For the Year of Czech Music and for the 150th anniversary of the death of the Czech composer Vilem Blodek, Supraphon has prepared a real treat for opera lovers in the form of the 1959 stereo recording of the opera In the Well (V studni), never before released on any physical medium. The recording was released briefly in the first half of the 1960s on LP records, but only in a mono- phonic version. After that, it disappeared from the catalogue for several deca- des. Only now, nearly 66 years since the recording was made and after careful restoration of the sound from the original tapes, this rarity from the early days of stereophonic recording technology is being released in all of it's original sonic glory. The soloists were Milada �ubrtova, �tepanka �tepanova, Ivo �idek, and Zdenek Kroupa. The chorus and orchestra of the Prague National Theatre were conducted by Franti�ek �kvor in his only complete operatic recording in the Supraphon catalogue. At the same time, this release also commemorates the recent 100th anniversary of the birth of Milada �ubrtova, a singer at the Prague National Theatre. On CD for the first time in the original stereophonic version

Tuma was a renowned mid-18th-century Vienna musical figure. He was primarily lauded for his sacred works, written either in the strict polyphonic stile antico or in the more modern figural style. The current album, a new instalment in Czech Ensemble Baroque's series of Tuma recordings, focuses on specific types of liturgical pieces from the composer's later creative period. The lustre of the vespers and litanies (Vesperae de confessore, Litaniae Reginae martyrum), designated for performance on major feast days, is enhanced by natural trumpets and timpani. The album includes one of Tuma's eight surviving settings of the famous medieval sequence Stabat Mater. Furthermore, the composer wrote a great many instrumental pieces in which he applied elements of the modern galant style, while also embracing techniques characteristic of Italian and French music. The grandiose and lavishly instrumented Ouverture in C contrasts starkly with the more modest Sinfonia in d, based on the Neapolitan opera sinfonia, and the Partita in g, which, just like Stabat Mater, have survived within a music collection in Vienna. The pieces Tuma wrote during his late creative phase provide ample proof of his compositional mastery and ability to blend the old and new stylistic trends, with the result being remarkable sacred and instrumental music. With the exception of Stabat Mater, Czech Ensemble Baroque present all the works featured on this album in modern-day premiere. Tuma's meridian sacred and instrumental pieces - more gems in modern-day premiere

How can an artist move forward and keep finding new ways of creativity and not stagnate? This question is as old as art itself but those who search can make a discovery. Such musicians whose every album develops the never-ending story of searching and discovering are undoubtedly the Prague-based Clarinet Factory. This internationally renowned ensemble, which has redefined the approach to and use of clarinets, has written another chapter of it's fascinating exploration on it's new record, Towers. In comparison with their previous album, Pipers (2020), they now put more emphasis on instrumentals, so the first single, Obloha seda (The Grey Sky), is one of only two songs with lyrics on this record. The main role is played by clarinets, drums and loopers while the human voice is often used as an instrument or as ambient sound. The resulting sound of the album is largely contributed to by their guest, Beata Hlavenkova, who conjures up many distinct and colourful layers on the piano and Fender Rhodes. Besides Beata Hlavenkova and the quartet of Ludek Boura, Vojtech N�dl, Jindrich Pavlis and Petr Valasek, another important figure is Milan Cimfe of the SONO Records Studio, who collaborated with the Clarinet Factory on Pipers and who is in charge of the drums, samples and other electronics on the new record. Other guests include drummer Daniel soltis, who has collaborated with the ensemble for many years. Towers is another important item (not only) in the Clarinet Factory discography. It's multiple layers are a joy to discover with every listening. The album is released only in digital formats and as a three-side double LP, whose graphical design was created by the renowned artist, Pavel Fuksa. / The Clarinet Factory have written another chapter of their remarkable exploration of the world of sounds

