international career as a soloist. Following his debut at the Prague Spring festival in May 1951, he would pay numerous visits to the city – to appear at the festival, to perform opposite the Czech Philharmonic, as well as to record for Supraphon. The present release is the first complete issue of the 19 studio albums Navarra made for the label between 1953 and 1966, including some remarkable tracks that have not been previously issued digitally. His collaboration with Karel Ancerl and Josef Suk gave rise to the legendary recording of Brahms’s Double Concerto, with the accounts of pieces by Prokofiev, Bloch, Schumann and Respighi made with the Czech Philharmonic under Ancerl being just as impressive and enthralling. In addition to Josef Suk, Navarra worked with the superlative pianists Alfred Holecek and Frantisek Maxian. The Supraphon set includes six hours of sensitively remastered recordings, which bear witness to Navarra’s artistry, emotional poignancy and spontaneous musicianship; a real treat for those loving the enchanting cello timbres. Andre Navarra’s Supraphon recordings – for the first time in their entirety, newly remastered. Simply indispensable.