In April 1920, following 12 years of intricate work, Leo� Jan�cek's The Excursions of Mr. Broucek premiered at the National Theatre in Prague, the one and only work of his to do so. A century later, the self-same theatre's soloists, chorus and orchestra returned to the "Broucekiad" at the Rudolfinum in Prague. The present studio recording, after Neumann's and J�lek's only the third in the Supraphon catalogue, was thus in part made owing to the closure of theatres and concert halls during the recent Covid pandemic. Jan�cek dedicated The Excursions of Mr. Broucek to T. G. Masaryk, the first President of the newly founded Czechoslovak Republic. Declining to celebrate the two nations' acquired freedom and statehood by foregrounding Saint Wenceslas, Charles IV or another great figure of Czech history, the composer chose as the protagonist of his "national" opera one Mr. Broucek, a narrow-minded oaf, coward, hypocrite, liar, boor and drunkard. A man overly fond of food and beer, possessing a simplistic worldview, suspicious of everything different and unaccustomed, loathing artists and intellectuals. In The Excursion of Mr. Broucek to the Moon, his crassness clashes with the Moonlings' aesthetic, highbrow affectation, while in The Excursion of Mr. Broucek to the Fifteenth Century his unflinching self-centeredness, servility and mendacity contrast starkly with the ideals of the uncompromising Hussite warriors, fighting for "God's truth". As Jan�cek himself put it: "Broucek embodies our pettiness; made for stage." One hundred years down the road, this picture of the "ordinary Czech" is still befitting, worthy of exposing. The new album features Jaroslav Brezina, brilliantly portraying the lead character, and other distinguished Czech singers, under the seasoned conductor Jaroslav Kyzlink. A significant role in enhancing the recording's quality is played by spatial feeling of the recording process itself as well as by the Dvor�k Hall's splendid acoustics and colourful sound. By releasing the album, the National Theatre in Prague commemorates the 170th anniversary of the birth of Leo� Jan�cek, the most globally renowned of Czech opera composers.

I am the instrument of a higher power. With God's help and grace, I shall one day be a Liszt in technique and a Mozart as a composer. The ambitious plan in the 18-year-old composer's diary was eventually fulfilled. He was a very sought-after pianist. As a composer, he left his mark most clearly in the cycle of symphonic poems titled Ma vlast (My Country) and through chamber music in his Piano Trio and the String Quartet "From My Life"; those three works reflect tragic episodes in Smetana's life. The Trio in G minor, one of the gems of 19th-century chamber music, was written in under three months of 1855 as an outgrowth of the composer's immense sorrow over the death of his daughter. Smetana's emotionally gripping trio is heard on the album together with one of the most important chamber works of the romantic era, Schubert's monumental Piano Trio in E flat major (1827). This masterpiece was likewise written by a 30-year-old composer, but it is also one of Schubert's last completed works; at the time, Schubert had only a year of life remaining. The ensemble reaching the depths of the two composers' music on their debut album is the youthful Trio Bohemo, who have been appearing for several years with great success at prestigious competitions and on concert stages around the world (London's Wigmore Hall, Vienna's Musikverein), usually with programmes combining Czech and foreign repertoire. There is yet another important name behind the recording: the late Hatto Beyerle, a founding member of the Alban Berg Quartet, who coached the young ensemble in both works and set them on the path towards their own individual interpretation, seeking the meaning hidden behind the musical notation. Trio Bohemo, Smetana, Schubert. A debut with a capital "D".

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Includes work(s) by Josef Suk. Ensemble: Czech Philharmonic Orchestra. Conductors: Libor Pesek, Václav Neumann.

These performances always have been famous and highly regarded, rightly so. František Maxián opts for the traditional Kurtz edition of the solo part in the Piano Concerto, a version happily on its way to being sidelined in favor of Dvorák's original, but he plays it very well, and of course Talich's accompaniments are marvelous. The real draw, though, is the Cello Concerto with the young Rostropovich, his tone a touch more raw than it would later become (especially in his gorgeous remake under Ozawa on Erato), but splendidly passionate and spontaneous. Best of all, the sonics have been marvelously restored: the cello concerto in particular sounds stunningly vivid and present, despite the 1952 mono technology. Even if you already own these performances, you haven't heard them spring to life as vibrantly as they do in this beautifully packaged new remastering. Essential! [10/11/2005]--David Hurwitz, ClassicsToday.com

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All tracks have been digitally mastered using 24-bit technology.

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Classical Music